The Linux kernel and digital rights management

The Linux kernel and digital rights management

Experts generally feel that the second use won't actually work, because it's too hard to protect the chain of trust from the computer manufacturer to the content provider, to manage trust of the software involved, and to manage security of the key over its potential lifetime.

There's a third use, as well: hardware vendors who want to use the flexibility of a general purpose computer in their device without giving that flexibility to the end user. Consider a car manufacturer who uses an embedded processor to control the car, rather than using a PIC or an FPGA, so that it is easier to write the firmware and deploy changes. The manufacturer doesn't want to let the user modify the firmware arbitrarily, because it opens up all kinds of liability problems. They could build a car with a public key embedded in it, and only allow kernels signed with the corresponding private key; these kernels being the ones they are willing to be liable for.

So it makes sense to have DRM in cases where it limits the risk of embedding a general computer in something which does not need to be a general computer.