From TechTV's Techlive show
Caught in the Anti-piracy Crossfire
Who will end up as causalities in Hollywood's war?
By Lindsey Arent, Tech Live
Uncle Sam doesn't want you, but he may want your DVD player and all your other recordable consumer electronic devices to change. As "Tech Live" reports tonight, Hollywood has a few ideas on how that could happen.
Rapid advances in popular gadgets such as PCs, DVD players, and digital video recorders have made it easier than ever to steal copyright content, and that fact has the government and the entertainment industry very concerned.
As a result, Hollywood is behind a bill called the
Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Act of 2002 , which is backed by Senator
Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-South Carolina). The bill would require all new digital TV sets and recorders to be manufactured with anti-copying technology that recognizes and responds to copy-protection signals.
The proposed law would give the affected industries a year to work out the details among themselves, or risk a solution imposed by the Federal Communications Commission.
Government intervention
Hollings' argument is that a piracy-free, protected environment will give the entertainment industry the security it needs to unleash a torrent of content in digital formats, which will in turn give consumers a reason to buy new consumer electronics and information technology products.
In a statement last March introducing the proposed legislation, Hollings explained why the government needs to get involved in the debate over piracy:
"I believe the private sector is capable -- through marketplace negotiations -- of adopting standards that will ensure the secure transmission of copyrighted content on the Internet and over the airwaves. But given the pace of private talks so far, the private sector needs a nudge. The government can provide that nudge, and in doing so, continue the government's longstanding role in promoting (and sometimes requiring) the implementation of technological standards in electronics equipment to benefit consumers."
Possible weapons
How would they do it? Hollywood has a few ideas.
Scott Dinsdale, executive vice president of digital strategy with the
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), says that one solution is broadcast flags, a sequence of digital bits embedded in a television program that signals that the program must be protected from unauthorized redistribution.
Another possible remedy would be to manufacture consumer products, such as DVD and CD players, that would only play copyright content if they detect digital watermarks that identify them as authorized for use.
But the consumer electronics industry is having none of it.
"The problem is that Hollywood wants to come to us in the technology world and say, 'Here's how you should do it. Here's how encryption should be done,'" said Tim Bajarin, president of
Creative Strategies , a Silicon Valley consulting firm. "Literally telling us in the industry, 'Here's how we want you to create the next generation of PCs.' Well, we in the PC industry find that really hard to take."
Cashing in
Robin Gross, an attorney with the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is involved with at least one lawsuit against the entertainment industry, says the proposed bill is about finding new business opportunities for Hollywood to pursue.
"This is about Hollywood really trying to demand a veto power on all new technology that can be created that will interoperate with its works," she said. "CD players, VCRs, high-definition television, all kinds of new devices that are coming out, Hollywood is claiming they've got some right to control how these technologies are designed and built."
The MPAA's Dinsdale says the dispute is really about "leveling the playing field" for all sectors of the entertainment and IT industries.
"We want an infrastructure where commerce can be done, as opposed to getting media for free," he said.
However, Bajarin said, there's a built-in Achilles heel in this debate: the hacker factor.
"This is not a foolproof concept to be able to just turn around, put this encryption technology in, and then sit down and believe that everybody's going to abide by the rules," he said. "The fact is, hackers will break it and this is just the kind of technology, unfortunately, that is very hard to protect."
