Posted on 05/31/2007 1:14:33 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
Canadian encryption vendor Certicom yesterday filed a wide-ranging lawsuit against Sony, claiming that many of the products offered by the electronics giant infringe on two Certicom patents. This might sound like business as usual until you realize what's being targeted: AACS and (by extension) the PlayStation 3.
Certicom has done extensive work in elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), and the patents in question build on this work. The patents have already been licensed by groups like the US National Security Agency, which paid $25 million back in 2003 for the right to use 26 Certicom patents, including the two in the Sony case. Now, Certicom wants Sony to pay up, claiming that encryption present in several key Sony technologies violates Certicom patents on "Strengthened public key protocol" and "Digital signatures on a Smartcard."
The biggest charge is that the encryption in AACS itself is infringing. The practical implications of this claim are huge; AACS is included in Sony's Blu-ray players, PlayStation 3, and Blu-ray and PS3 discs. Certicom says Sony needs to take out a license for all of these uses.
In addition, the company claims that the Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP) scheme is also infringing, and it seeks damages for every Sony i.LINK (IEEE 1394) implementation that uses DTCP and every Sony product that uses DTCP-IP. This includes all VAIO computers with i.LINK ports along with a whole host of Sony TVs and a few DVD players; one home theater receiver is even on the list.
This certainly could be bad news for Sony. If there's one thing that the company doesn't want to see, it's a cost increase for PS3 manufacturing. But the bigger story is that Certicom has the potential to go after every product that uses AACS, including HD DVD and Blu-ray discs and drives from many of the deepest-pocketed companies in the business.
Ping...
Might be of interest to the list...
This looks like a gold mine, Certicom is already a partner of Sony-Ericsson mobile division, and Certicom has contracts with the NSA for this patent, meaning even if the patenting of algorithms is rejected through the judicial process, these particular patents are going to be well defended.
that actually would be a good standard.
they should have to actually USE the patent they claim. not just make vague patent ideas and sit around like some drunk riverside fisherman hoping to grab a big fish.
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It would be more than poetic, as I see it, that the AACS-LA, which has lawyers up the wazoo and has made every attempt to separate legitimate, paying customer from historical, vestigial Fair Use and ownership rights, ostensibly to protect the valuable property of its members, would finally be hoisted by its own petard. That is, be strung up by a judge and/or jury that may see that AACS has been infringing on technology legitimately belonging to others.
In other words, AACS should have realized it needed to keep its nose clean better than anyone else on the block, and having apparently been sloppy in managing their own process, now they may have to experience the addage: payback's a bitch.
Assuming nothing no major glitches are identified on the Certicom side, I see no choice but for AACS to pay up, pay up now, and pay up big! If they don't, they risk an injunction that could completely stop Blu-Ray, PS3, HD-DVD, part of X-Box 360, and other companies' various high definition players and lots of polycarbonate disk sales, which yet need to gain critical mass support from its potential recurrent customers.
If customers see some manner of effective take-down by Certicom, such as an injunction against further Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and PS3 sales, a whole lot of electronics in warehouses stand to go the way of D-VHS, Betamax, DVD-A, DAT recorders and LaserDisc players--not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars these companies have invested in AACS-related R&D, lawyering and promotional propaganda.
If such happens, watch out for the newly patent-licensing-in-a-row EVD players from China, which already can do high def, to take over the marketplace.
Thankfully, high definition video technology is in no way dependent on the AACS toll-booth system. AVC can handle the ultimate video quality, even on DVD-9-sized disks, the same ones that run on EVD players.
HF
One second review, this doesn’t look like a gold mine. http://www.google.com/patents?as_q=elliptic+curve+cryptography&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_pnum=&as_vt=&as_pinvent=&as_pasgnee=Matsushita&as_pusc=&as_pintlc=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2007&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=2007&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=1&as_miny_ap=2007&as_maxm_ap=1&as_maxy_ap=2007
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic), a member of AACS LA, has earlier patents on Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Certicom is in for a long litigation journey it seems.
Well AACS is more than just Sony. An injuction would screw HD DVD as it’s their sole encryption method. Blu-ray would take a hit but they have BD+ spooled up and ready to roll sometime this summer.
"Hiccups" could cause things to go quickly south for the AACS'ers.
HF
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