USB Type-C Authentication Program gets started, sounds like it's effectively DRM for Type-C devices

Today the USB-IF, the non-profit behind the USB standard's marketing and specifications, revealed the formal launch of its "USB Type-C™ Authentication Program," originally announced back in 2016. The optional program "defines cryptographic-based authentication for USB Type-C chargers and devices." If that sounds like a thinly veiled euphemism for hardware DRM to you, that's because it is.

The new authentication mechanism "empowers" vendors to "protect" us customers against "non-compliant USB chargers." Bad chargers and cables are/were a legitimate problem for the USB Type-C ecosystem (praise be to Benson), but the USB-IF's program allows for vendors to use this means of accessory certification for anything they choose.

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USB Type-C Authentication Program gets started, sounds like it's effectively DRM for Type-C devices was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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