universal serial bus (usb) 3.0 connectors were recently displayed at the just concluded 2008 international consumer electronics show (ces) in las vegas nevada. usb 3.0 theoretically supports 600 megabytes per second, that is, ten times the current usb 2.0 standard. this is a huge jump from usb 1.1's 187 kilobytes per second.
the usb implementers forum (usb-if) displayed the standard's connectors but not any functional devices. usb 3.0 connectors are deeper than their predecessors and retain usb 1.1 and 2.0 compatibility. they are deeper because usb 3.0 pins are actually behind the pins that support usb 1.1 and 2.0 specifications. don't go rushing to your nearest electronics store just yet, devices supporting the new specification won't be generally available until 2010.
i find usb 3.0's upcoming release rather interesting because in december 2007, the usb-if announced they are developing a usb cable that supports digital rights management (drm). this should come as no surprise as agere systems, apple computer, hewlett-packard, intel, nec and microsoft are a few of the forum's notable members. these members also have another thing in common; they have a stake in the successful, albeit legal delivery of high definition (hd) video content.
digital video content providers, primarily hollywood, hope to protect their valuable works as more consumers embrace hd video content on their portable devices. devices such as apple's ipod and microsoft's zune will most likely be connected to compliant computers, televisions, cable boxes and satellite receivers via a usb 3.0 cable. the usb-if hopes that the cable will limit rampant piracy that continues to plague the music industry.
the new cable will include support for intel's proprietary high-bandwidth digital content protection (hdcp). current plans are to compress video as it is transmitted though hdcp also supports encryption. the twist, the cable will not transmit drm enabled hd video data unless it receives an ok from a drm application. so anyone trying to circumvent drm needs to come up with a way of spoofing the encryption or tricking drm applications on both devices into think they are connected to legitimate cables.
my two cents if the entertainment industry cares to listen:
consumers don't want drm. drm in any form will hurt the sale of digital content. it has been proven time and time again that whenever drm enabled devices or content is introduced to the consumer, it takes some hacking group a month or less to defeat all the great copy protection features.
major music labels are finally providing drm free audio content. the new york times reports that sony bmg just announced that they will avail their entire music catalog in mp3 format on amazon.com by the end of this month. this follows emi's decision to avail its catalog in mp3 format on itunes.
prediction: drm will lose to the consumer. don't think so...
IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. "That was the moment we realised the game was completely up," says a person who was there. posted by glenn reynolds.
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