Copy Protection Solution Still Not In Sight?

The Digital Transmission Copy Protection (DTCP) system, which was thought to be near multi-industry ratification, is being short-circuited once again by some Hollywood movers and shakers. Alarmed by the illicit distribution of copyrighted songs over the Internet, they now want even more safeguards for their movies and television programs. As well, some studios are seeking greater restrictions on the duplication of digital content delivered by terrestrial broadcasters and basic cable services, material that has long been not subject to restriction. But the Internet is changing all that and the studios fear loss.A consortium of consumer electronics, computer and movie industry companies developed the DTCP system. As originally conceived, the DTCP system was to be a digital copy protection solution to protect DVD signals carried over digital interfaces. Over the past couple of years DTCP solutions have expanded to address the requirements of the DTV system for digital televisions to be digitally connected to set-top boxes such as digital VCRs, DVD players, cable or satellite receiver/decoders, not to protect over-the-air broadcasts. For the DTCP system to protect a program, the program must be ""delivered into the system"" via a set-top device.The latest demands of Hollywood are a roadblock to pushing forward the copy protection scheme of the DTCP and the Extended Condition Access (XCA) system proposed by Thomson and Zenith and systems from Canal+Plus and NDS, all vying for acceptance from Hollywood as the copy-protection standard. As such, a universally accepted copy protection solution is still a ways to go. While the effort continues to reach complete endorsement from consumer electronics manufactures, PC companies and Hollywood studios, manufacturers are building products that use proprietary implementation of DTCP. A good example is the new Panasonic HD VCR that only works with Panasonic digital TVs.In an article written by Greg Tarr, which recently appeared on the E-Town Web site, Tarr interviewed Steven Balogh, an executive with Intel and President of the DTCPís Digital Transmission Licensing Association (DTLA). Balogh said, ""We got some studios to say, 'Yes, [the DTCP] meets our technical requirements,' but after a year of looking at this, some studios came to the realization that, 'Oh my gosh, what do we do about Internet rebroadcast?' ""The problem, he explained, is that the DTCP was designed to protect the link between digital devices, such as a PC and a digital TV or a DVD player and a D-VHS VCR. It was never developed to address copy protection across the Internet.""We've put in our licensing agreements that if you receive something in DTCP, you can't retransmit it over the Internet, but that's not enough. Hollywood wants us to extend this technology out to the Internet,"" Balogh explained. At the same time, a proposal has surfaced to have the system ""limit the resolution on video outputs to 640x480 if it is not copy protected,"" Balogh said. ""It's a constantly shifting target ... The studios are trying to use one-point technology to address big multi-industry concerns.""Issues like identifying what can be marked as 'copy-never' content is not just a DTCP problem. If the movie industry wants to mark every single piece of content as 'copy-never,' for example, it could eliminate entire consumer electronic markets, like video recorders. It's not only the consumer electronics and PC industries that need be involved in this, it's also the end users, because now they are affected,"" said Balogh.Balogh says that ultimately, the solution may have to come from Congress, much to the horror of most of the companies concerned. The House Commerce Committee is reportedly putting together a list of witnesses for a special hearing on the issue in coming weeks.""I don't think we want to have it legislated one way or the other,"" said Balogh. ""The Copy Protection Technical Working Group is holding open industry meetings to hopefully get some of these issues resolved.""