Corrections for Alex Grundner on AACS
The Media Center Show Delves into DRM (Highly Recommended) | Alexander Grundner has more incorrect assumptions on AACS and other content protection systems.
Quote: “…most of us think interoperability means taking DRM protected content and being able to play it on variety of third party devices.”
Thus cheap licensing comes in, Windows Media Rights Management is a great example. Just about anyone can license WMRM (for very cheap) and add the ability for their device (eg. third party) to play the content. Not the “best” for interoperability as Alex is thinking, but much closer then other technologies.
Quote: “So, if you take his "theoretically" and add Microsoft's commitment to usage terms dictated by content companies, consumers may not have "flow" at all, but a bottleneck. Why? Because content companies will set the terms of how the media is used”
Incorrect. The AACS LA defines this sort of thing and it’s not specific to Microsoft products in any way. Anyone is free to create devices that enable the content to “flow”, doesn’t matter if it runs on Windows, Linux, Mac, etc. It must, however, meet the bar that the AACS LA has set or that company will be held liable to AACS. That means they could have their AACS license revoked and other damages may be due.
Quote: “Sure, managed copies as function is enabled, but that doesn't guarantee consumer will be able to make a backup recording or even be able to stream the video to extenders if the distributor doesn't allow it – the ball is truly in their court.”
Partially correct, partially incorrect. For HD DVD, the ability to make a single managed copy will be guaranteed to the consumer. How it “flows” once again, is defined by the AACS LA and not the content owner/distributor. Blu-ray has yet to publicly announce a policy on managed copies (mainly where BD+/ROM Mark play into it).
Quote: “And lastly, a little more on "flow." If content distributors will be setting the terms on how users can play their content (remember via usage terms and contract law), then we will never have the ability to take high-quality versions of audio or video and transcode them into different formats for use on our other devices (i.e. portable video players, cellphones, handhelds, etc.) like we do today. That doesn't sound like flow to me.”
Incorrect. There is no reason you can’t. The device must support the protection method (AACS, WMRM) in question, other than that with something like AACS there is no reason you can’t have it “flow” like this.
