Throughout the development
of Windows XP Media Center Edition (XP MCE, see my
review
for more information), Microsoft said that the system's
digital video recording (DVR) capabilities could not be
used to copy content from the media center PC to another
system, either by DVD or across a home network. However,
Microsoft noted, consumers could indeed backup their
digitally recorded shows, though the content could only
be played back on the same media center PC. The
reasoning was simple: If the company allowed consumers
to make perfect digital copies of TV shows, HBO movies,
pay-per-view events, and other copyrighted content, it
might be held legally liable by the television networks
and other content providers.
In early October 2002, however, the company reversed
course, based on feedback from its customers, partners,
and even the television industry, the latter of which
has a hidden ace up its sleeve regarding copy-protected
TV shows (more on that later). So now it's possible to
backup, copy, and share content you record with XP MCE.
In this showcase, I'll explain how, but first, let's
take a look at some of the issues that surrounding
Microsoft's capitulation.
Of
DRM, copy-protection, and fair use
Concerns
about Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology and
consumer's so-called fair use rights is reaching an
all-time high as I write this, even as the US Congress
and Supreme Court debate related issues such as
copyright extensions and time limits. The current law is
based on a 1979 court case, in which movie companies
such as Universal and Disney sued Sony in an effort to
have Sony's Betamax VCR removed from stores because of
piracy concerns. However, in 1984, the US Supreme Court
ruled that home taping of broadcast television shows
constituted "fair use" and that such activity was not a
violation of the network's exclusive content
reproduction rights.
This decision wasn't a slam dunk, however, and the law
barely made it through the Supreme Court. First, the
main argument brought forward in the case concerned
"time shifting," in which VCRs were used primarily as
ways to watch TV shows at different times, not as
vehicles for sharing or distributing copyrighted
content. Also, the court considered the purpose of these
recording, which were obviously made solely for personal
use. Thus, Universal and Disney were unable to show that
giving consumers the ability to time shift content would
harm the companies financially. But then, consumers in
the early 1980's also couldn't make perfect digital
copies of content and distribute them on a global
network, as we can today. I suspect the companies could
offer a more successful argument today, as the recording
industry did during its recent legal slap down of
Napster; that company entered into bankruptcy this year
thanks to its resounding losses in court.
More important, legal experts say that the Supreme
Court's decision dramatically changed the legal
definition of fair use at the time, and that most legal
scholars of the day felt that home videotaping was, in
fact, not fair use. As noted by Fred von Lohmann, the
Senior Intellectual Property Attorney for the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, the Supreme Court's decision to
allow people to copy entire copy protected works was
unprecedented. In fact, US Solicitor General Theodore B.
Olson, testifying before the Supreme Court just this
week, said that a 1998 law extending copyrights another
20 years "favors the [content] creator, as opposed to
the person who wants to copy. That is an entirely
rational choice for Congress to make." In other words,
the rights of content creators supercede the rights of
those who wish to copy content for their own use.
In the 1979 court case, the movie companies asked the
court to require Sony to include a chip in its VCRs that
would detect a "no copy" signal handed down by protected
television broadcasts. However, the technology to enable
this feature was prohibitively expensive at the time,
and von Lohmann notes that, had it been available, the
Supreme Court would never have been forced to change
fair use laws. Not surprisingly, that technology is
available, and in use by TV networks, today. For that
and some of the other reasons I mention above, I expect
fair use laws to be addressed again by the courts. It
could happen soon.
No matter. The law, as it stands today, basically says
that consumers have the right to make copies of
purchased content for personal use. Consumers have been
making custom "mix" cassette tapes for decades, and
taping TV shows and movies on TV, as a result. However,
with a modern PC and a broadband Internet connection,
consumers can also make perfect digital copies of audio
CDs, movies, and other content, and distribute it
illegally to friends and family. And content creators in
Hollywood have been slow to embrace the Internet,
because of fears that users will steal their content,
share it with others, and drive movie, TV, and music
companies out of business. Last year, for the first
time, the music industry made less money than it did the
year before: The industry blames Internet-based music
piracy for this loss of revenues.
To counter Hollywood's reluctance to embrace new
technologies, Microsoft and many other companies have
created various types of Digital Rights Management (DRM)
solutions, which are designed to protect copyrighted
content from digital theft, while providing consumers
with varying degrees of freedom regarding copying that
content to other devices and media. DRM is entirely up
to the content creator (or the content distributor, as
is more often the case). For example, the company
selling a digital version of Peter Gabriel's latest
recording online allows consumers to backup the
recording, copy it to a portable digital device, and
make two CD copies. This is fairly generous, though
other content might have more, or fewer, restrictions. I
suspect consumers will gravitate toward content that
doesn't impose draconian restrictions, letting the
market decide which content is popular.
Regarding Windows XP Media Center Edition, it is
possible with this new operating system to make perfect
digital copies of TV shows. These shows run the gamut
from network television programming, such as the NBC
schlock like "Friends" and "Will and Grace," to
Hollywood movies on HBO and pay-per-view events. Under
the original scheme, Microsoft would have allowed
consumers to record any show their TV system was capable
of displaying, store those shows on the local hard
drive, and back them up to recordable DVD or across the
network to another PC. What was restricted, however, was
sharing. Previously, XP MCE users would be unable to
burn a copy of "Friends" and give it to another person,
or even play it back on another one of their own PCs.
Because the content was protected by DRM, it wouldn't
play back on any system but the media center PC on which
it was recorded.
Well, that's all changed, and I'll jump off the soapbox.
Let's take a look at what's possible in the final,
shipping version of XP MCE.
Changes to
Windows XP Media Center Edition
In a
briefing this week, Microsoft's Tom Laemmel told me that
the company opted to drop the DRM requirements in XP MCE
in response to feedback from its customers, partners and
the industry. "This change will enable greater choice to
consumers in how they enjoy their Windows XP Media
Center Edition recorded TV programming," a company
release notes, "while also providing greater flexibility
to broadcasters in specifying the intended use of their
programs by consumers."
Instead of DRM, XP MCE will rely solely on a technology
called CGMS-A (copy generation management
system/analog), which is employed today by all major TV
networks. This technology describes the intended usage
for analog TV broadcasted content and allows Media
Center Edition to apply the appropriate content
protection during recording. If content is described as
"protected" by CGMS-A, the original Media Center
recording restrictions apply, and the user can record,
watch, and backup the content on their media center PC
but not distribute it to others or watch that content on
another system. However, because 99 percent of all
television content broadcasted today does not utilize
CGMS-A protection, most content recorded by XP MCE can,
in fact, be shared. Laemmel notes that pay-per-view
events and other similar content is more likely to be
protected in the future.
The interesting thing
here, of course, is that by relying solely on CGMS-A for
content protection, Microsoft is moving the
responsibility for intellectual property theft from
itself to the TV networks: If the networks don't want
users stealing content, then its up to them to protect
that content using existing CGMS-A technology. It's a
tidy solution.
Because recorded TV shows are stored in the Windows file
system as normal data files, it's possible to copy
those files (which can be found in C:\Documents and
Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV by default) to
recordable DVD or another PC over the network, and then
watch them on other devices. Those devices can be
another media center PC, a "normal" PC running Windows
XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Media Player 9 (WMP
9), or any consumer DVD player (beginning in December;
Microsoft will supply an XP MCE via Windows Update to
make this latter option possible).
If you copy recorded TV content to another media center
PC, the behavior will be identical to that experienced
on the original PC; when you double-click on the file's
icon, the Media Center application will launch, and the
recorded TV show will play. If you copy the recorded TV
show to a Windows XP SP1 machine, and double-click on
the file's icon, WMP 9 will launch and the recorded TV
show will play inside WMP 9. For DVD players, Laemmel
told me that users would be able to simply copy the
content to recordable DVD, stick the DVD in the player,
and watch the content on TV, as you would normally with
any DVD movie. I will test this scenario when the final
shipping version of HP's media center PC arrives later
this month.
In fact, I'm eager to test many aspects of this change.
I can imagine recording TV shows before going on a
business trip, copying the content to my laptop, and
then watching the shows during the flights. It's an
exciting change, one that makes the media center PC
instantly more valuable to customers.
But how will you know?
One issue I brought up about the changes to XP MCE's
copy protection functionality was, how will you know
whether a show that you're recording is protected? It
would be aggravating to spend the time writing a show to
DVD only to discover later on that you can't view it on
another PC or DVD player. Laemmel suggested that the
icons used to represented protected TV shows might be
displayed in a different color (perhaps red; the current
icons are green), but admitted that the company should
do something to warn users ahead of time. I suggested
throwing up a dialog when the recording was initiated,
but of course, many recordings occur when no user is
present. Perhaps this issue won't be addressed
seamlessly until DVD writing is integrated into Windows
in the Longhorn timeframe. Then, the system could simply
warn you before you attempted to burn protected content.
We'll see what happens.
Waiting on
the hardware
I'm still waiting on the final HP
hardware, which will include a recordable DVD drive and
the XP MCE version that allows for freely copying
recorded content. When
I receive this hardware, I'll expand this showcase with
step-by-step information about backing up, copying, and
sharing digitally recorded TV shows. See you then!