Widevine Technologies Inc., a leader in conditional access and digital rights management, is returning to its roots with the introduction of a content protection solution for the PC. Of course, ensuring content delivered via the PC is not pirated is of key importance as more service providers move to offer broadcast and on-demand video services to PC endpoints.
The new product, Widevine Cypher Digital Copy Protection (Cypher DCP), is an entirely new line from the company’s existing CA/DRM tools for TV-based video, said CEO Brian Baker. Securing content delivered over PCs is unique from securing video delivered via set-top boxes because PCs are open systems, so content needs to be secured even after decryption, he said.
Cypher DCP, which includes software at the headend and the PC, employs pattern recognition technology and monitors the PC to detect certain characteristics a PC exhibits when it is manipulating content post-decryption, Baker explained.
Baker said Widevine’s service provider customers have been asking it for a way to secure content delivered via the PC. Widevine – in which Cisco Systems Inc. and Canadian telco TELUS each have a stake – counts Taiwan’s state-owned ChungHwa Telecom Co. Ltd., which has one of the largest IPTV deployments in the world, as one of its customers.
The company also has announced contracts with Arvig Communications of Detroit Lakes, Minn.; SaskTel of Canada; UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency); and others.
In addition to cable companies and telcos getting interested in offering video to the PC, Baker added that on-line giants like Amazon, Google and Yahoo! also are getting into video services, “and want to rely upon a company that’s not Microsoft,” for security. So that was also a driver for Widevine to develop this product, he said, adding that all the major motion picture studios like the Cypher DCP solution.
Widevine got its start in the late 90s delivering a PC-based content security solution, but ended up focusing on TV/set-top box-based content security instead since Internet-based video didn’t catch fire at that time, said Baker. Now Widevine can leverage that legacy knowledge with Cypher DCP, he added.
Widevine Technologies Inc. www.widevine.com
