Information Dark Age with Digital Rights Management

Intel quietly adds DRM to new chips
Microsoft and the entertainment industry's holy grail of controlling copyright through the motherboard has moved a step closer with Intel Corp. now embedding digital rights management within in its latest dual-core processor Pentium D and accompanying 945 chipset.

Officially launched worldwide on the May 26, the new offerings come DRM-enabled and will, at least in theory, allow copyright holders to prevent unauthorized copying and distribution of copyrighted materials from the motherboard rather than through the operating system as is currently the case.

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However, Tucker ducked questions regarding technical details of how embedded DRM would work saying it was not in the interests of his company to spell out how the technology in the interests of security.
The situation presents an interesting dilemma for IT security managers as they may now be beholden to hardware-embedded security over which they have little say, information or control

Source www.theinquirer.net...

Not to be alarmist, but these marketing drones and legal eagles are leading us into a new dark age, where knowledge itself is restricted to a select few, a tyranny of DRM. That the concept is difficult to grasp by the masses is not going to make the penalties for infringement any less harsh. Sadly this problem is not self correcting, nor do I see any immediate method to stop or slow it, short of a massive reduction in the influence of the USA in international relations or a complete reversal of policy by the administration there.

AMD has been working for years to make people understand that there is no downside to using their chips. I've used many AMD CPUs and have never had a problem that I've been able to trace to using a non-Intel CPU. But what on earth is going to happen when I try to load software and the error message says "this software will not work with AMD systems" because the software maker demands DRM?

One of three things is going to happen.

1)This will never take off.
2)AMD will adopt DRM themselves.
3)AMD will be marginalized as software manufacturers demand DRM


Copyrights are much more complex than mere assertion by an object that it cannot be copied. When my Dell CPU says I can't backup an object, or copy it for use in a different location of my own, or for criticism, satire, or other fair use, or streaming (which the Library of Congress Copyright Office says is not a "copy"), how do I protect my rights? Send the Dell back, fight for a refund? Who's going to compensate me for their wrongful infringement of my rights? For my lost time, opportunities, labor, value expected but denied? And what about in countries other than the US, where copyright laws are different, often much more complex, and sometimes nonexistent?

It's a mistake for hardware engineers to generate law-enforcement in mass-consumer products. At most, optional hardware support for user opt-in, to make compliance easy enough that most people agree, should be available. Copyright violation is a problem for the justice system, with its presumptions of innocence until guilt is proven, due process, and human interpreters of whether acts were crimes or not.

This DRM CPU tech should go down in flames, like Intel's mandatory CPU serial#. Intel's got a lot more problems just rolling out CPUs that do what we want, like faster Pentium4s. They shouldn't be wasting developer time, eating die space, and complicating throughput with half-bright consumer traps like this. Of course, AMD (and others) have the opportunity to speed past Intel, and give customers what we want. Not just spin their wheels trying to woo back Microsoft, as it looks to other CPU platforms. Because we'll all leave Intel hanging when a CPU comes along that serves us better.

This ATM and IDE control scares me the most though. Security through obscurity is a good idea?! How long before Joe the Hacker finds the ability to manipulate my computer at a level BELOW the operating system.


[edit on 29/5/2005 by Seth76]

I can see it now, Chips that will ONLY allow you to install M$ software and block Open-Source. This is the silver bullet they have been waiting for, and Linux will never be the same again.....until some hacker finds a way around it that is

I am now officially boycotting Intel, and will be sending a letter to AMD to say pretty much this.

If you good people go the rout of Intel's hardware DRM then I'll never buy an AMD product ever again, period.

Where does that leave me? Well there is an Open-Hardware movement just getting started, I'm watching it with great interest.

Phaw, like M$ doesn't make enough money already... I'm boycotting them now as well. I will never buy another Intel or M$ product ever again.

Please don't let me down AMD...

EDIT: Seth you better put your flame retardant on, as I'm sure there are more then a few Industry Peons on here that have been brainwashed into believing this is actually good for the consumer and the industry. Man are they gonna be surprised when this backfires.

EDIT2: This is also an attempt to kill the commoditization of OS software, M$ doesn't want to get off the gravy train.

[edit on 29-5-2005 by sardion2000]

Great find Seth.


If I had any votes left you would get one.

This is disgusting and I will join Sardion on the boycott of Intel products.

If AMD can resist this I can only hope that it will be a huge windfall for them.

After all, motherboards are not cheap, and if even 25% of motherboard consumers can switch over we are talking hundreds of millions of dollars.

Open source is the way to go, and and soon as I buy my next computer I am going to avoid intel like the plague.

I would like to switch to Linux, but I like online gaming. Is Linux a good platform to use for that? Or do you have to run a windows emulator?

Originally posted by LeftBehind
Great find Seth.


If I had any votes left you would get one.

This is disgusting and I will join Sardion on the boycott of Intel products.

If AMD can resist this I can only hope that it will be a huge windfall for them.

After all, motherboards are not cheap, and if even 25% of motherboard consumers can switch over we are talking hundreds of millions of dollars.

Open source is the way to go, and and soon as I buy my next computer I am going to avoid intel like the plague.

I would like to switch to Linux, but I like online gaming. Is Linux a good platform to use for that? Or do you have to run a windows emulator?

Thank you for the vote of confidence!

Not many online games are released for Linux, and those that are often times are much more expensive than the windows equivalent. Linux is a niche market for the game vendors. This, of course, would change if there was a massive market shift toward Linux.

But many games can be run with WINE or Cedega (formerly known as WineX.)

Hope this helps if you are interested in changing your platform.

Seth, you should send this thread into BoingBoing.net and Slashdot.org, unless they already have covered it then nvrmnd.

I am so sick of this crappy monopoly game !

Screw Intel and Microsoft !!!

Are we really going to sit back and do absolutley nothing by letting Bill Gates run our lives by telling us what we can and cannot do with our own computers ! F-Him !!!

Well that goodness that we have techies on our side !!!

I have been fortunet enough to have gotten through these blocks so far.

It's a game. Everytime M-Soft creates a new block-id code or security code or any other for that matter there is ALWAYS a hacker that has broken this cycle. We have seen it time and time again through the last twenty years.

I have always run AMD chips with Win 2000 corp proffesional edition and never had a problem till now. I have purchased a new sysytm with a P4 and XP and I have found so many flaws it's ridiculous. Security is a Bitch !

I cannot load half the games that I have. Software is difficult to load unless it's M-Soft ! Preferences change after I reboot and on and on it goes.

Well we all know what XP stands for ( Xtra Police )

Is M-Soft part of the UN ? Just wondering ! Ha Ha !

Anyway- Keep reading and searching to stay ahead of this corrupt and evil company !

they have it covered

Hard to beat either source to the punch.