Intel Cutting Linux Out of Content Market

An Anonymous Reader wrote in to mention an Inquirer story suggesting that Intel is planning on cutting Linux out of the content market. From the article: "The vehicle to do this is called East Fork, the upcoming and regrettable Intel digital media 'platform'. The funny part is that the scheme is already a failure, but it will hurt you as it thrashes before it dies. Be afraid, be very afraid."

Comments

AMD and trusted computing

[Anonymous Coward]

For all of you thinking AMD may play the good guy in this DRM nightmare, let me remind you that they, along with Intel, are a promoter of the Trusted Computing Group - link [windowsfordevices.com]

Re:The ironic thing...

[argent]

The ironic thing about all the various forms of DRM, copy protection, etc., is that the more intrusive it gets, the more it is going to actually encourage piracy.

That's one reason iTunes has worked so well. The DRM is so weak that Apple actually tells you an easy way to get rid of it, Mix up new tracks with your existing MP3 collection to make killer compilations. You can burn songs from the iTunes Music Store an unlimited number of times.

Oh, they make a token effort to discourage blatant fair use, enough to convince the labels that they're in charge, but it's really run on the honor system.

Down the hall from Hitler...

[Hobbes897]

Netscape, Real and others have all fallen victim to the Microsoft bundling machine Netscape I can sympathize with, but Real was going to hell long before MS got involved.

Re:So how is this going to kill fair use?

[Kadin2048]

My university network implemented this just as I was leaving last year. It was some Cisco scheme, and required you to download and install a client program if you had a Windows machine, which would scan your system for viruses and spyware and then report it 'safe' to the upstream network. Only then would it issue you an IP. I think it would only report the computer 'safe' if it had been updated recently also, providing a very nice way to force users to continually update their software. I wonder how long it will take before systems like this force people to spring for paid upgrades? Maybe they already have.

Oddly enough there wasn't a client program for Mac or Linux, and if your computer reported itself as being something other than Windows, it would just let you through unhindered, I'm told. Seems it wouldn't take much to fudge your Windows system to report itself as a Linux or Mac box.

If you want to preview...

[Brightest Light]

Try a site like Magnatune.

They let you preview all of the songs on every album for sale, and though they may not have RIAA-signed artists, they've got a pretty good selection, and I try to shamelessly plug them every chance I get. Best of all, all you need is an mp3 player of some sort to listen to the 128kbps song previews (which are the full songs, not 30 second snippets). The prices are very reasonable, and 50% of the sale price of the album goes straight to the artist; so you can buy more music than you would on amazon, and the people who made it will get fairly compensated for their work and talent. You should check it out, you might like it.

Re:So how is this going to kill fair use?

[mrchaotica]

What's to stop me downloading stuff to the DRM box, then simply shipping it over to the non-DRM box.

The DRM, of course.

It's all data.

Yeah, but your "DRM box" is no longer a general-purpose computer. It can only deal with particular kinds of data -- namely, "allowed" data.

Are they going to prevent me from shipping DRM data over my own network?

Yes. That's what the DRM is for.

I mean, Longhorn could have code to check that every network box attached to it is DRM-enabled, but is it going to check that my USB key attached to those boxes is? I doubt it.

Well, you're wrong, because once they finish rolling out their Treacherous Computing crap the "USB" on the DRM box will only work with "Trusted" "USB" keys.