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Intel Insider DRM Risks Monopoly Investigations

Posted by Soulskill on from the by-any-other-name dept.

Blacklaw writes "Intel's Sandy Bridge line of processors is impressing the tech community with its power, but a sneaky little feature designed to appease Hollywood has some concerned about Intel's intentions: Intel Insider. If a major video streaming service, such as Lovefilm or the US-based Hulu, were to implement Intel Insider technology on their movie streams — as a way of convincing Hollywood to release films sooner and in high definition without worrying about piracy — it would mean that only those who use Intel's very latest Sandy Bridge CPUs would be able to stream movies. Not only would those using older Intel chips that don't support the technology be cut off from the service, but those on systems featuring CPUs from rival manufacturers such as AMD and low-power specialist VIA would also be excluded." In a blog post about this new feature, Intel denies that it is DRM.

4 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Astounding Hypocrisy by dr.newton · · Score: 5, Informative

    From that link to Intel's website:

    DRM means 'Digital Rights Management' and is used to control the use of digital media by controlling access, and preventing the ability to copy media such as movies. ...Intel Insider is NOT a DRM technology.

    ...Intel insider, an extra layer of content protection...

    So it's not Digital Rights Management, it's just Content Protection. I feel better.

    --
    Just another proletarian malcontent.
    1. Re:Astounding Hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, if it's not DRM, then it shouldn't be illegal to circumvent it.

  2. Just buy 'em already by Amorymeltzer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ars had a nice writeup of this yesterday, referencing a 2006 post of theirs. The basic gist is/was that DRM simply CANNOT be a good sell for tech companies, and given that Intel and the other consumer electronics companies are so massive when compared to production costs, why don't they just buy one? Intel could piss on its shoes and come out with the budget for a dozen major films, which they could then release DRM free, to the joy of all of their customers. Hollywood is big, but there are only six major production houses and a number of smaller ones... all of which are worth far less than the major tech companies. Want more movies on iTunes, Apple? You've got the cash, so BUY a production house.

    I didn't mean to editorialize, but I think I started to convince myself by the end there.

    --
    I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
  3. Bad Idea by pavon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just take a look at Sony - they are even more paranoid about piracy as a result of owning a movie studio.