Feds OK DVD+R/RW DRM tech

Found on The Register on Thursday, 05 August 2004
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The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the use of Video Content Protection System (VCPS), the DVD+RW Alliance's preferred copy-protection system.

The idea is that pirates will not be able to use digital broadcasts as a source of material for illicit DVDs, but quite clearly it has the potential to stop fans recording and archiving their favourite shows.

The FCC's Broadcast Flag rule comes into force on 1 July 2005, and all digital TV receivers must be capable of supporting the DRM technology from that date onwards. The technology is not mandatory for recorders, but equipment and discs without VCPS capability will be unable to record or play TV broadcast in the US that is protected with the Broadcast Flag.

Protected and un-protected content can be recorded on the same disc, Philips says.

So what stops people from making copies by recording the analog stream? Digital video may have a higher quality, but when you are aiming for a 700MB CD version, you will have a loss in quality anyway. You could simply plug your DVD player's analog video-out into your computers TV tuner. Voila, problem solved. Or, someone could write a tool for decoding the MPEG2. All he'd need is a device key.