BIOS maker Phoenix developing DRM-equipped BIOS versions

Although DRM technology has moved steadily forward, consumers
have had some choice whether to implement it. Selected software providers
in various markets, such as Intuit and Macromedia, have chosen to
implement DRM, allowing consumers to choose DRM-less alternatives.

Phoenix's efforts, however, represent a
more fundamental sea change. Phoenix is a manufacturer of BIOS software,
the underlying code which ties together a PC's operating system and the
system hardware. Since a personal computer must have BIOS installed to
boot, a user could be forced to use the DRM technology whether he or she
chooses to or not.

The Phoenix-Orbid deal was designed to
allow content providers the ability to "track and trace" content which
might be shared from one user to the next, Eades said.

"DRM seems to be becoming a bigger and
bigger issue, particularly in…entertainment," Eades said. "Track and trace
downloads and the authentication of those downloads is a big issue, but a
number of companies do that. Track and trace of a particular solution,
however, is done by very few companies."

Orbid's 4DRM software creates a secure
area to store public keys, which can be used to tie any file to that
specific PC. The 4DRM system creates a unique identifier for both the
content as well as the system, allowing the content providers to manage
the content on a user's PC. Orbid previously developed "watermarking"
solutions to identify content and prevent it from being distributed or
copied, which it calls "gray trading".

Phoenix and Orbid have created a working
version of the software that Phoenix is now demonstrating for its OEM
customers, Eades said. The DRM software will be shipped as a default
option inside the cME package. "It's up to the OEM whether or not to
insert it on the machine," he said. "We are offering it as a default
option and it's up to them to remove it."

An OEM will also have to decide whether
or not to allow an end user to turn the DRM feature off, Eades said.

Whether or not OEMs will adopt the
new technology remains to be seen. Microsoft's NGSCB technology is
currently tied to Longhorn, Microsoft's OS revision due in about two
year's time.