Cryptographers to Hollywood: prepare to fail on DRM

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/17/drm_security_shortcomings/print.html>

The Register


 Biting the hand that feeds IT

Cryptographers to Hollywood: prepare to fail on DRM
By John Leyden (john.leyden at theregister.co.uk)
Published Thursday 17th February 2005 19:37 GMT

RSA 2005 Movie industry representatives at RSA 2005 in San Francisco today
called on the IT industry for help in thwarting illegal file sharing before
the problem threatened its revenues. But they were told that they must
recognise the limitations of digital rights management in their fight
against digital piracy.

Speaking on the RSA conference panel Hollywood's Last Chance - Getting it
Right on Digital Piracy, Carter Laren, security architect at Cryptographic
Research, noted that cryptography is "good at some problems, such as
transmitting data so it can't be eavesdropped or even authentication, but
it can't solve the content protection problem. If people have legitimate
access to content, then you can't stop them misusing it.

"Anyone designing content protection should design for failure and if it
fails update it," he added.

John Worrall, marketing VP at RSA Security, agreed that content protection
systems should be easy to upgrade. The entertainment industry must also
learn from its previous mistakes in pushing the weak CSS copy-protection
system for DVDs. "If content providers open up standards to good
cryptographic review they will get a better system," he said, to applause
from the RSA 2005 audience.

The entertainment industry also needs to be responsive to changing market
conditions and consumer preferences, according to Worrall: "Don't lock down
a set of content rules that look draconian five years from now. Be flexible
enough to incorporate change in rules. If rules are too restrictive people
will go to other channels, including pirated material."

Andy Sentos, president of engineering and technology at Fox Entertainment
Group, argued that device manufacturers need to recognise the requirements
of the movie industry in the design of their products. "There's a value in
both content and functionality but there has to be a balance," he said. ®

Related stories

SuprNova.org ends, not with a bang but a whimper
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/19/suprnova_stops_torrents/)
The BitTorrent P2P file-sharing system
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/18/bittorrent_measurements_analysis/)
MPAA closes Loki (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/10/loki_down_mpaa/)
Stealing movies: Why the MPAA can afford to relax
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/09/movie_file_sharing/)
Norway throws in the towel in DVD Jon case
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/05/norway_throws_in_the_towel/)

-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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