Tuesday, December 26, 2000

Re: IBM and Intel push copy protection ... (Gilmore, RISKS-21.17) [Received via Dave Farber, whom Patrick had requested to post a correction.] Content protection technology misinformation generates negative web-press coverage: An article on *The Register* website "Stealth plan puts copy protection into every hard drive" contains false information that the 4C's (Intel, IBM, MEI, Toshiba) Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM) is to be applied to all PC hard drives. It is misinterpreting a specification for use of CPRM with the Compact Flash media format (which supports either semiconductor flash memory or IBM microdrives) probably because Compact Flash uses the same command protocol interface as standard PC harddrives. The technology is neither intended nor licensed for use with PC harddrives and is optional even for the supported media types (flash memory and microdrives). John Gilmore, a noted privacy and consumer advocate, has picked up the article and further propagated the erroneous information and mentioned Intel "IBM&Intel push copy protection into ordinary disk drives". I have alerted public relations at Intel and are disseminating accurate information within Intel and among our industry contacts. Pat ["Gelsinger, Patrick P" via risks-digest Volume 21, Issue 18] 0:00 # G!