Re: Cryptography Expert Paul Kocher Warns: Future DVDs Prime Target for Piracy, Pay TV Foreshadows Challenges

2004-04-22 Thread Steve Schear
At 10:40 AM 4/20/2004, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
While it's unfortunate that security on the current DVD format is broken
and can't be reprogrammed, HD is what really matters. Once studios release
high-definition content, there will be little or no distinction between
studio-quality and consumer-quality, said Kocher. This means that HD is
probably Hollywood's one and only chance to get security right.
The major problem facing Hollywood in protecting their HD content is that 
it runs smack up against an installed base of millions of HDTVs with only 
ACV (analog component video), including mine.  These consumers were 
promised by the FCC that they would not be left to twist in the wind when 
newer set-top-box to TV connections evolved and it does not appear 
technically practical to retrofit these sets to accommodate encrypted DVI 
or Firewire inputs.  The FCC has already stated they do not support 
broadcast flags for pay content and unless they back-peddle on this 
Hollywood appears to have only three other options: restrict the 
availability of HD content to cable broadcasters, prevent the sale of 
devices that can capture HD quality content from ACV, or insist that the 
resolution of ACV signals be degraded when copy restricted content is 
being broadcast.

The first will bring great howls from existing HDTV owners with only 
ACV.  The second is probably impractical since illegal devices (little more 
than 3-channel A-D converters on a PCI card) are sure to be produced and 
only a small number in the hands of skilled movie releasing groups are 
required to widely disseminate their content via the Internet.  The third 
option is also sure to bring major complaints from existing set owners.

steve  

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Re: Cryptography Expert Paul Kocher Warns: Future DVDs Prime Target for Piracy, Pay TV Foreshadows Challenges

2004-04-22 Thread Bill Frantz
At 10:40 AM -0700 4/20/04, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
While it's unfortunate that security on the current DVD format is broken
and can't be reprogrammed, HD is what really matters. Once studios release
high-definition content, there will be little or no distinction between
studio-quality and consumer-quality, said Kocher. This means that HD is
probably Hollywood's one and only chance to get security right.

According to Kocher, Hollywood is following a path common to other
industries facing similar problems. Typically, first-generation security
systems fail irrecoverably, but later generations are designed to recover
from failures, Kocher said. As an example, he cites K-band (big dish)
satellite TV systems, which suffered from devastating piracy because
security flaws could not be corrected. Having learned this lesson, modern
pay TV systems place critical security components in smart cards or
security modules that can be replaced. While this approach is not optimal
because hardware upgrades are expensive, it has enabled the industry to
keep piracy at survivable levels.

Continuously changing the protection on permanent storage media is a much
more difficult problem than changing broadcast protection.  With broadcast,
you give current subscribers the new smart card, change what's broadcast,
and away you go.  With permanent storage media, once the protection is
broken, the content is still available to pirate.  Only new releases can be
protected with new protection schemes.

These technical considerations would seem to lead to a marketing strategy
of short product cycles driven by big advertising campaigns, to reap as
much profit as possible while piracy is still difficult.  This approach is
not new to the movie industry.  In recent years, the number of theaters
opening a big movie release has increased greatly, and the time it runs in
theaters has become shorter.

It is ironic to compare the marketing strategy of reaping most of the
profit quickly, with the public policy stance that long copyright terms are
necessary to provide incentive for production.

Cheers - Bill


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