Software alone can"t stop digital piracy, researchers said this week, emphasizing that only a totally secured infrastructure has a chance to eliminate the problem.
The recommendations come as opposition builds against a proposed bill that would force hardware makers to add anti-copying features to MP3 players and other devices. Although legislators and device makers both see a need for a hardware solution to securing digital content, the groups are at odds over the government"s efforts to regulate such technology.
"Every single device has to be secure," said Darko Kirovski, a researcher studying watermarking and security technologies at Microsoft Research. "If one device is not secure, then this (digital content protection) doesn"t work."
Kirovski"s comments underscore the enormous difficulties facing the consumer electronics and entertainment industries, which have been struggling for years to agree on anti-piracy standards. Now a legislative backlash against hardware makers is gathering force that could further polarize the two sides.
On Thursday, Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., introduced the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which mandates that devices handling digital content have an industry standard means of protecting that content from piracy.
Previously known as the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, the draft legislation has been widely criticized. Some technology companies say it meddles in the development of digital content distribution; civil-rights advocates contend it breaks the balance between the rights legally given to copyright holders and citizens" rights to information.