At the recent Conference at DCD Expo in San Jose, during the Disc Duplication University program, organized by the International Disc Duplicating Association, most of the afternoon sessions were devoted to Copy Protection, Digital Rights and control of content.

Speakers at the Disc Duplicating University made clear that there are two conflicting opinions on copy protection.

1. There are those who own or control the content or Intellectual Property, (IP), and want to use copy protection technologies to limit or charge for its distribution, together with developers who believe that they can satisfy reasonable Fair Use rights, and provide a reasonable level of copy protection.
2. Then there are those who believe that IP is not only uncontrollable when it reaches the public, but that it should not be controlled by copy protection technology.

Developers of Copy Protection Technologies have observed that some of the negative publicity relating to copy protection is unfounded and untrue.
An example was that there was a tale that copy protected discs could destroy the ROM of certain Apple computers, and while it is true that in some cases the computer may need to be restarted, there is no recorded instance of ROM damage.

The association will be able counter this untrue publicity, as well as promoting education as to the value and in most cases harmlessness of copy protection. The association would also be able to set standards to describe the different levels of copy protection, in some cases share technical information, and have a forum to discuss legal and ethical issues.

The Association is neither a technical working group, nor a voice for the content owners such as the RIAA or the MPA, but rather an association of those involved in designing, marketing and applying copy protection technology.

Amazingly there was one point of agreement between the protection developers and those who were afraid of infringing on 'Fair Use Rights'. There was agreement that it was quite legitimate to protect software within an organisation or between commercial organizations, such as the recording studio, publisher and replication facility. The moot point was whether it was both ethically right and practically possible to protect content once it was accessible by the public.

Says Bernhard Kirschner, Disc Duplicating University Chair and IDDA President "The IDDA can be described as agnostic on this subject, suggesting neither an opinion nor a solution. Generally, its members are middlemen and their interest is in remaining within both ethical standards and within the law, yet providing the best possible services required of its members clients, including the service of applying protection technology to duplicated discs when requested by its clients, who believe that they can better control distribution, especially within the corporate environment, using protection techniques.

"Less than 12 months ago when the IDDA first called for discussion on protecting CD-R there was no product and little interest, and now we have protection products for music, executable files and even pdf from the major developers in this industry."

In his presentation at the conference, the fear that copy protection technologies interfere with users Fair Use rights was expressed by Fred von Lohman,Senior Intellectual Property Attorney of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF ), www.EFF.org, a group who advocate the freer distribution of IP. His views were endorsed by Robert Schwartz, General Council of the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC), www.HRRC.org, who amongst other things we can thank for our freedom to use our VCRs.

Mr Draak Murdock of Audible Magic described their song identification system that links to a database of 3.5 million tracks, and also announced Audible Magic are now able to check applications against their growing database of over 2000 on file. Audible Magic also announced a program for small operators who are IDDA members to access their technology at a nominal cost.

Mr George MacDonald of First4Internet, http://www.xcp-aurora.co.uk/xcp1.asp, a UK security systems developer announced their new product XCP1 for CD-R protection, and XCP2 for replicated discs, for music is not only very difficult to crack, does not infringe Redbook standards, and can allow as many backups as the publisher wishes. This would apparently appease many of the objections to copy protection.

Abbie Sommer of STARFORCE Technologies, http://www.star-force.com/products/pdfpro10/, who are a certified Adobe Development Partner, introduced STARFORCE PDF which is designed to protect any non-executable files which can be converted to PDF format, for use in Legal Briefs, manuals, e-books, CAD or architectural files, and other confidential material. Again in most cases unlikely to interfere with Fair Use.

Brian Mantz of Smarte Solutions, Inc. http://www.smartesolutions.com/press_detail.tmpl?SKU=312728202567053 announced their endorsement of the use of Optical Disc Corporation (ODC) hybrid orange book standard stamped and recorded media. The key advantage is that either the stamped or the recorded areas can carry protection software, and the recordable area can be customized.

Greg Wible of Crypkey who have been offering protection systems for over 10 years, described their battle worn software.

Doc Witness presented a video of Amos Loewidt showing their unique combination smart card and disc. The card harvests the computers embedded serial number, and remembers which computer(s) it is authorised to run on.

Macrovision http://www.macrovision.com announced SafeDisc which had previously been available only for stamped discs, was now available for CD-R.

Says Kirschner: "The copy protection developers have noted what the public and the market are asking. All this exciting and useful technology will be used to prevent piracy within the corporate and production process. Software is being adapted to both limit the distribution by the public, and protect the Fair Use rights. By working together we will be able to use technology to both protect Intellectual Property and satisfy the public."

Organizations are discussing the formation of the Copy Protection Association within their organizations.

It is expected that the Copy Protection Association will be formalised, at the MediaTech Expo 13 -15 May 2003, in Las Vegas.