IP: Content protection plan targets wireless home networks

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
>
>
> [Note:  This item comes from reader Tim Pozar.  DLH]
>
> At 10:55 -0800 1/14/02, Tim Pozar wrote:
> > From: Tim Pozar <pozar () lns com>
> > To: dewayne () warpspeed com
> > Subject: Content protection plan targets wireless home networks
> > Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 10:55:43 -0800
> > MIME-Version: 1.0
> >
> > Seems like 802.11 evil for Digital Rights Management...
> >
> > Tim
> > --
> > Content protection plan targets wireless home networks
> > By Junko Yoshida, EE Times
> > Jan 11, 2002 (12:01 PM)
> > URL: <http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020111S0060>
> >
> > LAS VEGAS - Philips is leading the charge to start yet another
> > industry initiative to tackle digital rights management, this time
> > focusing on the wirelessly networked home, EE Times has learned.
> >
> > At stake here, said Leon Husson, executive vice president of consumer
> > businesses at Philips Semiconductors, is the "free-floating"
> > copyrighted content that will soon be "redistributed" or "rebroadcast"
> > to different TV sets throughout a home by consumers using wireless
> > networking technologies like IEEE 802.11.
> >
> > Rather than wait for Hollywood studios to raise a red flag over
> > unprotected wirelessly transmitted content, some technology companies
> > want to tackle the issue in advance and develop solutions together
> > with content owners.
> >
> > "We are dying to lobby Hollywood studios on this issue," Husson
> > said in an interview here. Philips Semiconductors has been discussing
> > the issue with companies like Sony and Samsung, he said, and expected
> > to have "high-level meetings with Thomson Multimedia" this week.
> > Philips has also had a preliminary, "very interesting conversation"
> > with Cisco Systems Inc., he added. The goal of the Philips-led
> > emerging industry initiative is to come up with "the first concrete
> > proposal" that can be taken to Hollywood soon.
> >
> > One existing specification, called Digital Transmission Content
> > Protection (DTCP), defines a cryptographic protocol for safeguarding
> > audio/video entertainment content against illegal copying, intercepting
> > and tampering as it traverses high-performance digital buses, such
> > as the IEEE 1394 standard. But when DTCP was developed by 5C - a
> > group comprising Intel Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Sony Corp., Toshiba
> > Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. - "the notion for the
> > wireless-connected home was not there," said Husson. Other approaches
> > to content protection don't necessarily ignore wireless transmission,
> > but Philips is actively focusing on that transmission approach, he
> > added.
> >
> > Now that many consumer electronics companies are beginning to see
> > wireless home networking as the wave of the future, developing a
> > possible solution for copy protection and digital rights management
> > over the wirelessly connected home has gained "a sense of urgency,"
> > Husson said.
> >
> > Trying to apply the DTCP - which requires high-speed encryption and
> > decryption at every digital interface - over a wireless network is
> > not easy, said Husson. It could not only slow down the wireless
> > transmission, but also tax the computing power locally available
> > in digital consumer appliances.
> >
> > Cisco's scheme
> >
> > A number of consumer electronics and Internet technology companies
> > have diverging ideas on how to implement digital rights management
> > (DRM) in digital consumer appliances.
> >
> > For its part, Cisco released last fall Open Conditional Content
> > Access Management (Occam), an end-to-end content encryption and
> > access control technology specification, designed for implementation
> > in hardware for interactive television and portable network devices.
> > The technology incorporates a key management facility that uses the
> > 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard and 1,024-bit public-key
> > encryption.
> >
> > While Cisco hopes to get network service providers and device
> > manufacturers to use its DRM protocol and key management, some
> > consumer companies, including Philips, don't believe the proposal
> > meets the industry's needs. In the Occam proposal, Husson said,
> > "Cisco wants each digital device within the home to have a separate
> > IP [Internet Protocol] address. That means if you have 20 connected
> > consumer devices at home, you'd have to deal with 20 different IPs."
> > That may be a good scheme for Cisco, which wants to play a pivotal
> > role in promoting its Internet routers, but it won't make life any
> > easier for the consumer electronics manufacturer, Husson said.
> >
> > If Cisco's proposal sits at one extreme among various DRM schemes,
> > Thomson Multimedia's proposed SmartRight copy protection and content
> > management system may sit at the opposite end.  Thomson Multimedia
> > and Micronas this week demonstrated smart card-based SmartRight
> > technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
> >
> > Olivier Lafaye, general manager of advanced projects, content
> > protection and rights management in Thomson Multimedia's research
> > arm, said that unlike 5C's DTCP, which protects only "the link"
> > between digital devices, the SmartRight system provides "end-to-end
> > copy protection" for content entering a SmartRight-enabled home
> > network. And while DTCP requires re-encryption at every digital
> > device border, SmartRight keeps content encrypted from the time it
> > reaches a digital set-top at home until it is rendered, he said.
> >
> > The SmartRight technology will honor a local "entitlement control
> > message" - such digital rights management rules as copy never or
> > copy once, for example - originally attached to the content.  By
> > putting the SmartRight technology in place, which enforces rights
> > management in the home, said Lafaye, "we can help content owners
> > create a new business revenue model." Content owners, for example,
> > can start charging consumers every time their digital content is
> > re-distributed within the home, or viewed several times during a
> > certain number of days specified by them.
> >
> > Reinhard Steffens, senior marketing manager at Micronas and co-chairman
> > for the copy protection technology group of Europe-based Digital
> > Video Broadcast (DVB), said that because SmartRight uses smart
> > card-based removable security modules, it can provide a more-secure
> > and cost-effective renewable solution if the copy protection scheme
> > is hacked.
> >
> > 'Middle-ground' solution
> >
> > Steffens said 23 proposals have been submitted in response to a
> > call from DVB. "We hope to come to a consensus and come up with a
> > preliminary working standard by the end of 2002," he said.
> >
> > But Philips doesn't see SmartRight as the way to go. "If the Occam
> > requires the home network to deal with 20 IPs, for instance, the
> > SmartRight is designed to handle just one node at home," said Husson.
> > Leveraging the technical expertise accumulated by Philips Research,
> > he said, "we hope to create a middle-ground DRM solution that sits
> > between Occam and SmartRight."
> >
> > The proposal Philips wants to hammer out with Sony, Samsung, Cisco
> > and possibly with Thomson Multimedia will focus on the rights-management
> > issues for wireless home networking, said Husson. Further, the group
> > does not regard the DVB as the right forum to push their proposal.
> > Husson said lobbying efforts must start with major content owners.
> >
> > While declining to assign a specific time frame to the discussions
> > with Hollywood, Husson was confident that the industry initiative
> > Philips hopes to launch could soon result in putting a concrete
> > proposal on the table. "There is a high-level awareness among
> > consumer electronics companies that this [rights management over
> > wireless home networking] needs to be resolved quickly."

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