Saturday, June 14, 2008

Postscript Re: Costs of DRM

One of the things involved in DRM is end-to-end encryption. The level of paranoia is such that even the bus on the motherboard can't be allowed to have "cleartext" (in this context, unencrypted content) on it. This implies that at various stages the data must be decrypted, processed, and then re-encrypted to be passed on to the next stage.

That decryption and re-encryption requires processor cycles, memory, and energy. You can thank DRM for, to some extent, slowing down your computer, increasing your electricity consumption, and shortening the time between recharges of your laptop's battery.

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