Digital Transmission Content Protection, or DTCP, is a digital rights management (DRM) technology that aims to restrict "digital home" technologies including DVD players and televisions by encrypting interconnections between devices. In theory this allows the content to be distributed through other devices such as personal computers or portable media players, if they also implement the DTCP standards. DTCP has also been referred to as "5C" content protection, a reference to the five companies who created DTCP; Hitachi, Intel, Matsushita, Sony, and Toshiba.
The standard was originally proposed in February 1998 when the five companies presented the system to the Copy Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG), an ad-hoc body organized to evaluate DRM technologies. The five companies subsequently established the Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator (DTLA) in June 1998 to simplify licensing procedures and promote acceptance of the DTCP method by content providers, electronics manufacturers, and broadcast service providers. They also released the 5C Digital Transmission Content Protection White Paper describing the system. The paper specifies Hitachi's M6 cipher as the baseline encryption system, which was already in widespread use in the Japanese cable industry.
At the time, FireWire was widely regarded as the up-and-coming standard for interconnecting media devices, although this has not been widely adopted in the decade following. More recently there appears to be a move to using TCP/IP carried on high-speed ethernet and WiFi connections to replace FireWire and similar systems, a move epitomized by the Apple TV. The DTCP standard has branched out to cover a variety of media types to respond to these industry changes, and now supports USB, IP, WiFi, Bluetooth and MOST (a media standard for automotive platforms) in addition to FireWire.
DTCP specification is proprietary and is only disseminated to members, who agree to the DTLA agreements (some fees need to be paid to even get the specification). An "informational version" of the specification, omitting some critical details of the implementation, is freely available.
Read more about Digital Transmission Content Protection: DTCP+
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