>http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/18/intel-wants-to-charge-50-to-unlock-stuff-your-cpu-can-already-d/

Nothing new. I've heard of a case when an enterprise here had an IBM big iron cupboard, and purchased a memory expansion to the tune of around $50K. The service guy flew in from the regional HQ in Vienna, armed with a pair of nail clippers. He shut down the machine, opened the rear panel, cut one wire, closed, rebooted and voila - your memory is doubled now.

They sold the memory with full set of chips, with some banks blocked by hardwired shorts. They know which ones to cut, depending on how much you pay. And this was in the early eighties.