This is "under consideration" by SNDK:
New technology could help squelch digital music piracy
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 27, 2000, 3:05 p.m. PT
A group of technology companies is creating a set of industry standards that could help
put digital piracy protections directly into disk drives as soon as this summer.
The plans are initially likely to affect removable or portable data storage, such as Zip
drives or the Flash memory cards used in MP3 players. But the standards could
ultimately serve as a way to keep consumers from copying copyrighted files directly onto
their hard drives, a daunting prospect for those who download music or videos from the
Net though programs such as Napster or Gnutella.
Any hardware device that limits what consumers can do with their music or video files
will face steep hurdles before being adopted. Previous devices with built-in copy
protection have reached the market only to disappear under the weight of consumer
indifference.
Current efforts are coming in two parts. An industry body that oversees hardware
technologies is creating the new set of standards designed to let individual manufactures
add their own copy-protection schemes. Waiting in the wings to take advantage of the
standards body's proposal is a specific technology jointly created by Intel, IBM,
Matsushita Electric and Toshiba, dubbed Content Protection for Recordable Media
(CPRM).
At least two big computer companies, IBM and SanDisk, are considering implementing
CPRM, according to developers. If adopted widely, it and other hardware-based copy
protection ideas stand a chance of easing fears among record labels and movie studios
about selling content online.
"Moving to the hardware level would be a step in the direction of creating a fundamental
(anti-piracy) infrastructure, which might put the content providers' fears to rest," said
Steve Vonder Haar, an analyst with The Yankee Group.
Building in protection
The set of hardware standards is being developed by the National Committee for
Information Technology Standards (NCITS), the group that settles on common rules
allowing devices such as disk drives or printers to talk to each other. This group is
creating generic specifications for storage devices such as disk drives or CD-ROM
drives that will allow manufacturers to add a variety of specific content-protection
technologies.
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Those guidelines are likely to be approved at an NCITS meeting in February, members
say.
But the CPRM proposal is already set to be plugged into the NCITS' framework.
The four creators of the CPRM technology, known in this instance as the "4C" group,
say CPRM was designed to meet the requirements of the record industry-sponsored
Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI).
Through a series of data-scrambling and identification schemes, the CPRM could
prevent protected songs or movies from being copied using devices containing the
technology. Thus, someone trying to copy a protected music file from his or her hard
drive onto a Zip drive that contained the technology would be blocked from doing so.
Only protected content would be blocked, however; ordinary MP3s or movie files could
be transferred as usual.
IBM researcher Jeffery Lotspiech, who developed much of the CPRM specifications,
says his company is interested in using it for its Microdrive portable device storage
drives, and that SanDisk has expressed some interest in using it for its Flash memory,
found in such products as MP3 players and digital cameras. If the companies do decide
to go ahead, they could create those products using the technology as soon as summer
2001, Lotspiech said.
Some have discussed bringing the technology into computer hard drives, which would
provide a much stronger barrier to downloading illegally copied songs from the Internet
through programs such as Napster or Gnutella. But technical hurdles put this
development a long way off, if it ever comes, the IBM researcher said.
"Fixed hard drives are a possibility, but that's unlikely at first," Lotspiech said. "It's not
impossible, but that's certainly not (this technology's) intent."
Officials at the SDMI said they're not working directly with the hardware developers on
the technology. Their own broader specifications, which are designed to be used
differently by multiple software and hardware companies, are still being developed.
Far from a sure thing
Analysts said the CPRM plan and others like it could be an important brick in the
technology industry's anti-piracy foundation. But it's far from sure that these ideas will
catch on, even with the support of powerful companies.
The market is littered with hardware devices that have bombed or struggled partly
because of copy-protection technology that failed to strike a chord with consumers.
Circuit City's DivX digital video player is perhaps the most visible flop. But a variety of
MP3 players now on the market, including Sony's Vaio Music Clip, are also struggling.
Although none of the software-based copy-protection ideas has gained significant
ground, analysts say they are likely to have more market reach than hardware devices, at
least in the short term.
"When you start to put these things in silicon, you're talking a year or two years ahead,"
The Yankee Group's Vonder Haar said. "It seems like the software guys have more
flexibility to roll with changes in the marketplace."
More from News.com
• Courts set rhythm for online music December 20, 2000
• Mixed reviews for new digital audio format December 18, 2000
• Report: Music pirates will evade countermeasures September 19, 2000
• SDMI offers $10,000 challenge to hackers September 8, 2000
• Attacking piracy at the source: CDs July 28, 2000
• Behind death of Divx were angry customers June 17, 1999
• Send us your news tips • Get the "Big Picture" • Get News Alerts
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