ARDG meets February 12

Maryann Nicoletti at MPAA sent around an announcement that ARDG will hold its first meeting in Washington, D.C., on February 12. The cost to attend is $75. We have been advised that members of the press are not welcome, though this policy has yet to be stated in writing anywhere.

The announcement is included below.

Maryann Nicoletti
Executive Asst. Digital Strategy/Technology
Motion Picture Association

Analog Reconversion Discussion Group draft charter

This is a charter for a discussion group to address the "redigitization" or "reconversion" issue -- best known as the "analog hole".

This charter was proposed to the Copy Protection Technical Working Group on January 14. It was informally -- but not yet formally -- accepted. The group is currently called the Analog Reconversion Discussion Group (ARDG).

The draft charter, as distributed at the January 14 CPTWG meeting, is included below.

Charter of Analog Reconversion Discussion Group ("ARDG")

A Work Group of the CPTWG

CPTWG hereby creates and charters the Analog Reconversion Discussion Group as a Work Group of the CPTWG.

Subject: Copyright owner concerns over the present and future security of commercial audiovisual content that has been converted from digital to analog format and reconverted to digital format.

Charter by CPTWG: Examine technologies and systems with a view to identifying technological tools that may be relevant to addressing security issues arising from the conversion of protected, commercial audiovisual content from digital to analog format and reconversion to digital format. The group would also consider the potential application of such tools in the conversion of native analog material to digital format. In accordance with CPTWG general expectations and procedures for Work Groups:

• This Discussion Group is not intended to be in lieu of any other public or private sector effort or activity.
• The work shall be limited to technical issues, provided, however, that the Group may seek information as to availability of any technology for general use.
• The Group may engage in or oversee testing, provided that no selection among technologies for public or private implementation is to be made by or recommended to the CPTWG.
• The Co-Chairs shall provided for an orderly and efficient sequence of work, with a preference for face-to-face meetings, so as to assure quality of work and adequate opportunity for participant review, consistent with a recognition that expeditious progress and completion of work are vitally important. Deadlines shall be based on goals that can be reasonably attained, and should not be arbitrary.

Scope of Work for the ARDG

Sequence of Work. Each of the steps listed below should, to the extent reasonable, be accomplished in order:

1. Summarily review work of previous CPTWG subgroups with related charters, including the Data Hiding Subgroup (DHSG), including review of expectations, objectives, and deliverables; identification of any shortcomings from output.
2. Identify objectives with emphasis on the system approaches and possible locations at which the technologies may be applied.
3. Define criteria to be met by the technologies that will be reviewed.
4. Employ an orderly process to request and collect information relating to technologies that may meet the criteria and accomplish objectives defined in (2) and (3), including, among other information, information concerning the general availability of such technology.
5. Provide a forum for the discussion and, if appropriate, comparative evaluation of information relating to the technologies collected by the procedure in (4).
6. Provide periodic progress reports to the CPTWG.
7. Issue a report reflecting all views of ARDG participants concerning the technologies.