Sony Pictures CTO, Spencer Stephens, was speaking to the Anti-Piracy and Content Protection Summit in Los Angeles last week, and provided some insights into Sony's plans for future video protection schemes. Two basic ideas came across clearly: players should be connected to the internet and individual copies of video should contain watermarks to identify those who purchase them.
Sony is releasing a new media player, the FMP-X1 4K Ultra HD, which should be arriving at stores on July 15th. This player will only be compatible with Sony 4k televisions, and it will require that you activate the machine at the 4KActivation.com website. Sony has also announced a new service, a website where you can purchase or rent 4k movies to play through your new media player and Sony TV. This site will be called Video Unlimited 4K and should launch sometime later this year.
Now, if you are wondering what 4k video is, you may not be alone. It is the new standard that movie producers are pushing to replace dvds and blu ray. Resolution of this new type of video is 3840 × 2160, compared to the 1920 x 1080 seen in most blu ray movies.
Returning to Sony's new proposals for DRM, we see that they are supporting a new version of HDCP, version 2.2, which will limit the distance between the player and the television. This is intended to stop long distance connections, especially over a network. Sony also wants to place a watermark on any 4k video that is downloaded, so that if it is leaked online, the person who originally downloaded it can be identified.
And one other extremely intrusive proposal from Sony is the requirement that the player must be connected to the internet in order to play back the video. It must connect to the Sony authentication site, be approved, and then it can start playing the movie. If your internet connection happens to be down at that time, it is simply too bad, because your shiny new tv and player will not work.
You can read more on the story at Torrent Freak
