The Video Electronics Standards Association ("VESA") said Monday that a few key electronics and component OEMs are on the brink of finalizing a standard unified interface for LCD, plasma, CRT, and projection displays, dubbed "DisplayPort". Products with the new technology will likely begin rolling out in early 2006.

VESA's strategy for DisplayPort is two-pronged: accelerate the adoption of high-definition digital displays (manufacturers are drooling), and replace the mess of confusing standards and incompatibilities associated with them. DisplayPort is primarily aimed at replacing DVI, which is beginning to show its limitations when it comes to certain high-def displays, though standard analog VGA and the short-lived HDMI are also targets. Bill Lempesis, a spokesman for VESA, seemed to imply that HDMI had already been put on the back-burner, before most displays with the interface standard have even shown their faces.

So far, so good ...

DisplayPort is apparently part of a shift toward "trusted" computing, where a trusted OS kernel would transfer trusted data according to certain permissions, displaying it only on certain trusted devices. The content protection system for DisplayPort is being developed by Philips, and leverages many existing content protection components including AES encryption, Lempesis said.

Microsoft's "Longhorn" OS is being designed with a trusted capability, and the company's latest version of Microsoft Office also allows a user to establish permissions for documents. Trusted Platform Modules, the independent chip that serves as the hardware foundation for trust, is already mounted within millions of PCs. So far, ATI, Nvidia and other graphics makers have remained mum about specific plans to provide trusted graphics accelerators that would only display content if approved by the content's author.

... Though there's the snag. I'm all for fair use rights, but I also respect the wishes and certain restrictions that content owners put on their stuff. If I buy a movie, I don't care what kind of protection is on the media/content, as long as I can play it on my hardware with no catch. If I can't rip it to give a copy to a friend, I'm not going to complain (nor should anyone else) -- that's a violation of copyright laws, and I respect that. Now we arrive at something like this.

In my opinion, this is going a bit far. Suddenly I don't have the power to view content on a certain display if Manufacturer/Producer X decides that they don't want me using that display with their content? What will this lead to?

"Sorry, you can't play this movie on such a ginormous TV screen -- it will amount to public broadcasting."
"Sorry, you are licensed to view this content on only one type of display -- you cannot play this movie on the TV connected to your PC."
"Sorry, the manufacturer of this low-end display has not paid us enough royalties, and we cannot allow you to view any movies on it."

Sure, I'm probably exagerrating (then again, how do I know?), but by allowing companies to pursue and implement this kind of technology, we're only giving them the leash to our choke chains. It's all fun and games, until they decide to give it a tug.