VEIL Encoding Rights Assertion Mark System

The VEIL encoded rights assertion mark is designed to help close the analog hole.

The Analog Hole

The analog hole is a term referring to the process where a digital work is transmitted across an analog video link, converted back to a digital form and in the process the rights associated with the original work are lost, removed, or ignored.

Rights Signaling

There are various methods of transmitting video from a source, such as a set-top box or an optical disc player, to a sink where the content is displayed or recorded.

Digital video connections can make use of secure transmission technologies such as DTCP on IEEE-1394 high speed digital links and HDCP on DVI interconnects. With these technologies the rights are carried within the secure envelope that is protecting the content and the rights are transferred from the source to the sink device.

However, the common interconnect in today's home is still analog video. To signal rights over analog video the signaling technology in common use is CGMS-A (Macrovision can also be used, but it can only signal the state "Copy Never"). The primary standards for CGSM-A in North America are CEA-608-B for standard definition and CEA-805-A for high definition.

CGMS-A carries two bits of copy control information (CCI) in the vertical blanking interval. The possible states are "copy never", "copy one generation", "copy no more", and "copy control not asserted".

Since CGMS-A is in the VBI, the loss or removal of CGMS-A does not affect the picture. As CGMS-A is not required to be present in the video signal it is not possible to tell whether a video signal has had CGMS-A removed or whether it was never there at all.

Rights Assertion Mark

The Rights Assertion Mark (RAM) adds robustness to CGMS-A signaling. The presence of the RAM means that rights have been asserted over the content and that copy control information is carried in the CGMS-A. If CGMS-A is not present, whether it was lost (for example, by a sync stabilizer), stripped ( by a circumvention device), or not generated by the source device, the presence of the RAM means the content cannot be copied.

By itself CGMS-A is a control technology, the presence of CGMS-A can signal rights that are more restrictive than the absence of CGMS-A.

With the RAM CGMS-A becomes permission based, the presence of CGMS-A can signal rights that are less restrictive than the absence of CGMS-A because if the RAM is detected without CGMS-A then the content cannot be copied.

It is important to note that Encoding of Content is strictly applied on a voluntary basis and is done at the discretion of the content owner. In addition, all content (including legacy content) is considered compliant.