Subj : Whose Hard Drive Is It Anyway?
To   : All
From : August Abolins
Date : Mon Feb 05 2001 03:32 pm

Whose Hard Drive Is It Anyway? 
 
Plan could limit what you can do with data.

Tom Mainelli and Anush Yegyazarian
From the March 2001 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Tuesday, January 30, 2001

Hollywood wants a piece of your hard drive. 

An obscure proposal now pending before a technology standards committee could 
lay the groundwork for manufacturers to include content-protection capabilities 
on your next hard drive. 

A group called the 4C Entity is pushing the content-protection plan. Composed 
of industry heavyweights IBM, Intel, Matsushita Electronic, and Toshiba, the 
group asked a subcommittee of the National Committee for Information Technology 
Standards (NCITS) to incorporate new code into the next ATA standard. 

The ATA standard dictates the way a PC communicates with its hard drives and 
other storage devices, and this code would enable copy-protection features like 
the 4C Entity's Content Protection for Recordable Media. CPRM is an encryption 
and key-management technology that prevents unauthorized copying of protected 
content. 

Opponents contend that the plan will lead to content protection on hard drives, 
limiting how you can use your PC by curtailing the exchange of digital audio, 
video, and information. Some claim it is the first step toward the end of free 
content on the Web. They argue that the strategy plays directly into the hands 
of greedy music companies and movie studios, and that it could even hinder 
basic tasks such as hard drive backups. 

"There is a lot that is bad for everyone whenever use of content is carefully 
metered and controlled," says Brad Templeton, chairman of the board of the 
Electronic Frontier Foundation, a free-speech advocacy group. 

"Once this technology is in, you could use it on everything," he notes. That 
could lead to a day when content companies allow downloads only onto secured 
drives, which would fundamentally change the Net, he says, and how people use 
it to exchange information. 

Proponents ridicule such claims and argue that the proposal has nothing to do 
with hard drives or limiting the function of PCs. They say that the plan 
involves only removable storage media such as flash storage and IBM 
Microdrives--and that it won't touch regular files. "The scenario [that 
opponents] put forth is hilarious," says Intel spokesperson Manny Vara. 

Which side's claims are valid? As we go to press, it's hard to say. The 
co-inventor of the plan, IBM's Jeff Lotspiech, declined repeated requests for 
an interview, and hard drive vendors remain silent. However, Lotspiech and 
others in the 4C Entity have been working on a paper that should be viewable by 
the time you read this. A draft version of the document obtained by PC World 
appears to support both sides of the argument.  (see 
http://4centity.com/4centity)

Mixed Signals

The proposed changes to the next edition of the ATA standard would not 
introduce the encryption technology itself into the storage media, but would 
add code that lets device manufacturers incorporate CPRM (for a fee) or other 
types of content protection during production. 

The draft version of the 4C Entity's document that PC World obtained states 
repeatedly that CPRM is not intended for hard drives. However, a sentence in 
the document indicates that the group had indeed discussed this possibility: 
"We did consider fixed hard drives in the technical group and some of our 
design decisions anticipated that." 

This statement seems to indicate that the 4C Entity reversed its 
position--perhaps in response to growing protest against the standard. 

Andre Hendrick, a storage-industry consultant on the subcommittee--called 
T13--was the first to object, he says. While he missed the initial proposal 
meeting, and later discussions omitted talk of hard drives, Hendrick says he 
felt that that use was implied. 

Despite the 4C Entity's claims to the contrary, Hendrick also contends that 
CPRM content could cause backup problems for users and might even require new 
utilities. He is pushing to have a disable feature included if the T13 
subcommittee accepts the standard, he says. 

Questions Linger

You can expect questions about this issue to persist for months, says Kate 
McMillan, director of the NCITS Secretariat. The new ATA standard will not be 
finalized for quite some time, she explains. 

The T13 subcommittee may approve the standard at its February 20 meeting, but 
then must make it available for public review for at least 45 days so opponents 
and supporters can voice their opinions. "I'm sure we're going to get some 
comments," McMillan says. 



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