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To: BillyG who wrote (36226)	9/25/1998 5:40:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

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.