SONY, WARNER BROS. SIGN DTV COPY PROTECTION PACT WITH 5C GROUP
Cracking Hollywood’s solid wall of opposition to 5C digital copy protection technology standards, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. signed long-term licensing agreements with leading TV set makers and software developers. As expected, accords between 2 studios and Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator (DTLA) mean Sony and Warner Bros. digital programming distributed through cable and satellite set-top boxes will be encrypted against copying by TV viewers and Internet users without studios’ permission, with copying restrictions varying according to 3 general classes of programming. But deals don’t cover over-air broadcasts, main sticking point that still prevents other 5 major studios from reaching agreement on copy protection standards. Terms weren’t disclosed.
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In joint news release Tues., DTLA, Sony and Warner Bros. said pacts would allow studios to “protect prerecorded media, pay-per- view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VoD) transmissions against unauthorized copying” by viewers. They said agreements also would permit studios to “protect all content against unauthorized Internet retransmission, while assuring consumers’ ability to continue customary home recording of broadcast and subscription programming.” They said deals “support new, proconsumer capabilities such as digitally displaying content paused on personal video recorders (PVRs), moving copies from PVRs to removable digital tape or disc recordings and transferring copies among servers located in different areas of the home.”
Specifically, new “encoding rules” will allow studios to prevent viewers from making any copies of PPV and VoD movies and events. But they will be able to record select portions of PPV programming, using their PVR pause controls. Less stringent copying standards would apply to basic and pay cable subscription channels, with viewers able to make “one generation” of digital copies but not copies of those copies. Broadcast programming delivered over cable lines or satellite dishes would be subject to even looser “copy freely” standards, allowing viewers to make unlimited digital copies but not retransmit programs over Internet.
“It’s sort of a 3-way balancing scheme,” DTCP Pres. Michael Ayres said, as negotiators sought to satisfy set manufacturers, studios, consumers. “We anticipate that any business model the studios come up with will likely be analogous to one of those 3 categories.” Contending that agreements with Sony and Warner Bros. “mark a watershed event in the transition to the all-digital home entertainment environment,” Ayres said studios’ adoption of 5C standard “will unlock the real potential of consumer DVD players, digital set-top boxes, HDTV sets and digital disc and tape recorders.” He said deals covered reception technology used in 85% of U.S. TV homes.
Warner Bros. and Sony officials said deals would allow them to bring crisp digital movies, shows and other programming into consumers’ homes. But they declined to say when they would start encoding their digital productions. Ayres also declined to spell out timetable.
With Warner Bros. and Sony now on board, Ayres said DTLA negotiators would try to work out deals with other major studios - - Disney, MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal. They and their affiliated broadcast networks have objected strenuously to 5C standard because it provides no protection for over-air broadcasts and have lobbied Congress and FCC for help. Although critics say effort is smokescreen, Ayres said he took issue quite seriously and hoped to find way to address it. “I think they're honestly very concerned about that,” he told us.
NCTA Gen. Counsel Neal Goldberg stressed that cable operators, who had adopted own copy protection standards complementary to 5C, weren’t part of drawn-out negotiations between set manufacturers and movie studios. He welcomed deals with Sony and Warner Bros. as good start in drive for universally accepted copy protection standards but said more needed to be done. “We're encouraged to see progress,” Goldberg said, and “any movement is good” on issue, but “we'd like to see some kind of consensus on copy protection standards.”
Spokesman for NAB, which has lobbied Congress and FCC to intervene on broadcasters’ side, declined comment on deals. Spokesman for MPAA, which represents all 7 studios and has studiously remained neutral on issue, also declined comment. CEA spokesman didn’t return calls.