HP Pulls Out Big Guns To Fight Piracy

LAS VEGAS—Hewlett-Packard Corp. will aggressively enforce digital-rights-management schemes on many of its products beginning in 2004, including the companys first digital televisions.

In Hewlett-Packards forthcoming digital hub, the Digital Entertainment Center, and in “some” other devices, HP will enforce the “broadcast flag” provision of digital content, preventing its customers from recording content that has been protected by copyright holders such as movie studios.

In a keynote address Thursday evening, HP CEO Carly Fiorina said she was proud to take an aggressive stance against piracy, part of the companys strategy of extending customer content throughout the home and beyond. Fiorina was joined on stage by a bevy of entertainments leading lights, including Alicia Keys, U2s The Edge, Ben Affleck and other artists.

Everything is content, Fiorina said, and that content must be shared and made accessible to consumers. “A digital camera is a computer with a lens and then you take that content and you send it wirelessly and you edit it share it and when youre ready you print it.”

Beginning this year, Fiorina said, HP will ship two plasma televisions, 32-inch and 42-inch models. The HP Digital Entertainment System will include a media hub; a “media extender”; similar to those introduced by Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates on Wednesday; and next-generation digital projectors.

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