Just a few months ago, hard drive manufacturers announced the development of perpendicular polarisation recording technology, which can easily double the hard drive capacity as this recording method is much more efficient over the horizontal polarisation recording technology used in current hard drives. However, according to Toms Hardware, a senior analyst, Michael Cai predicts that Hollywood may force hard drive manufacturers to implement DRM, especially once the smaller physical sized drives using perpendicular recording technology start being put to use in portable video devices such as the rumoured video iPods.
The current DVD generation incorporates copy-protection and all the next generations of DVD will incorporate some sort of DRM / copy protection system . However most hard drives do not support any form of copy-protection at the hardware level. As hand-held video devices are only at their early stages yet, Cai expects Hollywood and other content providers to try and place some form of copy protection on hard drives, even if it means enforcing new legislation that mandates the support for DRM capabilities.
With such large hard drives coming in the near future, Cai mentioned that this may be a major concern for Hollywood, especially if one can carry a large quantity of recorded programmes across a geographic boundary. This is another reason for the major push in the infamous broadcast flag that was suppose to be enforced on all digital TV sets by July 1st this year, before an Appeals Court ruling blocked it. It may seem odd trying to copy-protect programmes freely available on terrestrial TV, however the purpose of the broadcast flag enforcement was to prevent consumers from exporting recorded programmes outside the US, such as over the Internet.
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More space for portable consumer electronics is a no brainer. Who wouldn't want more space on their iPods and enough room for several movies on PMPs and currently rumored video iPods? Some analysts claim its not as easy as just building these new drives into devices. If there is to be a roadblock, it may come from content and media providers, including Hollywood studios, which may seek to enact regulations or legislation mandating the inclusion of digital rights management (DRM) facilities in CE devices that use high-capacity drives, as Michael Cai, senior analyst with Parks Associates, told Tom's Hardware Guide. The moment you become capable of reading and writing movies and transporting that content across borders, Cai said, "Hollywood can get really concerned. What if you can carry like 20 movies with you all the time, and they can't control the content any more?" It's the possible crossing of geographic boundaries that's the problem, Cai said - a problem that wouldn't crop up if the media device were made to sit on your desktop at home, no matter how small it becomes. The full article can be read here. |
Even if hard
drive manufacturers are forced to incorporate DRM within their hard drives, this
will not stop someone from storing copyrighted content in an unprotected form on
the hard drive. For example, I remember when Secure Digital memory cards
were launched, there were mentions about how these had built in copy protection
support to prevent unauthorised copying of music and other copyrighted
work. However, even though quite a lot of portable audio and video devices support SD cards, I am not aware of any portable devices that make use of DRM within the card itself. Should some new legislation mandate the support for DRM in hard drives, it is unlikely going to be of much use, unless the devices that use these hard drives make use of DRM at the HD level.
Source: Toms Hardware Guide
