Technology Part 2
Q5. HOW WILL THE REDISTRIBUTION CONTROL SOLUTION AFFECT OLDER-GENERATION HARDWARE DEVICES?
All Redistribution Control solutions, e.g., the Broadcast Flag, Japan’s, a DVB-based solution, allow analog outputs to connect to old analog TVs. Therefore, there will be no impact.
Q6. HOW WILL WE COPE WITH THE BROKEN CONTENT SCRAMBLE SYSTEM (CSS)?
Although the keys for the Content Scramble System (CSS) protection technology for DVDs have been exposed for some time, DVD player manufacturers, as licensees of the CSS technology, are obligated to abide by the CSS license agreement. Thus, licensees are required to comply with all CSS guidelines, including copy protection and robustness requirements. The CSS license continues to be amended to address new and developing situations. For example, the CSS license was recently amended to include the new managed recording ability, which allows content to be downloaded and recorded to new CSS recordable DVDs. Further, efforts are underway to improve the security of the CSS technology.
The next generation of optical discs, such as HD DVD and Blu-ray, are protected by the new Advanced Access Content System (AACS). AACS requires that HD DVD and Blu-ray players provide a more secure environment for content. AACS includes the following key attributes that should make it significantly more reliable in the long term than its predecessor:
- Renewed content scramble
- Revocation of licenses
- The ability to renew software
- Enhanced authentication for PC-based systems
- Managed copying and download-to-burn usage models
Q7. WHY ARE WE CONCERNED ABOUT THE INTERNET?
The MPA embraces the Internet for providing innovation, new applications, channels and distribution, and is working to address new threats to content protection that unfortunately accompany the Internet.
Making movies is an expensive business, and it is a risky business because of the potential low rate of return on investment. When large numbers of people “consume” movies without paying, these so-called “free riders” undermine the financial base of movie making. While free riders are even more harmful to developing movie companies seeking a sound financial footing in the marketplace, they threaten major movie studios as well. If millions of people continue to steal movies, the result will be that the movie companies, both large and small, will be unable to produce quality content.
At the moment, movie piracy in the Asia-Pacific region is dominated by piracy of optical discs — DVDs and VCDs. Tens of millions of pirate optical discs are identified every year, but many, many more slip through the net and are distributed throughout the region and all over the world. Asia is the world’s leading pirate disc supplier.
However, the biggest threat to the movie industry today is not from illegal DVD factories, but from peer-to-peer file sharing, which allows copyrighted content to be distributed around the globe instantaneously without any compensation to the artists and producers of such content.
MPA research shows that piracy cost the film industry in Asia-Pacific $5.5 billion in 2005. Of those losses, $1.8 billion is estimated to have been the result of Internet piracy. These are big numbers, and they are numbers that hurt everyone. The economic and social impact of IP theft is enormous and will have even greater, long-term implications if not brought under control.
Q8. HOW ARE WE WORKING WITH BITTORRENT?
The motion picture industry and BitTorrent are collaborating with the goal of reducing film piracy. The developers of BitTorrent created a revolutionary technology to make large content files available on the Web. That technology, however, has often been used to illegally distribute content.
In November 2005, the MPA announced an agreement with BitTorrent to fight illegal P2P piracy. Through this agreement, the MPA member companies are making their content available to BitTorrent users legally. In addition, BitTorrent founder and CEO Bram Cohen agreed that BitTorrent.com will remove links from its search engine that direct users to pirated content owned by MPA member companies.
Q9. HOW IS THE MPA PRO-TECHNOLOGY?
The motion picture industry has always thrived on new technologies — the term "motion picture" celebrates the fabulous technological leap from still images to "movies" — images that moved.
A second technological leap to "talkies" improved the early moviegoing experience through the addition of dialogue and music. Then, of course, color.
On the distribution side, the pace of change has been even more dramatic. Distribution to people’s homes first took place via television, then early video-on-demand — as long as you were willing to go to the video rental shop when you felt like watching a movie — became a reality with the advent in the late 1970s of JVC’s VHS and Sony’s Betamax machines.
The early 1990s saw the arrival of the VCD and DVD. Th e DVD brought terrific improvements in picture quality, but the ease with which optical discs could be pressed, literally by the millions, represented an enormous threat to copyright owners.
With the advent of the Internet, consumers have access to true video-on-demand via high-quality streaming or super-fast high-bandwidth downloads — a distribution dream for copyright owners.
As with optical discs, however, the distribution dream is matched by the nightmare of unrestrained global piracy. Complicating matters are the lack of a unified legal system governing Internet commerce and traffic and the prospect of increasing network transmission speeds.
The mantra of the modern consumer is "what I want, where I want it, when I want it and on whichever device I happen to be carrying or sitting in front of." Movie studios and television broadcasters are highly motivated to meet the dynamic demands of the entertainment consuming public — an increasingly large, disparate, and demanding audience.