RIP Andre Hedrick. If you are reading this, you owe him a little something.

The Register pays respects to an unsung hero of computer freedom:

CPRM is widely used today as the encryption scheme for SD cards. But by the summer of 2001, and thanks largely to Andre’s unsung efforts that spring, it was never implemented as a standard, official or otherwise.

This would be the last time the entertainment industry would attempt to define standards for the technology industry. Today, millions of people use digital restriction management systems that lock down books, songs and music – the Amazon Kindle, the BBC iPlayer and Spotify are examples – but consumers enter into the private commercial agreement knowingly. It isn’t set by default in the factory, as it might have been. The PC remains open rather than becoming an appliance.

Andre was never comfortable taking the credit he really deserved for this achievement.

Tags: computer science