--- From: "Steelhead" <bill@ries-knight.net> To: "Declan@private" <declan@private> Subject: HP users cry foul at death of the open PC Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 10:34:48 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal I wondered how long folks could keep quiet. At her Keynote address for the CES conference recently, Carly Fiorina declared that all HP systems would be designed to protect DRM. As HP is a major supplier of systems to corporations, I can see this could be a selling point. The notion, however, to make all consumer systems compliant is a step beyond. In the past business platforms and "SOHO/personal user" systems had different mainboards, but almost everythin else is shared and from Industry Standard manufactrers. Will they require CD/DVD burners follow a new DRM standard? and how long until there is a software fix? and will it cripple use of old stuff? The dialog is beginning. Should we all go quietly into the showers? http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/34848.html HP users cry foul at death of the open PC By Ashlee Vance in Chicago Posted: 13/01/2004 at 17:41 GMT Get The Reg wherever you are, with The Mobile Register Letters re: HP declares war on sharing culture Based on early feedback, it seems that HP confused its corporate needs with customer needs when announcing its commitment to DRM last week at the CES conference. A boycott of HP's consumer products is the last thing the company's struggling PC business needs, but that is exactly what some readers are discussing. We'll see if HP's decision to end the open PC pays off in the long run. While we received countless letters, we can only print some of the best. And here they are. I guess Carly decided that the 60 plus million PC owners in the USA who use file sharing applications (and the many hundreds of millions worldwide) must not be part of HP's core PC market. I wonder where she will find 60+ million PC buyers in the USA who don't believe they need to try something before they buy it. ... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Bill Ries-Knight *** Stockton, CA. My views on spam and SCO http://www.ries-knight.net/index.html _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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