Fergie's Tech Blog

Rumors: Origami Just a Glorified Media Player with Nasty DRM?

One of our readers wrote us this morning, a long-time very senior industry insider who felt compelled to point out that:

• THE MAIN USE OF THIS DEVICE IS A DRM MEDIA PLAYER!
• All other PC functions are bonus.
• This is why VIIV is being used and previously advertised.

More on how Viiv is horrible and why you should care after the jump.

Viiv in a nutshell, from its Wikipedia entry:

“It is intended for primary use as a media platform or to play DRM-protected content created by one. Media recorded by an Intel VIIV processor is locked to the processor and may only be played by an authorized VIIV processor.”

Locked to the processor? Only be played by an authorized processor? Nasty! You’d think Microsoft would know better because Research Group invited EFF/BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow over to give a talk in 2004. The gist of what he told them:

1. That DRM systems don’t work
2. That DRM systems are bad for society
3. That DRM systems are bad for business
4. That DRM systems are bad for artists
5. That DRM is a bad business-move for MSFT

Either none of the Research Group’s many brilliant people was paying attention, or the media cartels really just don’t care. Guess which one we’re going with.

posted by Fergie @ 3/08/2006 09:57:00 AM