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Production Protection to Copy(right) Protection:From the 10NES to DVD's CSS
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Casey O'DonnellUniversity of Georgiacaseyod@uga.edu
Abstract
This essay examines the links between modern Digital Rights Management (DRM) mechanismsand production/copy protection systems introduced by console videogame systems in the early1980s. These mechanisms were both physical and technological, and the essay examines closelythe copy and production protection systems deployed in the Nintendo Entertainment System(NES) and SEGA Genesis systems. While physical shape of console cartridges was part of theequation, court cases and patent filings further illuminate the underlying systems that enforcedthese rules. These same technologies also gave rise to "regional" (or "region encoding/lockout")differences, which can now be found in most new digital media technologies. The essay also usesthese technologies as lenses to examine how changes in legislation - the introduction of theDigital Millennium Copyright Act for example - have altered the ways in which videogamedevelopers must interact with console and hardware manufacturers.More broadly, the essay asks the fundamental question, "What is it about videogameconsoles that makes them logically different for users than iPods, for example?" Users have become accustomed to much more restrictive use options in the context of game consoles; yetthey bristle at more lenient protection mechanisms in other devices. This essay posits that muchof what modern digital rights management systems attempt to accomplish now was mostforcefully implemented on videogame consoles beginning with the NES's introduction.
Introduction
[FIGURE 1 SOMEWHERE AROUND HERE]In the winter of 1985 the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, in the1
 
United States marked a significant moment for the videogame industry
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. At the same time, itmarked a consequential moment for the future of videogame players and media user/consumersmore broadly. The NES and its underlying 10NES chip signaled a sea change in the digital medialandscape that is only now being understood to have had significant impacts on the possibilitiesfor user/consumers
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.This essay examines how the 10NES chip in the NES and a similar, but crucially differenttechnology, in the Sega Genesis systems shifted user/consumer understandings of andexpectations for videogames in ways that separated them from music, movies, and other forms of emerging digital media technologies. It begins by scrutinizing the functionality of the twodifferent forms of production protection, as well as how the 10NES introduced the concept of regional restrictions on videogame distribution. The essay then proceeds to analyze how this shifttransitioned from one of production protection to one of copyright protection. This transition iscrucial to understanding the broader implications that developments in videogame technologieshave had more broadly on subsequent digital media technologies. This section also examineshow the introduction of encryption and new US-based legislation significantly shifted the spaceof production protection to one of only copyright protection. It contrasts these events with thoseof the Digital Versatile Disk or DVD
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. Finally, the essay examines some of the implications thesetechnologies have had on what user/consumers expect from digital media technologies and howthat differs from subsequent digital systems.
Production Protection to Copyright and Digital Rights Management
Other scholars, who have examined the history and political economy of the videogame industry,have noted that Nintendo introduced the NES and the 10NES chip as a means of "fixing" what it perceived to have gone wrong with the previous generation of videogame hardware. Atari suedto prevent startup organizations like Activision from making third-party games for their Atari2600 VCS system, but was unsuccessful. After the settlement of the court case, numerous other third party publishing companies began making cartridges for the 2600. Any company capable of determining how the 2600 worked and willing to pay for the cost of producing cartridges couldthen market their games. Infamous examples of this low bar for quality include "Custer'sRevenge" and "E.T." Even ports of games like "Pac-Man" were deemed of low quality becauseof poor graphics performance and glitches in the games. It was surmised that the sheer quantity2
 
and poor quality of games being released for Atari console systems was at least partially, if notentirely to blame for the "crash" of the video game industry. Nintendo intended to keep tightcontrol over the kinds of games and the "quality" of games being released for the NES throughstrict licensing agreements (Sheff 1993; Kent 2001; Malliet and Zimmerman 2005; Johns 2006).Though this point is arguable
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,it is a perception that continues to persist amongst many who nowwork within the videogame industry. These analyses fail to examine both the long term affectsthat this had on the game industry more broadly and the shift it caused with respect to consumer expectations of videogame consoles.[FIGURE 2 SOMEWHERE AROUND HERE]The introduction of the 10NES or "10NES Lockout Chip" was designed specifically toenforce, at a technological level, the licensing and manufacturing agreements of Nintendo.Below is an excerpt from the US Patent filing which details the invention
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."United States Patent Number 4,799,635 - System for Determining Authenticityof an External Memory used in an Information Processing Apparatus."To verify that the external memory is authentic, duplicate semiconductor devices,for example microprocessors, are separately mounted with the external memoryand in the main unit, respectively. The semiconductor associated with the externalmemory device acts as a key device and the duplicate device mounted in the mainunit acts as a lock device." (Nakagawa 1985)This deceptively simple description belies a much more complicated device, asemiconductor lock and key. Nintendo had designed a silicon lock and key to ensure the"authenticity" of all external memory devices produced for their game systems. Nintendo'sintentionality in developing these technologies can be illuminated by court cases that quicklyfollowed for those companies who did not wish to work with Nintendo. Nintendo's owntestimony indicated that the 10NES chip was designed specifically as a means to enforcelicensing agreements. At this time, the interest was in protecting Nintendo's ability to say whocould make and release games for the NES, rather than on copy protection, as indicated by thefollowing court transcript excerpt."Nintendo designed a program -- the 10NES -- to prevent the NES from acceptingunauthorized game cartridges. Both the NES console and authorized gamecartridges contain microprocessors or chips programmed with the 10NES. Theconsole contains a "master chip" or "lock." Authorized game cartridges contain a3
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