“The Insider technology is a chip feature that unlocks high-definition movies from online streaming services,” Shah reports. “Controversy has dogged the technology, with audience members at the Consumer Electronics Show saying Intel may be trying to gain control over online movies by requiring users to have Sandy Bridge processors.”
“But Intel defended the technology, saying the company is trying to provide a security layer that will encourage studios to stream high-definition movies to PCs instead of keeping them locked,” Shah reports. “The Insider technology establishes a secure connection between streaming services and PCs with new Core i3, i5 or i7 chips, which are based on the Sandy Bridge architecture. The latest processors, launched at CES on Wednesday, have specialized authentication and encryption hardware and firmware to establish the secure connection.”
Shah reports, “But Insider is not intended to be digital rights management technology, and it is not intended to limit the availability of content to users, said Josh Newman, graphics marketing director at Intel… Studios don’t have to implement Insider technology to stream 1080p movies, but they are choosing the hardened security at the hardware level, Intel’s Newman said. He did not comment on licensing the technology to other chip makers, or whether Insider technology would be implemented on other chips.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Misguided digital restrictions management by any other name is still misguided digital restrictions management.
MDN – I can’t stand looking at Ballmer every time I visit your page! It makes me nauseous…
I’ll second that….
All those in favor???
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There is NO WAY with our 3rd world internet infrastructure that you can stream HD in real time without so much compression that the resultant artifacts are no noticeable.
In Japan, yes
In Korea, yes
Finland, yes
France, yes
US…. ‘fraid not.
Re: Ballmer
I don’t know, that hunched pose reminds me of Stephen Hawking.
But Ballmer is much less brilliant.
I don’t like DRM content at all and steer away from it whenever I can, but many people have a misunderstanding of what Insider is. It doesn’t DRM-ify content. Instead it enables DRM content to be delivered, much like Apple has enabled it with content purchased through iTunes and played on the Mac or iOS devices.
We can hope that the movie and TV industries shift away from DRM, but really how realistic is that? As it is, the studios are holding back content to see how things play out. This is an effort to convince studios to release more, and to release sooner. The next phase is to convince them to remove the DRM.
Ironically, this move, long term, will help in the fight against DRM. Since this is Intel chip specific, content there won’t play on systems or devices without those chips. The more incompatible DRM systems in place, the more complex and frustrating it becomes and likely that studios will see the need to go DRM-less to reach a wider audience.
Part of the reason why the labels were willing to remove DRM for music was because they didn’t want Apple to have too much dominance. They fought for Apple to license their DRM to 3rd parties, although that was practically impossible, so the next best option (in their minds) was to remove the DRM. With this, music could be purchased anywhere and played on anything. Of course Apple still dominates because, well you know, but there are at least other stores and players with compatibility now.
TL;DR: Hopefully DRM is just a phase, necessary for content providers to get on board.
@macslut
An alternate viewpoint is that Intel is facilitating and perpetuating video DRM by embedding access control in the CPU. From a user standpoint, it becomes less visible. From a content provider standpoint, it strengthens control over distribution channels and reduces consumer resistance.
I could see the music industry jumping on board this approach for re-DRMing online music sales.
This clearly serves Intel’s objective of steering hardware developers towards Intel CPUs and marginalizing ARM and AMD. You will notice that the potential for licensing “Insider” has not yet been addressed.
And this is on top of Intel’s CPU design actions with respect to embedded graphics and such that make their CPUs less attractive for Macs. I don’t like it. I don’t like it a bit.
MDN: Apple used DRM to get labels and studios to play ball too. In real-world negotiations, offering compromise is sometimes more productive than repeating philosophical objections.
Doesn’t matter to me. I don’t watch the dreck that’s prime time TV and 99% of movies that come out these days suck anyway. So I may end up with a Mac someday that has SB, but it definitely won’t be used for consuming the crap that passes for entertainment these days…
Sandy Balls
@MDN: misdirected how? … or you have no idea
BTW: How does it matter if you don’t plan to steal IP … wait, do you?
This is why we love AMD and hate big brother Monopoly Intel.
We need a face recognition Safari add-on that blocks Ballmer.
@KingMel,
But how is Intel facilitating or perpetuating video DRM any more than Apple, Microsoft, etc… are through software?
Also, you seem to be both upset at the idea that this may trigger a DRM rebirth (for music), and that Intel won’t license this.
It seems like you can’t be upset from both perspectives. Either Intel will license this (which I doubt), or it won’t become a standard. No music label is going to go with a system that excludes Apple products at this point.
And while video content is DRM’d for now as a standard, there are many different systems. Intel Insider is just one, that can’t fully compete with Apple.
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