Debating DVD 2.0

By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 3/31/2006

MARCH 31 | Once upon a time, the launch of a high-definition DVD format was to be the answer to many a studio prayer.

The new discs, aimed initially at owners of high-end HDTV sets, were to command a premium over conventional DVDs, restoring some much-needed margin to the flagging home video market.

At the same time, the development of a new format offered Hollywood a rare “do-over” for much of what had gone “wrong” with the original DVD standard, including its weak and ineffective copy-protection system.

Never again would some smart-aleck Norwegian teenager have final say over a studio’s bottom line.

But with a format war and lingering technical challenges now threatening to slow consumer adoption of high-def, the studios and other interested parties are looking seriously at ways to “fix” standard-def DVD and restore some luster to the old format.

Adopting an element of the AACS copy-protection system developed for high-def, Microsoft has made a proposal to the DVD Copy Control Assn., the entity that oversees the CSS system used on standard DVDs, to bring “managed-copy” to the current format.

Under Microsoft’s proposal, PC users would be permitted to “rip” their DVDs to a hard drive, where the copy would be secured using an approved digital-rights-management scheme.

The copy could then be moved to other approved devices, such as portable players, or streamed over a home network.

Apple Computer has made a similar proposal for Mac users.

Software maker Sonic Solutions, which sells the Roxio DVD burning software, has made a separate proposal in conjunction with Microsoft to introduce “managed burning” to CSS-protected DVDs.

Under Sonic’s proposal, DVDs could be ripped and the copy burned to another DVD, where it would be re-encrypted with CSS. Alternately, content could be downloaded and burned to a disc where it would again be encrypted with CSS.

The studios have been at least partly open to both ideas, according to sources familiar with the discussions, perhaps on the theory that managed-copy is better than completely unmanaged copying, but also because the new functionality offers content owners a new way to monetize DVD use.

But they want an agreement on any new functionality to be part of a broader deal that also includes adding watermark detection capability to DVD players to prevent playback of camcorded copies and the eventual elimination of unprotected analog outputs.

Those last two ideas have met resistance from hardware makers, who aren’t keen to start re-engineering their production lines for a format that is, at best, only marginally profitable at this point. But they’re a measure of the scope of the studios’ ambitions to “fix” DVD.

Another measure surfaced last month when the World Intellectual Property Organization published the text of two patent applications filed by Warner Bros. Entertainment.

The patents—one dealing specifically with DVD, the other concerning optical media generally—cover a method for defeating a system developed by Warner for preventing DVDs from being copied even if CSS is hacked (companies often patent methods for defeating their own DRM so they can sue hackers who use the method for infringement).

The Warner system takes advantage, ironically enough, of a trick used by many DVD ripper programs to try to give themselves a measure of legitimacy.

In a bid for fair use protection, for instance, the now-defunct DVD X Copy, inserted a bit of code on the backup copy it created that identified it as “archive.” Before making any copy, the program looked for the mark, and if it detected it, it would refuse to make the copy.

Warner has now apparently developed a way to mark the original disc as “archive,” to fool ripper programs into not copying them.

It’s unlikely Warner would go to the trouble if it didn’t feel it would be selling standard DVDs for many years to come.

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