Summary: Samsung Electronics signs a DRM deal with Microsoft, on top of the Linux patent deal

Samsung's patent deal with Microsoft has been damaging to Linux and we have a special page about the subject. The latest development teaches us that Samsung not only helps Microsoft by enabling Microsoft 'tax' on Linux based on some software patents that were never revealed or proven to be legitimately applicable; Samsung will also exclude Free (as in freedom) platforms from "entertainment" by promoting Microsoft lock-in with DRM.

Here is the press release which says that "Samsung Electronics and Microsoft Announce Plans to Expand Access to Digital Entertainment"

Samsung adopts PlayReady technology in its consumer devices to enable easy access and transfer of content among TVs, mobile phones, set-top boxes and other devices.

We've only found this one article about it:

Samsung to use Microsoft's DRM on handhelds, TVs

[...]

The first PlayReady-compatible Samsung devices will ship later in 2010, and Samsung expects to change all of its electronics devices from Windows Media DRM to PlayReady by 2012.

Microsoft and Samsung have been close partners for quite a few years, primarily because Microsoft is claimed to have helped Samsung sell hardware like memory chips. At Techrights we consider companies like Samsung and its Korean neighbour LG to be a danger to Linux, not friends. They change how Linux is treated by the market by making the statement that Microsoft should be paid for each Linux instance sold [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. ⬆