[112512] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: DRM for batteries
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jon Callas)
Sun Jan 6 11:55:47 2008
In-Reply-To: <E1JAdNn-0004q8-Qt@wintermute01.cs.auckland.ac.nz>
Cc: cryptography@metzdowd.com
From: Jon Callas <jon@callas.org>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2008 12:41:07 -0800
To: Peter Gutmann <pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz>
On Jan 3, 2008, at 7:38 PM, Peter Gutmann wrote:
> http://www.intersil.com/cda/deviceinfo/0,1477,ISL6296,0.html
>
> At $1.40 each (at least in sub-1K quantities) you wonder whether
> it's costing
> them more to add the DRM (spread over all battery sales) than any
> marginal
> gain in preventing use of third-party batteries by a small subset
> of users.
Assuming that is your threat model, yes.
If your threat is that you're worried about a cheap battery flaming
in your brand of phone, that's more of a threat.
People who know how to make batteries have a so-so track record with
them. There have been many cases of off-brand batteries going into
overload.
If I were the CSO of a mobile phone company, I think I could
convincingly argue that this is a public safety issue. Let's face it,
if a battery takes out someone's leg or downs an airliner, the
headline will say my company's name, not the people who made the
battery.
If I really wanted openness, I could come up with an accreditation
process that allow responsible third parties who followed proper
quality standards to license the needed hashes.
Jon
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