Apple, Disney and the DVB’s proposed Content Protection standard
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 29, 2005 at 3:45am
Earlier this year, SCENE Magazine, a Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB) publication, presented the views of Thorsten Herfet, Intel’s Consumer Electronic Standards Representative, on the current state and problems facing Home Networks. Here’s what Herfet stated on the issue of Copy Protection:
“Content Management / Copy Protection (CPCM) – is the third problem. Digital Home Networks must not unintentionally enable illegitimate use of copyrighted content. The fact that no trusted CPCM solution is in place has delayed the advent of media networks significantly. While the digital output of copyrighted content is accepted and specified for several domains already (e.g. for 5C-protected 1394 outputs of DVD players or for ‘HD ready’ displays) and digital rights management (DRM) protected content (Windows Media DRM, iTunes DRM or other) can be distributed in the home already (but of course only played on licensed devices), more sophisticated CPCM systems are under development in DVB and the DLNA [Digital Living Network Alliance] envisage solutions within the time frame of a year.”
Apparently ahead of schedule, a DVB press release last Monday announced a “Major Milestone for Content Protection.”
Brief DVB announcements
The publication of DVB Bluebook A094 – Content Protection & Copy Management (DVB-CPCM) – signals a major milestone in the work of the DVB on a specification for persistent protection for commercial content in consumer digital products and home networks.
The release of the first three elements of the CPCM specification; DVB CPCM Reference Model, DVB CPCM Usage State Information and DVB CPCM Abbreviations, Definitions and Terms are in the form of a Bluebook for informational purposes and liaison with other interested standards forums. When completed the DVB-CPCM specification will be submitted to ETSIfor standardization.
The DVB Content Protection Technical (CPT) sub-group of the Technical Module, lead by Chris Hibbert of Walt Disney TV International, has produced the first three elements of the specification working to the Commercial Requirements produced by the Content Protection sub-group of the Commercial Module, lead by Giles Godart-Brown of BSkyB. This follows in the tradition of the DVB of only producing specifications which are identified as commercially required by the market and supported by consensus among the membership.
Apple’s landmark deal with Disney
In Apple’s landmark deal with Disney, iTunes now offers current and past episodes from two of the most popular shows on television, “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost,” as well as the new drama series “Night Stalker” and the two most popular shows from Disney Channel, “That’s So Raven” and “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” for just $1.99 per episode.
Now closely consider the following verbiage that is found under section “10:CPCM Content” of the new DVB PDF that states the following: a Content Item is a discrete instance of Content of finite duration, for example, a TV episode, one segment from a news broadcast, a movie.” Later, under section “10.2.5 Usage State Information [USI],” it states that “the USI may also be carried embedded within the Content Item itself, but the USI stored in the Content Licence is the authoritative USI for that Content, with respect to its handling by CPCM [Content Protection & Copy Management].
To ensure that a digital device is CPCM compliant, section “10.2.7 Content Descrambling Key(s),” presents the facts that the ” Content Descrambling Key(s) are the key(s) generated by the Key Management element of the Security Control part of the CPCM Instance that Acquired that Content Item into, or Processed that Content Item within the CPCM System. They are used by the CPCM Descrambling Tool to descramble the Content Item, when applicable. For CPCM Content with the “Do Not CPCM Scramble” Usage Rule asserted there are no Content Descrambling Key(s).
The bottom line
It stands to reason that Disney’s television content, like Lost, will be CPCM compliant and contain such a scrambling mechanism (as noted above) that will have to be implemented on Apple’s iPod if programming is to be viewed in the future. I doubt very much that Disney is about to dodge the very standard that was lead by their own Chris Hibbert (Walt Disney TV International).
Likewise, I doubt that Apple would have initiated their landmark deal with Disney if they weren’t in full agreement with this new standard for Content Management and Copy Protection.
Furthermore, Disney’s patent application that was filed last week reveals an insurance program for Portable Media Players, such as Apple’s iPod. I doubt that the patent specifically listing Apple was neither coincidence nor unknown by Apple. In my opinion, Disney’s insurance program no doubt, will include specific clauses stating that only legally downloaded content will be insurable – which ties back to this new DVB standard, where applicable – and eventually back to certain iTMS content.
Admittedly, the CPCM document does contain enough caveats that would put a smile on any lawyers face. Yet there appears to be enough wiggle room that could leave Apple with the ability to comply in different ways in respect to different kinds of content and hardware applications.
If you’re involved in this area of expertise in any way, the DVB document is definitely worth a read.
neo@macsimumnews.com
Leave a comment ⇒
Please post the article topic & comment in our forums. No registration required.
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
