[DMCA-Activists] CBDTPA Matches MS DRM OS Patent

[Jon O.]

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Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 16:06:05 -0500
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Subject: [C-FIT_Community] CBDTPA Matches MS DRM OS Patent
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http://www.linuxandmain.com/news/cbdtpa.html

CBDTPA is hand-in-glove with new Microsoft patent


The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act
proposed two weeks ago by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC)
appears to require technology patented by Microsoft
Corporation last December.

The bill requires that government-approved anti-piracy
features be included in a range of electronic devices,
including but not limited to computers. Microsoft's patent,
filed January 8, 1999 and granted December 11, 2001, covers
such technology.

Additionally, the Microsoft patent provides for processors
that would run only Microsoft software, and then only under
the control of Microsoft. The Hollings bill, S. 2048, would
provide criminal penalties for that which Microsoft's patent
seeks to prevent technologically.

The marketplace, Hollings contends, has failed to protect
itself from piracy.

"Current agreements reached in the marketplace to include
security technologies in certain digital media devices fail
to provide a secure digital environment because those
agreements do not prevent the continued use and manufacture
of digital media devices that fail to incorporate such
security technologies," the bill contends.

In its patent application, Microsoft, too, claimed
anti-piracy as its motive:

"There appear to be three solutions to this problem. One
solution is to do away with general-purpose computing
devices and use special-purpose tamper-resistant boxes for
delivery, storage, and display of secure content. This is
the approach adopted by the cable industry and their set-top
boxes, and looks set to be the model for DVD-video
presentation. The second solution is to use secret,
proprietary data formats and applications software, or to
use tamper-resistant software containers, in the hope that
the resulting complexity will substantially impede piracy.
The third solution is to modify the general-purpose computer
to support a general model of client-side content security
and digital rights management.

"This invention is directed to a system and methodology that
falls generally into the third category of solutions."

In its next paragraph, the company talks of the importance
of the computer controlling what software can be run on it:

"A fundamental building block for client-side content
security is a secure operating system. If a computer can be
booted only into an operating system that itself honors
content rights, and allows only compliant applications to
access rights-restricted data, then data integrity within
the machine can be assured. This stepping-stone to a secure
operating system is sometimes called 'Secure Boot.' If
secure boot cannot be assured, then whatever rights
management system the secure OS provides, the computer can
always be booted into an insecure operating system as a step
to compromise it."

The patent having been granted, "secure boot" technology now
must take place under license from Microsoft. And it applies
to almost any microprocessor-based device, according to the
filing:

"Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the
invention may be practiced with other computer system
configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor
systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer
electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe
computers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced
in distributed computing environments where tasks are
performed by remote processing devices that are linked
through a communications network. In a distributed computing
environment, program modules may be located in both local
and remote memory storage devices."

Microsoft's method involves assigning a public-key
encryption pair to each microprocessor, which would refuse
to run software that did not properly authenticate itself.

The Hollings bill would require that all new digital
equipment carry anti-piracy protection of the type that
Microsoft has now patented. It is chiefly aimed at propping
up the motion picture and recording industries, who claim
they are suffering due to unauthorized copying of their
digital products. On the computer software side, it would
effectively ban Linux and other free and open-source
software products. The bill provides that the government
approve whatever is the industry standard for such hardware
copy protection at the time the legislation is passed.
Microsoft has been effective in dictating standards in its
areas of interest.

Hollings, who voted in favor of campaign finance reform when
it came up for Senate vote last month, has received more
than $600,000 from the communications and electronics
industry, second only to the $1.33 million he received from
lawyers and lobbyists during the current Senatorial election
cycle, according to the authoritative Opensecrets.org.
Additionally, the television, music, and motion picture
industries have donated twice as much to Democrats in the
House and Senate as thay have to Republicans, according to
Opensecrets figures.

Political observers will not find this disparity in donation
unsurprising. Hollywood has been vocal in its support of
Democratic Party causes; indeed, the President of the Motion
Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti, served as a
special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson for media
concerns.

Co-sponsors of the Hollings bill are Sens. Ted Stevens
(R-AK), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), John Breaux (D-LA), Bill
Nelson (D-FL), and Diane Feinstein (D-CA).

To the relief of users of Linux and other free and
open-source software products, Hollings's bill seems
unlikely even to reach a Senate vote this session. Were it
to do so, its chances of House passage are dim. In remarks
addressed to an earlier version of the Hollings proposal
called the SSSCA, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), said the
Hollings legislation would be "dead on arrival," and would
not even make it through the House Judiciary Committee, on
which Issa serves. Contacted by Linux and Main in light of
the newly named bill and the Microsoft patent, a spokeswoman
for Issa said that the Congressman sees no reason to alter
his appraisal of the legislation's chances, though Issa
would additionally look at the patent issue.

The patent, with or without accompanying legislation, is
likely to provide a further stumbling block to Linux in both
PC and embedded markets, should processor makers buy in to
Microsoft-licensed encryption. The legislation, combined
with the patent, could make the situation for free and
open-source software advocates very grave indeed.

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