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Why Linux HDCP Isn't the End of the World (collabora.com)
"There is no reason for the open-source community to worry..." writes Daniel Stone, who heads the graphics team at open-source consultancy Collabora. mfilion quotes Collabora.com:
Recently, Sean Paul from Google's ChromeOS team, submitted a patch series to enable HDCP support for the Intel display driver. HDCP is used to encrypt content over HDMI and DisplayPort links, which can only be decoded by trusted devices... However, if you already run your own code on a free device, HDCP is an irrelevance and does not reduce freedom in any way....
HDCP support is implemented almost entirely in the hardware. Rather than adding a mandatory encryption layer for content, the HDCP kernel support is dormant unless userspace explicitly requests an encrypted link. It then attempts to enable encryption in the hardware and informs userspace of the result. So there's the first out: if you don't want to use HDCP, then don't enable it! The kernel doesn't force anything on an unwilling userspace.... HDCP is only downstream facing: it allows your computer to trust that the device it has been plugged into is trusted by the HDCP certification authority, and nothing more. It does not reduce user freedom, or impose any additional limitations on device usage.
HDCP support is implemented almost entirely in the hardware. Rather than adding a mandatory encryption layer for content, the HDCP kernel support is dormant unless userspace explicitly requests an encrypted link. It then attempts to enable encryption in the hardware and informs userspace of the result. So there's the first out: if you don't want to use HDCP, then don't enable it! The kernel doesn't force anything on an unwilling userspace.... HDCP is only downstream facing: it allows your computer to trust that the device it has been plugged into is trusted by the HDCP certification authority, and nothing more. It does not reduce user freedom, or impose any additional limitations on device usage.
DeCSS let you reclaim the format of DVD. You no longer had to watch DVD content on devices "approved" by the coalition. It broke the power of the distributor to limit the way you or I can consume content.
HDCP is precisely the opposite, handing over control of how and where you watch media to the middleman. Like CSS, HDCP in this case is useless without the specter of the DMCA and other "anti-circumvention" legislation, as you could easily create a side channel in the driver to dump video streams to disk. Unless upstream providers only intend to enable content on devices already locked down with a RIAA rootkit, in which (highly likely) case the code is useless to anyone not already in a strong middleman position with their own custom devices (Google, Verizon, Amazon...)
And you can like the content of the artists, writers, and performers without liking the methods the distributors and investors use to squeeze out every cent of profit they possibly can out of a work, especially when they reduce the average person's control over their own devices.