The companies said that the new “Video Content Protection Scheme” will require both DVDs, burners and players to support the standard in order to work with each other.
The new standard is designed to work with the new FCC “broadcast flag” initiative, aimed at protecting broadcast content from being passed between private individuals.
The initiative is set to go into effect July 1, 2005, and has been approved by both the FCC and the CableLabs consortium of cable providers.
“The primary goal if you read FCC regulations is to create a situation where it is not possible to randomly, indiscriminately distribute content over something,” said Kevin Saldanha, HP’s DVD+RW program manager, at a press conference.
The new standard would, for example, prohibit content available in California but blacked out in other parts of the nation from being transmitted over the Internet for viewing.
HP’s new rights management solution will only work with DVD+RW and DVD+R discs, their burners and next-generation players and only be apply to digital video. DVD-R will not be regulated.
IDC optical storage analyst Wolfgang Schlichting told ExtremeTech that characterizing the new DRM standard as a “forced obsolescence” was “a bit of an overstatement,” but that the additional restrictions would add more confusion to the marketplace.
