“A squadron of heavily armed IBM spin bombers left their
hilltop base at Almaden, Ca at the end of last week. Their
destination – Vulture Central. Their mission – to disarm public
outrage at the proposed inclusion of CPRM copy control mechanisms
into hard disks. The bombers were loaded with a good-natured
arsenal of flattery, non sequiters, and laser-guided hand
waves.“
“Normally we’d send such missives straight to the bit bucket,
but on this occasion, they’re worth airing. Not just because this
is spin of a subtle quality that we rarely hear – although it is –
but it gives the best clue yet of how the industry will attempt to
massage public concern on the subject. And to be forewarned is to
be forearmed, we reckon.”
“Before we get stuck in, however, acquaint yourselves with the
CPRM proposals at first hand. The T.13 committee makes documents
freely downloadable, and the two you really want to read are the
latest Content Protection of Recordable Media proposal and a
24-slide Presentation by the same author, Jeff Lotspiech of IBM’s
Almaden Lab, which gives a bird’s eye view of the subject. Another
useful document is an article in IBM Research’s own house magazine
Doh! [shouldn’t that be Think – ed.] where CPRM’s twin brother CPPM
is discussed. This explains the mechanics of CPRM in layman’s
terms, but of how sophisticated the system is, and the challenge it
presents to would-be hackers.”