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Re: [News] ATi Likes Its Proprietary Drivers

__/ [ Mark Kent ] on Sunday 13 August 2006 22:17 \__

> begin  oe_protect.scr
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> ATI: We like our proprietary Linux drivers
>> 
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>| "Proprietary, patented optimizations are part of the value we provide to
>>| our customers and we have no plans to release these drivers to open
>>| source," the company said in a statement. "In addition, multimedia
>>| elements such as content protection must not, by their very nature,
>>| be allowed to go open source."
>>| 
>>| It's possible that position could change if Advanced Micro Devices'
>>| acquisition of ATI goes through, but so far AMD hasn't committed one
>>| way or the other.
>> `----
>> 
>>
http://news.com.com/2061-10791_3-6104655.html?part=rss&amp;tag=6104655&amp;subj=news
>> 
>> There were some rumours recently about AMD open-sourcing those drivers.
>> 
>> http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/08/02/32OPcurve_1.html
> 
> Why shouldn't content protection go open-source?  Done properly, it
> shouldn't make any difference.

Maybe the implementation of content protection mechanism ought to remain a
secret. Look at CSS in DVD's, for example... facilitates ripping on 'that
communist platform'...

I suspect that AMD just wanted to cling on to the "Open Source" buzzword (or
buzzphrase) and appeal to a niche. It's no coincidence that it happened on
exactly the same day when Intel announced open-sourcing of some chips (all
done informally in mailing lists).

When it to walking the walk, AMD is hesitant. It's better at talking the
talk. Many people will not notice if AMD retracted the plans. Retraction, as
opposed to proactive decisions, don't make headlines. This relates to
arguments about Linux deployments and why we never hear about whether they
succeeded or not. It's just not press material beyond the point of the
decision and process of migration (upgrade) to GNU/Linux.

By the way, there are Open Source projects that implement DRM. Sun is not
alone in this...


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