DVD burning breakthrough

Studios drop controversial demands in negotiations

By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 6/9/2006

JUNE 9 | Efforts to implement a download-and-burn model for standard-definition DVDs got a major boost late last month when the studios dropped demands for the most controversial elements they were seeking in inter-industry negotiations with hardware makers and technology companies.

With concessions by the studios, sources involved in the discussions say a comprehensive agreement on download-and-burn could now be reached by the fall.

According to sources familiar with the discussions, the studios are no longer demanding that conventional set-top DVD players and DVD-ROM drives be retrofitted to incorporate watermark detection technology.

Instead, they’re asking only that new devices that include enhanced features, such as the ability to burn downloaded movies or implement managed copy, incorporate the additional security measures.

The issue had been a major sticking point in the long-running negotiations among the three industries over so-called managed burning.

The negotiations are taking place under the auspices of the DVD-Copy Control Assn., the licensing agency for CSS (Content Scrambling System), the copy-protection system used on DVDs.

Although the negotiations have largely focused on the design of consumer equipment for burning DVDs, an overall agreement also would clear the way for retail kiosks that would allow custom burning in stores.

Major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy have all held discussions with the studios about using download kiosks to address the growing issue of limited DVD shelf space (VB, 11-21).

Movie download services including Movielink and CinemaNow also have made no secret of their desire to move to a download-and-burn model.

The studios had originally sought the new watermark technology in DVD players as a way to thwart pirates who camcord movies in theaters. The invisible marks would be inserted into theatrical films prints and would secretly embed themselves in illicit recordings. Any copy of the film made from that illicit recording also would carry the mark.

Under the studios’ original proposal, all newly manufactured DVD players—including those capable only of playback—would have had to incorporate the ability to look for the mark. If the mark were present, the device would then refuse to play the disc (VB, 4-3).

The studios also originally sought to have conventional DVD players incorporate an enhanced form of CSS authentication that would have plugged a hole in the system exploited by many popular hacking programs, such as DeCSS.

Hardware and PC makers, however, objected, saying that adding those new security measures would add significant cost to a format that is, at best, only marginally profitable for them.

The new proposal, which was circulated by the Motion Picture Assn. of America in late May, would impose the new requirements only on new devices capable of burning or copying DVDs.

Enhanced devices also would have to include HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) on all digital outputs, as well as CGMS-A (Copy Generation Management System) on analog outputs.

Although the resistance to incorporating the new security features into standard set-top DVD players was a blow to Hollywood’s hopes of curbing losses from piracy, sources said studio thinking on the issue has evolved over time.

Eventually, studio sources said, a consensus emerged that demanding that even low-end set-top players incorporate expensive new technology was not realistic, and it was time to refocus efforts on making a download-and-burn model happen.

“The perfect was in danger of becoming the enemy of the good,” one source said.

Many details remain to be worked out before a viable download-and-burn business can be implemented. A watermark technology must be chosen, along with the new method for CSS authentication.

Technology companies also continue to object to the requirement that only new devices incorporating the enhanced security features would be authorized for managed burning. That would preclude current DVD-R and RW drives from being used.

Moreover, because of technical differences in how the various flavors of DVD recorders identify ROM and writable discs, a new type of universal download-and-burn blank media will have to be developed.

Work on the new discs has already begun within the DVD Forum, but there is no current timetable for completing it.

The next meeting of the inter-industry committee is scheduled for late July.

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