Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Intel apparently has added "Microsoft-flavored" DRM to its Pentium D and 945 chipset. Hannibal at ArsTechnica guesses:

From what I can tell, DTCP is essentially a protocol that sits on top of TCP/IP and provides DRM by ensuring that both endpoints in an IP connection are trusted before transmitted protected content. I imagine that Intel's DTCP support is some kind of hardware-level means of enabling the strict enforcement of this endpoint authentication in software. As to what specific form this enablement takes, only further digging on our part and more revelations from Intel will tell.

This would, apparently, prevent unwanted (= malware) programs from being transmitted to your computer, but would also allow DRM to prevent you from moving content to computers it thinks is unauthorized. (The odds are currently 35:1 that I'm getting this wrong.)

DRM will bring some benefits, but I continue to believe that ultimately Microsoft's driving aim is to turn itself into the dominant delivery mechanism for Hollywood content. It achieves this if Hollywood can be persuaded that only Microsoft has secure players (which used to be known as "computers"). So, we'll be watching movies at home, playing games, listening to music and reading our newspapers and textbooks all via Microsoft software running on "trusted" hardware. That's the big win for Microsoft and if that means locking down the formerly open domains of personal computing and the Internet, then that's a price Microsoft is willing to have us pay. IMO.