On: The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

[onli]

My understanding is that it is about what is the output. The 3.5mm jack outputs the regular audio data. You could just make it output encrypted data, but that is the same as removing it, all the headphones won't work. If you replace it with a proprietary system you can add in DRM, like not outputting anything if the connected device (which can be an adapter) is not certified. Everything has to get transformed into regular data at one point, but the content mafia is trying since many years to control as many parts of the system as possible. This is one further step.

I could be a bit off the mark here, not my area.

[cr1895 → onli]

>The 3.5mm jack outputs the regular audio data. You could just make it output encrypted data, but that is the same as removing it, all the headphones won't work.

The 3.5mm jack outputs an analog signal. It's already been converted from digital data to an analog signal by the phone's DAC chip.

[em3rgent0rdr → cr1895]

but hypothetically you could send a digital encrypted signal over the audio 3.5mm jack, provided that the receiving device has an ADC and can decrypt.

[cr1895 → em3rgent0rdr]

So D > A > Encr. A > D > A > Ear?

In practice that sounds ridiculous.

[TeMPOraL → cr1895]

There are a lot of ridiculous things going on every day in many areas of life that are there just because someone wants to make a buck.

[marcosdumay → cr1895]

All of DRM sounds (and actually is) ridiculous.