A year after launch the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) has unveiled initial technical specifications – now branded ‘Ultraviolet’.
Ultraviolet’s major backers are the Hollywood studios, who hope to fight piracy by enabling users to legitimately access content on multiple devices. Ultraviolet’s membership list now encompasses 62 companies including high-profile UK players such as BSkyB, BT, Filmflex, Lovefilm, NDS, and Red Bee Media.
The Ultraviolet technology is based on the use of a common file format for digital content distribution controlled by a cloud-based authentication and account management hub using multiple content protection technologies. It will become available in the UK and Canada later this year (2011).
However, the creation of interoperable systems such as these is challenging from a security stand-point. In a traditional, vertically-integrated pay-TV set-up, the players in the chain each assume well-defined responsibilities and liabilities: in general, the operator is held responsible by the rights-holder for end-to-end security, the security vendor held responsible by the operator for any security breaches, and the CPE vendor held responsible by the security vendor for the robustness of its hardware.
This system works because of the tight control exercised by the operator over the platform and the fact that there exist only a limited number of implementations to test and maintain. But in a horizontal retail market with multiple devices and DRMs the model is more complicated: the chain of responsibility actually becomes a set of discrete responsibilities, with no clear stakeholder for the end-to-end platform security.
Being able to buy a movie once and watch it on any Ultraviolet device anytime, anywhere, will certainly be an attractive value proposition to consumers – but Ultraviolet implementation faces significant technical hurdles, including the content security risk, which should not be underestimated.
To find out more about Farncombe’s content security expertise, please contact Lara Lerville at Farncombe’s Paris office.
But will the buy once, use everywhere model that is otherwise only available without DRM, allow the creation of new entrants into the downloadable/streaming content market? This is needed to increase competition so that we have more of a High/Main street model for video purchase and rental? Or is it that content owners want to push today’s almost exclusive model?
It’s a massive can of worms; I’m curious to see how it pans out (technically). The Ultraviolet marketing guys are promising the world with this and have left a load of frustrated engineers and lawyers in their wake I imagine.
Bespoke hardware is out of the question – that is the preserve of operator kit that is locked down to the whims of the security vendor.
It will probably boil down to some sort of software kernel, and it is only a matter of time before it gets compromised on some device or other.
However, as a consumer, I live in hope
There’s a big issue with the UltraViolet business model too. One of the advantages touted by UltraViolet is the buy once and then download from anywhere and/or get a Blu-Ray physical copy. So, if someone buys the rights from a cable or satellite operator, what happens when they go to get their Blu-Ray copy later (from some physical copy retailer like Amazon), or want to get another download, from a different pay TV operator – who meets the bill in these cases and how do the later participants in this value chain get any revenue out of it? It seems like a potential business nightmare to me.
http://www.str3em.com is responsible. I think the ultraviolet group is licensing it from those guys.
UltraViolet turns out not to be the much-touted ‘buy once, use everywhere” model. A DECE spokesperson revealed at PEVE, and only in response to a question, that it is in fact a 12-month contract! The UV’s USP is disappearing fast. Check my story on http://www.dvd-intelligence.com/display-article.php?article=1483