What is the correlation between HDMI and HDCP?
HDCP is not required under the HDMI spec, and it is licensed to manufacturers by a subsidiary of Intel. However, HDCP and HDMI are widely deployed together. HDCP is a must-have for “premium” content like HD movies and pay-per-view events, and it doesn’t work through anything but an HDMI or DVI connection. In other words, HDCP is facilitated rather than required by HDMI, but it’s a practical necessity for anyone who wants access to the best HD content. HDCP works quietly in the background: users won’t know it’s there, and they should not worry about it.
