DTV smart card safeguards digital video

Based on Extended Conditional Access (XCA), a renewable encryption scheme Thomson introduced in 1998, it claims to supplement other solutions for DTV copy protection provided by terrestrial broadcasters and to prevent illicit redistribution of digital video over the Internet.

The new scheme, called SmartRight, keeps content encrypted in the consumers' home network until it is displayed or played on a presentation device. It was proposed to the Copy Protection Technology Working Group (CPTWG).

Though XCA failed to gain widespread support in its first go-round, Thomson Multimedia (Paris) is proposing an enhanced version as a layer on top of current technologies such as 1394/5C or Digital Video Interface (DVI), to protect content where existing technologies do not.

The 5C scheme is applicable in active, two-way environments, such as cable, while DVI — which provides a one-way interface to a display — is not a recordable interface. SmartRight could protect playing and recording of digital television over the air, via cable or satellite, as well as digital video content transmission over the Internet, Thomson maintains.

SmartRight uses a system of smart cards to ensure renewability in case of penetration by a hacker, and it can be designed to be interoperable with existing copy-protection systems. The system would be for use worldwide.

Thomson spokesman Dave Arland said the consumer electronics manufacturer thinks SmartRight will be better accepted now because it addresses issues that weren't as important two years ago.

Arland said that Napster, for instance, which provided downloads of copyrighted music over the Internet before a court barred the practice, created fear among Hollywood studio executives. They "don't want to see the same thing happen with digital video content," he said.