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DRM and the Potential Effects for 3PSPs
by Bryant Underwood, Foxconnn
Reverse Logistics Magazine, March/April 2007
There are a number of interesting trends going on in the market place that will be critical for anyone in the Reverse Logistics Supply Chain for computing products to know. In fact, these trends will likely affect all RL 3PSPs that support any product that even touches computing. This easily extends to:
- Interface cards
- Monitors
- LCD/DLP Projectors
- Or even 5.1/7.1 high end audio systems
You already are at least somewhat aware of the various implementations of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and the issues and opportunities that surround the success of products based on a given implementation. For example, the brilliant implementation that we see with Apple with iTunes is a big reason for the success of the iPod.
With the release of Microsoft’s latest OS, Vista a very complex and robust DMR suite has been implemented. The capabilities and functionality of DRM in Vista and its risk to RL is a topic that most operations or engineering managers are not yet aware. Let’s start off with a couple of new terms:
- COPP (Certified Output Protection Protocol)
- PVP-OPM (Protected Video Path -Output Protection Management)
From the wording of these phrases you have a glimpse at the possible outcomes.
Imagine this scenario, as a good early adopter you upgrade your media center PC with a new PC with Vista as the OS and include both an HD and Blue-Ray Player. You plug this into your HDMI or component-enabled LCD/DLP projector and route the S/PDIF output to your high end 2000 watt Dolby 7.1 surround sound system. Ready to enjoy the fruit of your labor, you settle back and load a HiDef DVD which has “Premium Content.” Clearly you are now ready to have a state-of-the-art entertainment experience-right? Wrong - what is likely to happen is this.
Since the S/PDIF output does not provide content protection, Vista will turn off the sound. That high end sound system is now just 2000 watts of silence. The same fate is possible for the projector or even your new giant HiDef Plasma monitor. It could very well be just blank screen. If the projector does display anything it will be from a process that ‘reduces image quality’ and then up-converts the data stream back to look like HiDef data that will be lightly ‘fuzzy.’ All of this is to prevent bit-for-bit copying of the content and to ensure rights are traceable and controlled by the content owner…
As a 3PSP with call center support or a distribution center for evaluating and sorting of the computing products you can well imagine the rate that products could be returned based on DRM performance confusion and then be determined to be true NTFs.
All of this is because the new requirements for DRM need technology and encryption that must be robust. To accomplish this need, the new DRM suite has functional requirements that extend all the way into the very bus structures of cards and devices. I do not want to get too technical here but you need to get a flavor for what is going on to get a sense of the RL/Service implications.
Let’s look at a few examples. There is a standard called AES-128. The new DRM suite loaded into Vista requires that all traffic going to the video card be encrypted with an asymmetrical encryption protocol using a 2048 bit RSA key for every 40 byte chunk of video data. The effect of this is massive processor load. Some estimates indicate that 20 clock cycles are needed for every byte of video data!
Then there are the ‘tilt bits.’ Vista’s DRM requires that every device report a status called a tilt bit. These alerts monitor any ‘glitches’ and report the event to the OS. Depending on the output of the bits the OS might change the resolution of the output to match the copyright license requirement or even reboot the video subsystem in extreme cases. Can you imagine the average call center or employee at a big box store responding to a typical end-user type complaint, “…the video just got fuzzy in the middle of the movie?”
As you might imagine, when the OS based DRM does work with current or minimal processing power, instability is a high risk. Add to the mix the real world situation that the average PC has 6-20 instances of spyware running and you have a situation where end users could easily become overwhelmed by the systems functionality and then dissatisfied with the performance.
If you ask any Client of an RL 3PSP what they hold as the ‘holy grail’ of information it is this-“what are the issues driving my NTF (no trouble found) returns?”...
Requirements for OS based DRM capabilities are taking the root drivers for NTF product returns to whole new levels. It is critical that 3PSPs engage now with their Clients to build staff training, end-user question scripts and screening tests that can highlight real NTFs from those based on implementations of DRM suites that are performing properly.
There is still time to prepare because “premium content” is not widely distributed. That is all changing ,and changing fast. In addition, the Feb/09 drop dead date for analog TV broadcasts to shutdown will speed the movement toward more and more ‘premium content.’ Preparing now is critical to providing sustaining value to Clients and protecting the success of the RL solutions.
If you found this article interesting, let me know. There is a great deal more going on here than might first appear. The scale of which involves: Linux, HP, Apple and Wal-Mart.
