Vista as a Trojan horse
p2pnet.net news:- Just before Christmas last year, Peter Gutmann published an amazing, full-blooded Microsoft Vista critique in which he said its content protection specification, "could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history".
Now security expert Bruce Schneier blogs DRM in Vista includes "features" you don’t want which will make your computer less reliable and less secure, less stable and run slower.
"They will cause technical support problems," he states."They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software."
But, "these features won’t do anything useful," Schneier declares. "In fact, they’re working against you. They’re digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry.’
You don’t get to refuse them, so what you do?
Don’t upgrade upgrade to Vista, he states, going on, "Microsoft’s bundling deals with computer manufacturers mean that it will be increasingly hard not to get the new operating system with new computers. And Microsoft has some pretty deep pockets and can wait us all out if it wants to. Yes, some people will shift to Macintosh and some fewer number to Linux, but most of us are stuck on Windows.
"Still, if enough customers say no to Vista, the company might actually listen."
Nor are customers the only victims. "This is a war for 21st-century movie distribution and, when the dust settles, Hollywood won’t know what hit them," states Schneier.
Unfortunately, "we users are caught in the crossfire," he says. "We are not only stuck with DRM systems that interfere with our legitimate fair-use rights for the content we buy, we’re stuck with DRM systems that interfere with all of our computer use – even the uses that have nothing to do with copyright."
Schneier says Bill and the Boyz put functionality-crippling features into Vista because they want to, "own the entertainment industry".
According to Microsoft, it has no choice: "it’s Hollywood that is demanding DRM in Windows in order to allow ‘premium content’ – meaning, new movies that are still earning revenue – onto your computer," the blog goes on. "If Microsoft didn’t play along, it’d be relegated to second-class status as Hollywood pulled its support for the platform."
But, "It’s all complete nonsense." Microsoft could easily have told the entertainment industry it wasn’t going to deliberately cripple its operating system – "take it or leave it".
"With 95% of the operating system market, where else would Hollywood go?" – Schneier wonders.
The entertainment companies are finally realizing, " DRM doesn’t work, and just annoys their customers," he says.
"Like every other DRM system ever invented, Microsoft’s won’t keep the professional pirates from making copies of whatever they want. The DRM security in Vista was broken the day it was released. Sure, Microsoft will patch it, but the patched system will get broken as well. It’s an arms race, and the defenders can’t possibly win.
"I believe that Microsoft knows this and also knows that it doesn’t matter. This isn’t about stopping pirates and the small percentage of people who download free movies from the Internet. This isn’t even about Microsoft satisfying its Hollywood customers at the expense of those of us paying for the privilege of using Vista. This is about the overwhelming majority of honest users and who owns the distribution channels to them. And while it may have started as a partnership, in the end Microsoft is going to end up locking the movie companies into selling content in its proprietary formats."
Also See:
Microsoft Vista critique – Cost analysis of Vista DRM, December 22, 2007
blogs – DRM in Windows Vista, February 12, 2007
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