DVDs soon to require hardware activation through embedded electro-optic films
By George Gardner
With today’s anti-theft devices such as magnetic sensors, restrictive packaging, locking display cases, and close loop wired alarms, the cost of electronic and digital media theft prevention ultimately comes from the consumer’s pocket; the industry needs an answer.
NXP Semiconductors, founded by Philips, and Kestrel Wireless have teamed up to provide a unique solution to this problem, as they’re currently in talks with Hollywood studios to offer a device which will virtually eliminate DVD theft.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars from retailers, manufacturers and, indirectly, consumers are spent each year in order to prevent theft,” said Christopher Duverne, senior vice president and general manager, Identification, NXP Semiconductors. “This collaboration with Kestrel has the potential to dramatically reduce and ultimately eradicate the theft of optical media and consumer electronics in the retail supply chain.”
The proposed solution involves using NXP’s radio frequency identification chip (RFID) technology to disable DVD’s after they are manufactured; this process uses electro-optic films to make the discs, regardless of format, unreadable.
Kestrel Wireless’ Radio Frequency Activation (RFA) solution then enables the DVD at the point of sale. The result is a DVD that simply cannot be played until it’s paid for, thereby eliminating incentive for theft.
Although the first uses of NXP and Kestrel’s solution will be used on optical media, not limited to CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray Discs, the technology can also be applied to many consumer electronic products such as electric shavers, flat screen TVs, USB flash drives, MP3 players, ink jet cartridges, and even electronic toothbrushes.
“We are excited by the promise of these types of solutions. DVD and video game theft is a problem that has gone on far too long and at a cost of millions of dollars annually. Where solutions include more environmentally and consumer friendly packaging, improve merchandising with more shelf space for discs, and reduce the cost of returns – these are the ingredients for solutions that will greatly enhance everyone’s business,” said Bo Andersen, president of the Entertainment Merchants Association.
Their method is designed for minimal disruption to existing retailer’s Point-of-Sale systems as chips are embedded throughout the manufacturing process in specific areas of electronic goods that will prohibit the operation of the device until activation.
At the point-of-sale, the chip is scanned and the information is then sent to Kestrel’s network for authentication. The network sends back a unique code to disable the chip upon activation.
“NXP is recognized as the leading global innovator in the field of RFID technology and it’s a pleasure to partner with such a pioneering company to develop new applications for our solutions,” said Paul Atkinson, president and CEO of Kestrel Wireless. “We believe our solution not only enriches the consumer shopping experience, we also estimate that the resulting lower cost of security for optical products presents clear benefits to manufacturers, retailers and the consumer at the same time.”
The entire process is much similar to the way software is activated on a computer; although the process vaunts higher security as it’s implemented on a hardware level.
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May 14th, 2007
And yes, we’ve never enountered a problem with activation with software, have we? I had my Vista install completely hose up because of a bad memory SDIMM that ended up corrupting part of the registry. The dialog box came up to re-activate and it said to read the following code from the 8 boxes below: ” ” (literally, it showed no codes at all).
But it begs the question: what about rentals?
Also, there are all these copy-protection methods out there now and it only dissuades customers from buying products…. pirates can easily get around all these methods after a little while.
I can’t wait for the one batch of DVDs that are defective with this chip that causes the manufacturer to have to remake the entire batch of DVDs because the chips could not be activated. Seriously, this is getting irritating…. I remember when computer game software required a code-wheel or code-sheet that you had to enter with each play of the game. If you lost the code sheet, then you could no longer play the game. Not too much of a hassle, but if you had multiple games, you needed to keep all these friggin code sheets in order to play your game. If you lost the code wheel, you were SOL because the company would not sell another one to you because they would treat you as if you stole the game. After a while, they just stopped using these copy-protection methods and removed all the protections. Guess what, they still sell these games. Is there piracy? Probably. But at least the pirates’ need to steal them is less.
Let’s just get back to making DVDs with minor CSS copy-protection and stop treating the customers as if they were theves. I don’t see how companies can stay in business treating their customers like criminals.
May 14th, 2007
I want copy dvd to give my friends that is fine. I never sell to people. I alway give free to my friends and family only! Must be unprotect dvd allow us to copy and peaceful then we should be happy. Protected DVD is not good!!! Worst
May 15th, 2007
Thats right, Lauren! I can remember having to input the second word in the first paragraph of page 32 just to play a game…. It’s funny how I forget all about that stuff. Thanks for the refresher! :)