[mythtvnz] DRM: coming to you soon, via Freeview

[Craig Whitmore]

From: 
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/A39655DFDEC11858CC2572DA0080618D

Terrestrial Freeview will pass a signal to the digital television and to any 
high-definition recording device, says Freeview

Digital rights management will come to Freeview early next year, when the 
terrestrial network and high-definition digital television service make 
their appearance, says Freeview's chief executive, Steve Browning.
Terrestrial Freeview will pass a signal to the digital television and to any 
high-definition recording device, through an HDMI (High-Definition 
Multimedia Interface) connection, whose protocol incorporates HDCP 
(high-definition content protection). This will prevent onward transmission 
of material, while still allowing customers to record it for their own 
private use on a suitable digital personal video recorder (PVR), says 
Browning.

The owner's PVR will be a "trusted" destination for such material, but 
content protection will prevent it being recorded on any "untrusted" device. 
However, Browning says Freeview has not yet checked and specified any PVRs 
as suitable for use with the service.

With the present satellite model, which features only "standard definition" 
pictures, there is no such content protection. Freeview has decided it's not 
worth fighting the battle over standard-definition digital images. "[But] we're 
putting a stake in the ground [with high-definition material]," says 
Browning.

For those viewers using older recording technology, there will be an 
alternative that will "downshift" content to standard resolution.

HDCP has been the subject of much controversy in countries that have had 
digital television for some time, particularly the US, where the Federal 
Communications Commission mandated that every high-definition television and 
recorder made after July 1, 2005, be made sensitive to HDCP.

Commercial pirates will simply continue to use older equipment, says digital 
rights organisation the Electronic Frontier Foundation. At the same time, 
the possibility remains open that further controls could be installed into 
HDCP to limit even more tightly what users do with recorded content.