Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[barge]

DRM---Here is Michael Sprague TVTonic article with a very intriguing headline! lol!

While the article places emphasize on the TPM chip, it should noted that TVTonic as a subscription management service also works very well WITHOUT a TPM.

While folks talks about all of the TPMs out there on the Enterprise side, there is little mention of the MILLIONS of TPMs on the Xbox and Apple, and the growing Vista Ultimate side.

TPM usage does NOT even necessarily require Authentication. TPMs can also be used to simply provide bulletproof Credit Card and other personal information combined with Password Management---those basic and simple TPM services by themselves would galvanize the masses.

Simply put, there are many gradations on both the TPM and non-TPM to kick start Trusted Computing with one big bang! The tendency here has been to frame the discussion in terms of full-fledged TPM/DRM services. That simplifies and falsifies the discussion. As the article below makes clear there are myriad potential business models.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gardner/index.php?p=2368

Subscriber content on the PC — for consumers or business audiences first?

Posted by Dana Gardner @ 10:16 am

Had a nice chat with Michael Sprague, president of Wavexpress, about their TVTonic and TechTonic brands. If you scratch beneath the covers here a bit and consider the implications for subscriber-purchased Internet content, you'll see a model quite different from Google's and Apple's.

Indeed, this may become the Microsoft-preferred method for monetizing content via the Web. Thanks to the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip now common on business PCs, more than just a security subsystem is in play. Sure, the TPM adds hardware-based security for use of the disk, etc. But it also sets the stage for a content subscriber management platform, as Sprague explains."

So how does Microsoft fit in? These TPM chips will ship on consumer PCs (not just business ones) that have Vista. Vista also has within it the newest Windows Media Center. If you combine the Media Center function — linking web content to the home television with a great interface for managing web content as if it were TV Guide on steroids — with the subscriber management capabilities in the TPM chip, well, then you have paid, managed content over the web.