ComputerWorld: Committee to vote on controversial data copying standard

“Paper ballots were sent out today to all 24 members of a
technical committee that’s working on a controversial standard for
preventing the copying and unauthorized distribution of protected
data stored on removable media devices….”

“IBM and its allies wanted to introduce base-level instructions
in ATA that would let peripheral manufacturers implement a
technology called Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM),
an algorithm that’s compliant with a secure digital music
initiative supported by major record companies….”

“Proponents said the changes that the 4C Entity group was
seeking were generic ones that would allow vendors to incorporate
any type of content protections, not just CPRM. That technology
would apply only to ATA-driven removable devices such as Zip drives
and flash memory, but not disk drives, they claimed.”

“But opponents of the IBM-led proposal contended that CPRM would
lead to content protection on hard drives and even create
difficulties for users who simply wanted to create backup copies of
their data. Karinch said the committee backed the alternative
proposal from Phoenix Technologies because it incorporated a more
generic approach to functionality.”

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