AMD locking frame buffer for DRM

[MindlessOath]

For those of you that haven’t seen this, Tom Yeager over at InfoWorld says that AMD plans to block unauthorized access to the frame buffer in its upcoming products to keep content from being copied without the authorization from the content owner.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/03/28/14OPcurve_1.html

There is a short list of parties who will be unauthorized to access your frame buffer: You. There is a long list of parties who are authorized to access your frame buffer, and that list includes Microsoft, Apple, AMD, Intel, ATI, NVidia, Sony Pictures, Paramount, HBO, CBS, Macrovision, and all other content owners and enablers that want your machine to themselves whenever you’re watching, listening to, reading, or shooting monsters with their products.

[MindlessOath]

UPDATE:

InfoWorld offers a different perspective:

“Keep in mind this has nothing to do with what AMD wants, other than the desire to stay in business. Blu-Ray is developed so that it will not work without this kind of copy-protection technology, so you will see exactly the same thing happen with Intel, Nvidia, and anyone else who wants to make next-generation graphics chips that will play the latest media. The reaction to this article is unnecessarily negative toward AMD. People should be blaming the media giants that force not only AMD but everyone else in the market to conform to their standards if they want to keep selling chips that support the latest technology.”