"You can only play with our toys if you follow our rules", Re: Intel to include DRM in new Pentium 4 series processors

[David Wagner]

Brian Gladman wrote:
>Matthew Astley wrote:
>> I would summarise it as "you can only play with our toys if you follow
>> our rules".
>
>Actually its slightly different: "you can only play with our toys if you
>follow the rules we agreed with you at the time you purchased them".

This is probably a tangent, but I guess I don't see how it's
different.

Disney is free to change its requirements after I purchase a TCPA
machine: for instance, tomorrow Disney might allow anyone with a
Win2000 or WinXP box to view their movies, but the day after that,
they might restrict access to just WinXP users (after the next
security hole in Win2000 is found, say).

Unless... maybe you meant that "Disney gets to require whatever it
wants, changed at any time, in return for access to Disney movies"
are the rules agreed upon at purchase?  If so, this strikes me as
a distinction that makes little difference in practice.