The Register has this article about USB Cables that back the movie industry that caught my eye. I had forgotten that one of Windows Vista big selling points (ack!) was that it could “lock things down” at the hardware level. In other words, a video card could determine if you were watching pirated video or a purchased DVD and disallow viewing of the pirated one. It gave geeks and Linux fans one more reason to decry Windows, and Microsoft one more reason to be friendly with the big guns of the entertainment industry.
According to The Register article, the USB Implementer’s Forum is developing a USB cable that will not carry Hi-Def video unless it has the proper DRM. This proprietary technology was developed to control HDMI and DVI interfaces – just the ones I previously talked about that Vista can lock out. This is a new twist – being able to limit it through the actual cable!! So you worry about this big brother type of garbage and then you realize (like the article pointed out) – all a hacker has to do is mimic the encryption of the wire, OR make the device(s) believe that the cable is legitimate (when it’s not). There are ways around everything. Remember when you had cassette tapes in days of old, and you broke off the top tabs so your favorite mix tape couldn’t be recorded over? Then one day when you were hard up you just put a piece of scotch tape on top – and recorded right over that stuff.
Sometimes I get worried that I should be buying a lot of stuff up. I was paranoid like this both last year and the year before. I thought I should buy up a bunch of digital tv’s, and dvd players – stockpile some electronics that would very soon be littered with all kinds of “DRM” limiting my abilities to use them. There are all kinds of items at the “superstore” that won’t let you, for instance, copy a DVD to a DVD burner, or watch DVD’s from a different region. But there are tons of DRM and region free devices for sale online as well. There are lots of devices that you can get shipped directly to your house the entertainment doesn’t want you to know about.
A DRM’d cable just reminds that I want devices that do MORE and not LESS. If you’re a geek – you (like me) are probably more interested in a entertainment or media center device. Read my article about the HDD Player, you’ll be glad you did!
If you want to let us know about some cool DRM free gadgets – comment now!
