More on copy protection........
eet.com
Copy-protection licenses go on sale
By Junko Yoshida
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The five developers of the Digital Transmission
Content Protection (DTCP) method announced on Wednesday that DTCP
licenses are now available to interested parties through a formally
established, independent licensing authority called the Digital Transmission
Licensing Administrator (DTLA).
The DTCP specification defines a cryptographic protocol for protecting
audio/video entertainment content from illegal copying, interception and
tampering as the content traverses such high-performance digital buses as
IEEE 1394.
A DTCP license could become a must item for chip vendors and system
companies planning to incorporate the IEEE 1394 interface into PC or
audio/video consumer products. But the copy-protection method could
have far-reaching implications beyond the 1394 bus.
In theory, DTCP could be applied or even be mandated by
copyrighted-content holders — such as Hollywood studios — to any
unprotected two-way digital interfaces inside a set-top or a PC.
But some consumer-electronics executives have expressed concern over the
cost and feasibility of applying DTCP copy protection across a range of
two-way digital interfaces.
DTCP's five codevelopers — Hitachi, Intel Corp., Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co., Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. — will share an unspecified
portion of the licensing fees for the copy-protection method.
Among the difficulties that have hindered the transition to digital TV, "this is
the last hurdle," said Scott Smyers, vice president of the Interconnect
Architecture Laboratory of Sony Electronics' U.S. Research Lab (San
Jose). "Together with the Motion Picture Association of America, the
consumer-electronics industry and the information-technology industry,
we've taken that final step."
Under the licensing-fee structure for DTCP, chip or system vendors seeking
to obtain the detailed specs would pay an annual subscription fee that "will
not exceed $20,000," according to the licensing authority. Those who
obtain technical details to develop a certain device will be allowed to sell
their product only to others in the manufacturing chain that are authorized to
implement DTCP.
Those who need to obtain and implement encryption keys inside a system
or on a system-on-chip would pay a separate hardware-certification fee,
which will not exceed 10 cents per unit, according to DTLA.
Both a technical white paper describing the DTCP method and licensing
information from the DTLA are available on the Internet.
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