The Latch-Key Generation: Piracy Protection
and DVD
Debbie Galante Block
September 2000 | After all, the handy business model that has of
late made CD piracy such a cakewalk--thanks to the ubiquity of CD
duplicators and the dirt-cheapness of CD-R media--doesn't add up for
DVD. Remember when duplicators were pricier, and CD-R media was less
abundant and priced at $5-10 or even higher, and the joke was that
anyone with the capital and know-how to get into CD-R piracy could
make more money doing anything else? With DVD, it's even more
extreme, since the only viable duping machines, Pioneer's DVD-R
drives and integrated systems based on them, go for $5000 and up,
and blank DVD-R media cost more than most current DVD titles.
So is it too soon to worry about DVD piracy? Keep in mind that
not all piracy happens in the home or subterranean copy shop, by the
pirate's own hand--for years, most CD piracy happened courtesy of
illegitimate masters submitted to replicators of various
reputations. What's more, as demonstrated by the meteoric fall of
DVD-Video player prices, it doesn't take long for prices to come
down. DVD burners debuted at costs upwards of $17,000, and already
recorders are selling for less than one-third of that figure. But
compared to a CD burner, which can be purchased for $150,
DVD-Recorders are nowhere near dropping into that negligible-expense
category, although new, lower-priced entries to the market may be
shown as early as COMDEX.
IS IT SAFE?Currently, the installed base of DVD playback
devices in North America totals almost 7 million, and the DVD
Entertainment Group expects this number to reach at least 12 million
(if not 15 million) by the end of 2000. According to the Software
& Information Industry Association (SIIA)--a trade association
for the digital content and publishing industry formed when the
Software Publishers Association and Information Industry Association
merged in 1999--ownership of DVD-ROM drives among PC users has
nearly doubled during the past two years, from 11% in 1998 to 21% in
2000.
So whatever the current constraints to pirating DVD content, the
potential market for that content is increasingly lucrative, and as
DVD becomes more and more mainstream, you can bet professional
pirates will find a way to profit from their pilfering. Content
owners who are not looking down the road at DVD piracy protection
will see about as much of what's going on in their industry as any
other ostrich with its head in the sand. While in the U.S.
availability of pirated product throughout the software industry has
decreased in recent years, in countries such as Malaysia, rip-off
rates continue to increase unabated, which is cause for concern to
any content owner with designs on international markets. And
industry analysts expect the piracy issue to heat to a boil within
the next three years.
A recent piracy report on the music industry provided by IFPI
Secretariat (the International Federation of the Phonographic
Industry) indicates that the global pirated music market totaled 1.9
billion units in 1999. Total sales of pirated music CDs topped 500
million units for the first time, with pressed pirated CDs (as
opposed to CD-Rs) rising to an estimated 450 million units from 400
million in 1998. IFPI estimates that pirated music CD-R sales
increased to at least 60 million units in 1999.
The International Digital Software Association (IDSA), which
represents companies that publish video and computer games for video
game consoles, PCs, and the Internet, reported in February 2000 that
the industry lost an estimated $3 billion due to software piracy in
55 countries. Malaysia, where the piracy level is 99 percent, led
the list of major offenders.
As for home video piracy, the Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA) says worldwide piracy costs the American motion
picture companies $2.5 billion a year in lost revenues. While not
every disc illegally copied or pirated disc sold at a cut-rate price
represents a lost legitimate sale that would have happened--as the
MPAA and others will often irresponsibly argue--the latest
statistics nonetheless paint a clear picture of cottage industries
run rampant that will sooner or later take their toll on DVD.
DVD PROTECTION NOWWith approximately 6,800 DVD-Video titles
on the market (as of June and not including adult titles), what kind
of protection for DVD exists, and at whom is it targeted? Before the
DVD specs were released, both a content scrambling system (CSS) and
regional coding were put into effect. In the haste to get DVD to
market, the Copyright Protection Technical Working Group of the DVD
Forum settled for the best technology available at the time, and
industry sources say neither scheme was really very secure. Both
have already been broken.
CSS is an encryption-based security and authentication system
that requires use of "appropriately configured hardware," such as a
DVD player or a computer DVD drive, to decrypt, unscramble, and play
back--but not copy--motion pictures on DVDs. CSS has been licensed
to hundreds of DVD player manufacturers and DVD content distributors
in the U.S. and around the world. In October 1999, only three years
after its introduction into the consumer electronics market, a
Norwegian teenager allegedly hacked CSS and began offering, via the
Internet, a software utility called DeCSS that enables users to
break the CSS copy protection system and hence to make and
distribute digital copies of disembodied VOB files from DVD movies
via their PC hard drives. Designed to enable Linux users to play
back DVDs via their DVD-ROM drives in the absence of a licensed
software DVD player for Linux, the DeCSS hack sent Hollywood into
paroxysms of terror since it signaled the fallibility of the control
measures it had imposed to date.
Most DeCSS sites have been removed from the Internet, however the
MPAA filed lawsuits against at least two providers that have found a
"legal" way to offer the programs. Another version of CSS is in the
works, but most industry sources say there is no rush to release it.
(The DVD Forum also claimed the CSS hack delayed the release of
DVD-Audio, although one might just as easily attribute the delay to
other technical difficulties or perhaps just wait for a potential
market to suggest itself--especially given that CSS-2 will not even
be used with DVD-Audio.) Admittedly, CSS was not meant to stop
professional pirates, but rather to inhibit the consumer who may
make a copy for a friend, or otherwise noodle with the content of
the disc he or she has bought. This is where the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (1998), which protects digital-to-digital copying,
kicks in.
James Burger, partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of
Dowlohnes and Albertson, explains the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA) in layman's terms. "This law makes it illegal for someone
to hack an effective copy protection mechanism. The problem is in
defining an 'effective' mechanism. Nobody is required to respond to
the technology. In other words, if you put a disc in a machine, and
in the normal course of operation, it plays it--then tough luck. But
if you go in to break something to make it play, that's illegal. For
example, the hacking of CSS." But even Burger concedes that DMCA is
a messy piece of legislation.
Burger also questions the effectiveness of digital watermarking.
"If I took a DVD with watermarking and put it into my machine today,
it would play. It won't even see the watermark if it is a good one.
You need to put in a detector. At some point, the music industry
will require detectors in some machines. At that point, there will
be something out there that responds. Does that then make it illegal
to hack the watermark? It's not an easy question to answer," he
says.
Macrovision copy protection technology, applied to players and
also encoded onto discs at the replicator level, prevents users from
copying a DVD to VHS. All of the major studios use this protection
on nearly 100% of their DVDs. But this protection must not only be
used in DVD players but also in DVD-ROM drives if it is to be a
universally effective tool, since movies can also be played on the
PC and potentially copied as desired.
"We have over 140 manufacturing licensees, many of which are PC
manufacturers. However, no software publishers have licensed
Macrovision as yet," says Carol Flaherty, vice president, video copy
protection group, of the DVD creation community beyond Hollywood and
other strictly video content providers. "To DVD we apply not only
the normal Macrovision copy protection used on VHS, but we have
something extra for DVD called color stripe. That's where we add in
additional layers of copy protection on the horizontal lines of the
video screen," she says. Macrovision's DVD protection is put in
place at the mastering stage of production; it's part of the
replication process of the DVD. When the glass master is made, copy
protection is applied. For DVD playback devices, Macrovision
technology in the player is part of the video decoder.
For the Macrovision protection, hardware manufacturers pay an
annual licensing fee, but no royalties per unit. Content owners pay
a per-unit royalty. The royalty on DVD copy protection ranges
anywhere from 5-10¢ a disc depending on the volume being produced,
according to Flaherty.
MARKING TIMEFor the last three years, Macrovision, Philips,
and Digimark have been working on watermarking technology for
recordable DVD. "We embed a digital watermark in the video content
itself. That watermark can actually transmit messages. It can record
information, such as how many times the viewer has watched a
program," Flaherty explains. The industry is still deciding on a
standard.
Macrovision also hopes to market a DVD-to-DVD copy protection
technology that Israel-based anti-piracy solutions provider TTR
Technologies currently has in development. A prototype of the
product is expected this summer with a commercial product expected
by spring 2001. TTR chief scientist Baruch Sollish has developed
technology that incorporates a digital signature as well as content
encryption that will affect DVDs. With the addition of a circuit
board to the mastering machine, this signature will be put on by the
replicator during the mastering process.
"In the first version of our yet-unnamed product, we will not
need firmware," says TTR chairman and CEIO Mark Tokayer. "In
subsequent releases, there will be firmware in the playback devices,
which will check the digital signature of DVDs and be able to play
the content if it is found, in fact, to be authentic." Tokayer says
it is too soon to quote the specific costs of their DVD product, but
he did say that after installing the circuit board in the mastering
device, there is no further cost of goods. Of course, publishers
will need to pay a per-unit royalty for the protection, as with the
current Macrovision solution. Real-world testing of the product is
going on at Media Morphics, a subsidiary of replication equipment
manufacturer Toolex International.
New developments are also in the works at Macrovision, which is
now included under the umbrella of its software division, Berkshire,
England-based C-Dilla Ltd. subsumed by Macrovision in June 1999.
DVD-ROM versions of C-Dilla products such as SafeDisc are also
under development, according to Toby Gawain, vice president of
software Europe. "We try to offer the strongest commercial security
and widest compatibility," Gawain says. "There are now 93
replication plants worldwide offering SafeDisc lines." But after
many years in the industry, Gawain harbors no illusions about
long-term security with any anti-piracy product, no matter how
well-designed or widely implemented. "Sooner or later everyone gets
hacked. We aim to produce a new version of the SafeDisc technology
every 30 to 45 days to stay ahead of the hackers. Think of it as the
converse of a virus checker. Every six weeks or so a new virus comes
out and you need to upgrade your checker. Every six weeks or so a
new version of SafeDisc will come out that is unhacked," he says.
DVD-COPS OUTAmong the several companies currently offering
CD-ROM protection, few seem to have DVD products in the works. One
company, Scandiplan, offers a product called DVD-Cops based on the
same technology as its CD-Cops. DVD-Cops recognizes an original DVD
and rejects all copies. No special equipment changes are necessary,
nor are changes required in the glass-mastering and it can be
produced by all DVD plants. The software that checks the DVD is
protected by Link's Code Security, a system which has been in use
since 1984.
DVD-Cops was finished in mid-1998, and the first DVD title
protected with the Scandiplan technology was produced in October
1998, according to company spokesman Joergen Espensen. DVD-Cops is
applied directly to a finished EXE file. The protected application
is added to a DVD image. Data is then sent to the DVD factory as
usual. When the DVDs are finished, an access code, which uniquely
identifies a particular DVD, is extracted. This code is then
included with the DVD when sold and can be silk-screened onto the
DVD itself. During installation, the user enters the access code.
From then on, the software runs only when an original DVD is present
in the drive.
DVD-AUDIO: NEW FORMAT, NEW PROTECTIONDVD-Audio players were
expected to hit the market before 4th of July, launching a fresh
wave of piracy fears for the recording industry. The Secure Digital
Music Initiative (SDMI)--a forum that brings together more than 180
companies and organizations representing information technology,
consumer electronics, security technology, the worldwide recording
industry, and Internet service providers--is developing
open-technology specs to protect content providers, including those
developing digital audio for a range of delivery technologies,
DVD-Audio among them. In an effort to protect the playing, storing,
and distribution of digital music so that a new market for digital
music may emerge, the SDMI open technology specifications hope to
achieve the following:
- Provide consumers with convenient access to music both online
and in new emerging digital distribution systems
- Enable copyright protection for artists' works
- Promote the development of new music-related business and
technologies
SDMI-compliant devices will be introduced in two phases. Phase I
will allow consumers to play existing CDs and digital music files as
well as electronically distributed music in protected and
unprotected formats. Phase II begins when a new screening technology
is adopted to filter out pirated music. Consumers will then be able
to upgrade Phase I systems.
Verance Corporation's copy protection technology has been adopted
for Phase I of the SDMI, according to Verance chairman David
Leibowitz. Verance's watermark technology has also been adopted for
DVD-Audio copyright control. Leibowitz says, "Every DVD-Audio player
and recorder will have detectors to read and react to our
watermarks." A DVD-ROM drive is a multi-purpose drive so it will
also be equipped with Verance detectors.
As a result of the CSS hack, CSS-2 technology has been withdrawn
from consideration for use in relation to DVD-Audio products. The
DVD Forum has decided to use Content Protection and Pre-Recorded
Media (CPPM) as a copy protection technology for DVD-Audio and, as
of press time, was preparing to publish the version for DVD-Audio,
according to DVD Forum secretary Hideyuki Irie. IBM, Intel,
Matsushita, and Toshiba have announced the availability of the 0.9
revision of the Content Protection for Recordable Media and
Pre-Recorded Media (CPRM/CPPM) Specification.
CPPM is an encryption technology under which content on a disc is
encrypted according to standard pattern that authorized players can
decode. (CPPM technology is proprietary so the DVD Forum could not
provide further information.) The system defined by the
specification relies on key management for interchangeable media,
content encryption, and media-based renewability. A license can be
obtained from License Management International, LLC (http://www.dvdcca.org/).
HOW REPLICATORS CAN HELP THE PIRACY FIGHTThe International
Recording Media Association's (IRMA) Anti-Piracy Compliance Program
was officially unveiled at REPLItech in June. Its purpose is to
protect intellectual property rights in the replication of optical
media through adherence to procedures and guidelines that help
prevent inadvertent or intentional replication of unauthorized
DVD-ROMs. The initiative was developed with significant input from
the IDSA, MPAA, BSA, IFPI, SIAA, and the RIAA. Modeled after the ISO
9000 program, the IRMA procedures specify a series of international
standards for quality management and quality assurance. IRMA will
uphold the standards through internal audits and regularly scheduled
surveillance.
The certification process will involve the following steps:
- Optical media manufacturing plants must complete and submit an
Application for Certification form
- Each plant can then send two key personnel to an IRMA
Anti-Piracy training course and two key personnel to an IRMA
Internal Auditing training course
- Plants are required to document and implement procedures to
satisfy the IRMA Anti-Piracy Standard
- Plant personnel must conduct internal audits to determine and
verify that these requirements have been documented and
implemented
- Upon completion of such actions, an IRMA team of certified
auditors must perform a system audit to qualify the plant for a
Certificate of Compliance
- Surveillance audits by the same IRMA team will be carried out
at six-month intervals.
Sources at companies such as Microsoft and BMG Entertainment say
it is too soon to expect replicators to be IRMA-compliant, but they
strongly suggest replicators seek the certification. BMG says they
will eventually work only with replicators who are compliant. So
far, Universal Music, Disctronics, and Cinram have been certified.
Demand for product is certainly key to proliferating piracy.
However, capacity exceeding demand also seems to drive some
manufacturers to illegal actions. Currently, demand is outpacing
supply for DVD. But with so many replicators adding lines every day,
could widescale DVD piracy be far behind?
Microsoft Collaborates with
Xerox on Internet Copyright ProtectionPerhaps
the most unstable area of copyright protection is the Internet.
Receiving digital media over the Internet may sound wonderful, but
it can wreak havoc on copyright protection. Content provider
concerns have lead Microsoft to collaborate with Xerox and
ContentGuard to create a secure distribution scheme. ContentGuard is
a spinoff of the Xerox Corporation.
With contributions from Microsoft, ContentGuard's DRM technology
was originally developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. The
content protection software uses encryption technology to "lock"
digital content, preventing unauthorized users from forwarding it or
copying it unless they have paid or registered with the content
owner. When users attempt to access a ContentGuard-enabled document,
they are sent to a digital rights management Web site where they
make payments as they would in any standard ecommerce transaction.
The user can then download the digital content and see or hear it
with a standard viewer or player. If a user sends the content to a
friend, that friend will not be able to view content until he or she
pays for it as well.
Microsoft and ContentGuard will also collaborate on development
of a common digital rights management standard. ContentGuard will
work to establish one of its core technologies, XrML (extensible
rights markup language) as a standard for digital rights management
on the Internet. It has agreed to provide the XrML code to the
industry royalty-free to stimulate its use among software developers
and content providers. ContentGuard's initial focus is on the
publishing and ebook markets, however plans are underway to enable
ContentGuard for audio and video material.
Companies Mentioned in This
Article
Business Software Alliance (BSA)
BSA United
States, 1150 18th Street, NW, Suite 700; Washington, DC 20036;
202/872-5500; Fax 202/872-5501; http://www.bsa.org/
DVD Forum
Toshiba Building, 15th Floor, 1-1, Shibaura
1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-01, JAPAN; 81-3-5444-9580; Fax
81-3-5444-9436; http://www.dvdforum.org/
The Interactive Digital Software Association
(IDSA)
1775 Eye Street, NW, Suite 420; Washington, DC
20006; 202/833-4372; Fax 202/833-4431; http://www.idsa.com/
IFPI Secretariat (the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industry)
54 Regent Street, London W1R 5PJ,
UK; 44 171 878 7900; Fax 44 171 878 7950; http://www.ifpi.org/
International Recording Media Association (IRMA)
182
Nassau Street, Suite 204; Princeton, NJ 08542; 609/279-1700; http://www.recordingmedia.org/
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.
(MPAA)
1600 Eye Street, NW; Washington, DC 20006;
202/293-1966
Macrovision Corporation
1341 Orleans Drive,
Sunnyvale, CA 94089; 408/743-8600; Fax 408/743-8610;
Microsoft Corporation
10500 Northeast 8th Street,
Suite 1300, Bellevue, WA 98004; 800/426-9400, 425/705-1900; Fax
425/705-1831; http://www.microsoft.com/
Scandiplan Technology
Lyngby Hovedgade 47, 2 sal,
Lyngby, Denmark 2800; 45 45 87 05 05; Fax 45 45 87 05 83; http://www.scandiplan.dk/
Software & Information Industry Association
(SIIA)
1730 M Street, NW, Suite 700; Washington, DC
20036-4510; 202/452-1600; http://www.infoindustry.org/
The Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA)
1330 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 300; Washington,
DC 20036; 202/775-0101; Fax 202/775-7253; http://www.riaa.com/
TTR Technologies Ltd.
2 Hanagar Street, P.O. Box
2295; Kfar Saba, Israel 44425; 972 9 766 2393; Fax 972 9 766 2394;
http://www.ttr.co.il/
Debbie Galante Block (debgalante@aol.com) is a
freelance writer based in Mahopac, New York.
Comments? Email us at letters@onlineinc.com.
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