Microsoft Rethinks Copy Protection Scheme

Windows XP Media Center Edition, which is to be installed on a new line of Hewlett-Packard Co. personal computers later this year, would have encrypted recordings so that they could only be played on the PC that recorded the program.

After details of Microsoft's original plan emerged last month, consumer advocates criticized the system as being more restrictive than traditional technology such as videotape recorders, which let viewers make personal copies of TV shows and watch them on any set.

Now, consumers will be able to burn recorded programs onto DVDs to watch on other computers and, by the end of the year, on standalone players, said Murari Narayan, a product marketing director at Microsoft.

The recordings also will be transferrable over the Internet, though that would not be easy given the size of most video files.

"We have to make sure we enable a very good consumer out-of-the-box experience," he said.

The software still will support the Copy Generation Management System, which, if restrictions were encoded into a broadcast, would bar the sharing of a DVD recording, Narayan said. He said less than 1 percent of all broadcast content is encoded with CGMS restrictions.

"We take feedback from partners, customers, press and analysts very seriously," he said. "We heard loud and clear that we have to enable consumer choice."

Frightened by the free-for-all of the late music-swapping Napster service, Hollywood studios and other copyright holders have been pressuring Silicon Valley to create mechanisms for protecting intellectual property.

But Microsoft's original plan is more like the existing experience with home-recorded videos, said Scott Dinsdale, executive vice president of digital strategy for the Motion Picture Association of America.

He said the new plan will open the door to piracy.

"If I have a copy that's digitally encoded on Microsoft's platform, I can then take that and send it out over the Internet to my 10,000 favorite friends," he said. "I would not call that equaling the current consumer experience."

HP applauded Microsoft's decision.

"We think this is definitely a step in the right direction for the consumer because it gives our customers greater flexibility in how they'll be able to manage their digital content," said Tiffany Smith, an HP spokeswoman.

HP's Media Center PCs, which will hit store shelves later this year, will range in price from $1,500 to $2,000.

HP faces competition from Sony, which has announced its own media-focused systems that will not bar the transfer of programs recorded onto its hard drive.

"Obviously, there was a lot of feedback in the industry about it. You saw it everywhere," Smith said. "I'm sure some of that was taken into consideration."

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