The Anti-Piracy and Content Protection Summit in Los Angeles had a number of interesting speakers several week ago. Stephens has revealed his wish-list for future 4K content protection with Sony just confirming that its new 4K player will debut in weeks. The Sony CTO says that 4K players should have an Internet connection in order authenticate each video playback, in addition to watermarking files with the identity of the user.

Earlier this year, Sony declared its new FMP-X1 4K radical HD Media Player in preparation for transportation the best quality video obtainable into homes round the world. 4K video can bring a resolution of 3840 × 2160 to the market, with the 4K referencing the almost-4000 constituent horizontal resolution.

Just in the week Sony confirmed that its new device, that is simply compatible with Sony’s own 4K TVs, are going to be inward in homes from Gregorian calendar month fifteenth . Priced at $699, the player would force activation via the 4KActivation.com web site.

Sony conjointly named its new on-line 4K content distribution service that is owing to launch later within the year. Video Unlimited 4K can provide movies and television shows for direct transfer to its 4K player.

How the studios shall shield their 4K content from piracy going forward has not been publically printed. However, throughout last week’s Anti-Piracy and Content Protection Summit in la, Sony footage CTO Herbert Spencer Stephens gave a presentation including his company’s wish-list for 4K DRM.

Bill Rosenblatt, UN agency spoke at the summit for his company GiantSteps Media, notes that Stephens represented the introduction of 4K as a chance to begin with a contemporary anti-piracy style. This, beside Sony’s “wish-list”, suggests that the ultimate approach is nevertheless to be in agreement.

Nevertheless, at this stage Sony seems to be clear on its DRM needs. though fairly sure, they aren’t attending to win them several fans.

After the disreputable cracking of HDCP, Sony is backing HDCP two.2 (spec here, pdf) to safeguard the digital outputs of its devices from unauthorized video capture. HDCP 2.2 conjointly includes a ‘localization‘ feature, that limits the space over that Associate in Nursing HDCP player can feed content to a receiver like a TV. this could stop individuals taking part in HDCP-protected content over the net.

Next, Sony wants every video title to be unique, meaning that the cracking of one segment of content doesn’t open up the floodgates to everything else. The company additionally wants video playback to round place in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), ensuring that sensitive data is processed and protected in a secure manner while allowing software upgrades.

And now the intrusive stuff. Sony says it wants 4K content to be watermarked all over the identity of the equipment or user who downloaded it, meaning that should the above countermeasures become cracked at some point, it will be possible to trace content back to its original owner. It won’t certainly follow that those individuals are obligated for any ‘leak’ but they could often associated with that content if it should.

Of particular use given all the fuss over Xbox One’s past requirement to be attached to the Internet on a daily basis (and Sony’s response of needing no such thing for PS4), is Sony’s final wish-list item for 4K. If the company has its way, all 4K players will need to verify themselves online before each and every playback. This will enable content providers to identify both unauthorized content and hacked players. However, if you are a legitimate customer with no Internet connection – permanently or temporarily – content will not play on your 4K device.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that content providers are viewing the Internet as a means to remain in constant contact with ‘their’ hardware and content wherever it may be. Going forward that will provide an unprecedented level of control. At least, that’s the plan.