RFID / RFA anti-theft technology could hit optical media

Utilizing RFID technology to defuse the threat of theft isn't a fresh idea, but NXP Semiconductors and Kestrel Wireless are looking to make good on the premise by cranking out an anti-theft solution that just might appear on the next DVD you buy. By combining NXP's RFID technology with Kestral's RFA (radio frequency activation), manufacturers could install a minuscule chip on the optical media at the beginning of the supply chain which would render it unplayable, but having it scanned at a checkout counter would enable a series of authentication checks to occur and eventually unlock the media for playback. While the scenario may sound convoluted, it could allow manufacturers to skimp on bulky, restrictive packaging, and moreover, it could be applied to other items in the consumer electronics universe in order to deter thieves from trying to swipe expensive handheld gizmos. Of course, we can already envision the complaints that are sure to arise from legitimate buyers bringing home a coaster if the activation process happens to fail, but apparently, both companies are already hard at work persuading studios to write 'em a check and get these things into stores.

[Via Physorg]

[KillFelix @ May 10th 2007 7:36AM]

God damn copy protection!!! Can't they see its gonna INCREASE piracy?!? Implementing this just makes life more difficult for the paying customer! As if DRM wasn't enough to piss off people who bought legal copies of movies, this should be enough to turn the majority of the consumers to cheaper, DRM free, region free, and soon RFID / RFA anti-theft technology free pirated movies.

[NiGhTmArE @ May 10th 2007 7:42AM]

I don't see your problem with this? It just stops people from stealing media from stores! Sure, if for some reason it doesn't activate the media and you bring home an unplayable disc then that would be a problem but, if it works as advertised (most unlikely i know) i don't see the harm.

=)

[R2P2 @ May 10th 2007 7:42AM]

Of course there's absolutely, positively, NO WAY thieves could ever get hold of the activation stuff. Nope. Never happen.

[Kamokazi @ May 10th 2007 8:32AM]

The point of anti-theft devices is to keep honest people honest. What that means is it takes away temptation from minor thievery...people just stealing a few things, usually to use themselves. Acquiring a RF activation device would be expensive...you'd have to be stealing for a profit then.

You'll never stop a determined criminal at a retail level...there are and probably always will be too many ways to cheat the system. But you can cut out a majority of the theft by deterring the minor thieves with devices like this.

[Michiel @ May 10th 2007 7:59AM]

Of course, you will have to buy a new DVD-player in order to play all new movies with this build in.

[R2P2 @ May 10th 2007 9:24AM]

Unless the packaging on the disc says in big, bold letters, "THIS DISC WILL NOT WORK IF YOU STEAL IT", "minor thieves" will still steal the discs. Heck, the label probably wouldn't even stop them, since they wouldn't believe it. The disc won't work when they get it home, so they might think twice about stealing more discs, but if they're "minor" they probably don't steal on a regular basis to begin with, right? This won't really reduce losses at retail, so much as piss off the people causing the losses.

[Kamokazi @ May 10th 2007 10:00AM]

I worked for 2 years at a major electronics retailer, half of which was spent in loss prevention...I'm not just making uneducated guesses here.

Yes, they will steal some initially just like they always have because they don't know the technology is there. But what will happen is if the technology is successful, it will become common knowledge that the discs have this technology in them so they can't be played unless activated, which in the long term will cause theft to drop by quite a bit.

It's the same way with the security tags on everything that are designed to set off door alarms...even if you don't see the tag you know it's probably there somewhere. Additionally, the tags on the outside are almost always redundant; they're there to give a sense of security, as most products have them placed inside the box by the manufacturer as well (usually near the barcode).

But that is entirely too easy to get around...line your coat with tin foil and it wont pick up the tag to reflect back the RF signal...we had trouble with console games walking out the door this way. Ultimately we had to lock the games up in the back, but then our sales dropped (a lot more than you'd think...some people are impatient or cant be bothered to ask someone to get the game they wanted). We generally lost money in console games, because we'd get them in at $47 as new releases and end up having to sell them 6 months later at clearance prices. This kind of theft prevention would help that tremendously.

[Alex @ May 10th 2007 9:58AM]

What I don't understand is why any of us need to have to hook our players up to the internet. Between this and the stuff with HD media it's getting ridiculous. So what if I'm on a road trip in my RV and I stop at a Wal-Mart and buy a movie so my kids can watch it on the trip? I have no internet connection, how am I supposed to watch the movie if my player can't connect and verify that I actually purchased the media? It shouldn't have to.

[John Novak @ May 10th 2007 11:23AM]

If you RTFA, it looks like this tech doesn't have the issues that DRM has, nor does it require hooking your player to the internet. The claim is that for optical media, 'electro-optic films' are used to make the disc unreadable. That is, once it's activated, the material changes so that the disc can be read. I can see numerous manufacturing issues and hacks, but from a consumer perspective, the only concern will be player compatability (e.g., along the lines of player compat. with CD-/+R media); one presumes that it would not require new players. From a media-life perspective, you've got to wonder about the stability of the film... Interesting...

[Eric Unterhausen @ May 10th 2007 11:55AM]

This is playing with fire for the movie industry, they just may wake up their consumers to the fact that owning movies is usually pretty silly. For example, now that I have my copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there are no more movies that I'm actually tempted to own. I'll let NetFlix worry about the probability that the electronics in their disks might fail.

[Heatsink @ May 10th 2007 3:31PM]

The ironic thing about that picture with the MasterLock on the CD is that that kind of combination padlock is fairly easy to crack. Sounds like some other kind of protection I know... :D

[biffwhammy @ May 10th 2007 4:15PM]

Of course, this technology could never, ever be used to limit the number of devices on which you could play your legally-purchased DVD, now could it?

[James @ May 10th 2007 4:16PM]

I'm a bit confused -- at first, I didn't bother with the article and was going to just chime in about how this was going to be another DRM-type scheme that would inconvenience legitimate users while doing nothing to stop "real" piracy, but then I read some comments that prompted me to hit up the Read link. They talk about the same system disabling "MP3 players, electric shavers, toothbrushes, flat screen TVs, ink jet cartridges and flash memory" -- I think that from a technical perspective, the "interesting" part isn't the technology they're announcing at all, but rather the (presumably wildly differing) killswitches used to disable these diverse products.

They barely discuss how "electro-optic films are used to make the discs non-readable or readable regardless of the disc format or the playback device". I wonder how they'll work, how we can be sure it won't break some weeks or months after purchase (shortly after the warranty expires, no doubt), if they can't be spoofed into thinking an unauthorized person has successfully activated it.... Is it like LCD, where it changes opacity based on a supplied current? Could an attacker simply pass current in a particular manner and bypass the RFID activator?

And the really interesting... how would they disable/enable some of the more exotic products, like MP3 players and flat screen TVs? Once those devices have a killswitch in them, how long until they can be (re)activated remotely, or from near-range by somebody with a handheld device? Would store security be relaxed if they believed that these killswitches made theft less attractive? Would that lead to increased incentive to "crack" the security system?

I can see all sorts of hairy issues arising when security packaging is made part and parcel of the product itself, and I'd really like to see more discussion of this issue... maybe Bruce Scheiner will pick this one up...

[Nogami @ May 11th 2007 5:25AM]

I rather suspect that this type of authentication would also require the "authorizing terminal" to have an IP-based connection back to a master media server somewhere in the manufacturer/distributor's server room.

When you want to unlock the media, it would send the media's unique key back to the server, get the "unlock code", and unlock the media.

Of course, this would also allow the studios to see which stores are selling what, check up on inventory stock, see if they're pushing the latest mass-market blockbuster crud, etc. I imagine there'd even eventually be a tie the authorization scheme into a customer database...