Industry heavyweights Hewlett-Packard and Koninklijke Philips Electronics are joining forces to develop new copy protection technology for DVD optical discs, the companies have announced. The two companies have agreed to jointly develop technology that will allow users to record protected content from digital broadcast systems, under rules adopted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in its "broadcast flag" ruling.
The ruling allows programmers to attach a code, called a broadcast flag, to digital broadcasts, specifying whether a particular show can be copied and broadcast over the Internet. HP and Philips said that they have already submitted their planned technology in a filing to the FCC. The new technology will allow users to copy digital broadcast signals onto discs in DVD+R or DVD+RW format or in some other recording formats, the companies said.