23 January 2000
To allow for protected transmission of copy-protected material between digital devices like PC's, DVD Players, and Digital TV's, five companies -- Hitachi, Intel, Matsushita (MEI), Sony and Toshiba have prepared the "5C" Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP) specification.
The DTCP specification defines a cryptographic protocol for protecting audio/video entertainment content from illegal copying, intercepting and tampering as it traverses high performance digital buses, such as the IEEE 1394 standard. Only legitimate entertainment content delivered to a source device via another approved copy protection system (such as the DVD Content Scrambling System) will be protected by this copy protection system.
The DTCP specification relies on strong cryptographic technologies to provide flexible and robust copy protection across digital buses. These cryptographic techniques have evolved over the past 20 years to serve critical military, governmental and commercial applications.
These techniques have been thoroughly evaluated by hackers and by legitimate cryptographic experts and have proven their ability to withstand attack. The cryptographic stability of the system is derived from the proven strength of the underlying technologies, rather than merely how well a certain algorithm can be kept secret.
More on the specification at:
http://www.dtcp.com/
And a great deal more on MPAA/DVD CCA's "related" organizations:
From: http://www.mpaa.org:80/relatedsites/
International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA)Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator (DTLA)
NDS / Content Management Protection (CMP)
United States Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for Business Affairs
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Copy Protection Technology Working Group (CPTWG)
Online Privacy Alliance (OPA)
International Recording Media Association (IRMA)
For those interested in cryptography, law and license enforcement the Copy Protection Technology Working Group (CPTWG) site is especially worth study.