Craig Barrett, the chief executive officer of Intel Corp., has called for the adoption of a worldwide DRM (digital rights management) system that allows consumers the flexibility to manipulate the content they own in ways of their choosing and has criticized some existing or proposed systems for the restrictions they enforce. Barrett was speaking in Tokyo on Tuesday as part of a seminar to promote Intel’s vision of the future digital home.
At the heart of the company’s envisaged digital home is a set of standards that allow computer and consumer electronics devices to interconnect and communicate with each other. Such standards are being developed by the Digital Home Working Group, of which Intel is one of 17 founding members, and the group is expected to publish its first specification during the next quarter, he said. Devices based on the standard are expected to begin appearing in the second half of this year.[more @ www.infoworld.com]