As another tid-bit, in the early days of the open-source AMD driver effort there were concerns around exposing GPU video acceleration in the open-source driver as to not potentially compromise HDCP / digital video restrictions with MPEG-LA and the like.

How much of this fuckery boils down to the corporate media imposing DRM? Even aside from the DRM aspect, I can imagine reasons why a video card manufacturer might want to keep control of the drivers.