Andre Yoskowitz
1 Jun 2007 11:54
Yesterday, the Canadian encryption vendor Certicom filed a broad lawsuit against Sony accusing the electronics giant of infringing on two of Certicom's patents. Although Sony is sued alot, this latest suit can be potentially cripling. The suit is targeting AACS and by extension, Blu ray and the PlayStation 3.
Back in 2003, Certicom sold patent licenses to the US National Security Agency for $25 million including the two in the latest Sony suit. Now, Certicom wants monetary damages from Sony, claiming that the encryptions found in AACS violate Certicom patents on "Strengthened public key protocol" and "Digital signatures on a Smartcard."
Certicom says that Sony needs to take out a license for AACS, Blu ray, PS3 games, and the PlayStation 3 and standalone Blu ray players or discontinue selling them.
Additionally, Certicom claims that the the Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP) scheme is infringing and wants monetary damages for every Sony i.LINK (IEEE 1394) implementation that uses DTCP and every Sony product that uses DTCP-IP. Included in that is many VAIO computers, Sony HDTVs, and even a few DVD players.
We will be watching this story very closely and keep updates coming.
Source:
Arstechnica