Copyright Protection Coming to Set-Tops

Pace and Samsung have announced they will begin embedding SVP copyright protection hardware into set-top boxes they manufacture for cable operators.

Electronics manufacturers Pace Microelectronics and Samsung have announced they will begin embedding Secure Video Protection (SVP) copyright protection hardware in set-top boxes they manufacture for cable operators; the technology could reach cable providers by the end of 2006.

SVP is a hardware-based copyright protection and anti-piracy technology based on open specifications and which can interoperate with other digital content protection solutions. SVP works by keeping content encrypted up to the point of the final rendering, and can be managed by policies defined by content distributors and copyright holders. Both Broadcom and STMicroelectronics will be shipping production quantities of SVP content protection chips later this year; Samsung says it also plans to begin deplyed SVP technology to cell phones, televisions, and other consumer devices in 2007. Conexant, Humax, and Thomson has also licensed the SVP specs from the SVP Alliance, and SVP has been endorsed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

SVP—and technologies like it—are seen as critical to convincing piracy-paranoid content providers like Hollywood to wholeheartedly jump on the digital bandwagon: although efforts like Apple’s iTunes and newborn digital video service are showing promise, selling digital movies to consumers isn’t even a blip on Hollywood’s financial radar right now. However, content protection and digital rights management technologies also restrict fair use, interfere with consumer’s legitimate uses of media they have purchases, and can sometimes create technological headaches for the parent companies (a la Sony’s rootkit DRM fiasco). Consumers’ response to constraints of DRM and content protection technology is still largely unknown, but interoperability issues—such as Apple’s FairPlay versus Microsoft’s Windows Media—continue to frustrate consumers.

If SVP is as effective as its promoters promise, it may serve to make digital content delivery systems less susceptible to piracy. However, the worldwide piracy market will likely to continue to thrive: after all, nothing about SVP protects against a very common piracy technique: clandestinely taking a video camera into a theater to record a movie.