To: appro who wrote (8930 ) 1/5/2001 1:17:33 AM From: appro Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 9256 Follow-up to CPRM copyright protector in ATA standard to include "switch".theregister.co.uk >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 4C retreats in Copy Protection storm By: Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco Posted: 04/01/2001 at 08:44 GMT The 4C group of computer component makers appears likely to approve modifications to its proposed CPRM content control mechanism, handing a degree of control back to the end user. The proposed inclusion of CPRM (Content Protection for Removable Media) into the ATA standard - at the behest of the entertainment industry - was first revealed in The Register shortly before Christmas. It has generated a storm of public protest, condemnation of the idea of 'pay-per-read' disk drives, and a call for boycotts of CPRM-compliant hardware vendors from EFF co-founder John Gilmore. Under new proposals submitted to 4C by Linux IDE guru Andre Hedrick, users would be able to control the use of CPRM on their machines. Hedrick represents the Linux community interests on the NCITS T.13 committee, and attended the two meetings which have discussed the incorporation of CPRM into the ATA standard used by hard drives. "Users will be able to turn it off and lock it off, so effectively it's not there anymore," he says. The entertainment industry would nevertheless be able distribute CPRM-aware content, although the ultimate decision on accepting such content would be the end user, who will also be able to isolate the files to a separate partition. "This way, everybody wins," he says... (see additional omitted text at The Register link) ...Bootnote Silicon Valley's influential San Jose Mercury made the CPRM story front page news last Friday. Although the Merc didn't credit The Register - that's bad manners, but we're used to it - it did credit Richard M Stallman with being "author" of The Hackers Dictionary... which will raise a wry smile to anyone familiar with Eric Raymond's Jargon File... <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< oops : )