Will fuzzy monitors rule?
p2pnet.net News:- A rose is still a rose, even if you call it PVP-OPM.
That`s short for Protected Video Path – Output Protection Management. And that, in turn, is long for fuzzy DRM.
But PVP-OPM isn`t like fuzzy logic, strange and cool. It`s, New output content protection mechanisms planned for the next version of Microsoft Windows codenamed `Longhorn`, say Bill and the Boyz proudly.
It guards against hardware attacks while playing premium content and output “protection” mechanisms include:
Output Protection Management (PVP-OPM) makes sure the PC’s video outputs have required protection or that they`re turned off if such protection is not available.
User-Accessible Bus (PVP-UAB) provides encryption of premium content as it passes over the PCI Express (PCIe) bus to the graphics adapter. This is required when the content owner’s policy regards the PCIe bus as a user-accessible bus.
Protected User Mode Audio (PUMA), or the new User Mode Audio (UMA) engine in the Longhorn Protected Environment that provides a safer environment for audio playback, as well as checking that the enabled outputs are consistent with what the content allows.
Protected Audio Path (PAP) is a future initiative under investigation for how to provide encryption of audio over user accessible buses.
Which is all MS-Babble for a form of DRM which, in simple terms, will make your monitor display look blurry. Unless you’re running pre-approved content. And it’s prettily dressed up to look like protection against hackers.
Or, as Peter Rojas puts it in Engadget, With Longhorn, Microsoft will begin pushing opium. Well, technically it`s OPM. However, opium might be a good option for those livid that the video content being sent to their pristine 24-inch Dell LCD monitors is purposefully being `fuzzied`.
But it goes further than blurry monitors.
Microsoft is, “working actively to ensure that a Longhorn PC supports the needs of both consumers and content owners, and that it works seamlessly across a broad range of other devices, networks, and protocols.” says a white paper by Dave Marsh, program manager, Windows Media Technologies.
“As we move towards the next evolution in the distribution and consumption of content, we are working on many fronts to create new experiences that drive the industry forward,” he says.
Translated, this means Bill and the Boyz will force anyone who uses Longhorn to obey rules determined by them, and by the entertainment and software cartels.
This demands:
[open quotes] the ability to respect business rules across many dimensions, including:
Content coming into a PC from cable, satellite, over the Internet, or on physical media such as next-generation DVDs.
Management of the content on the PC including providing a robust infrastructure that allows ISVs to add value without needing to worry about supporting DRM natively in their applications.
Respecting business rules as content leaves the PC [close quotes]
Delivering “experiences” demands, “significant coordination from technology companies, entertainment companies, government regulators, and service providers but no amount of coordination will be successful unless it`s designed with the needs of the consumer in mind,” says Marsh.
Ah Yes. The Consumer.
Later, he says:
“Content owners need to be able to specify how others access their Intellectual Property or else there will be no incentive for them to allow content to flow across different distribution vehicles and throughout the home to provide the new experiences everyone seeks.
“To date the Windows Media Format, and the Windows Media DRM platform have been key enablers of new experiences on the PC, and on a growing number of device types. While this ecosystem continues to grow, any company can take advantage of the open architecture of the PC and Windows to develop their own DRM system or media format and many have.”
The white paper describes how anti-hacker “output protection mechanisms complement the protection against software attacks provided by the Protected Environment in Windows Longhorn” and .how, “This collection of protect-tion mechanisms helps make the Longhorn PC a much safer place for premium content”.
So what makes up the collection? Bill and the Boyz sum things up like this:
PVP-OPM provides output control
PVP-OPM provides reliable control of the various output protection schemes such as HDCP, Macrovision, CGMS-A, and resolution constrictors. It uses a simpler form of HFS for authentication and requires Content Industry robustness rules to be met for hardware implementations.
PVP requires a certificate
Manufacturers of graphics cards must implement the various protection mechanisms on card outputs, and must ensure that drivers have robust control of those outputs. Manufacturers must sign the PVP-OPM license to get a PVP-OPM certificate for their drivers. Without the certificate, Windows Longhorn will not be allowed to pass premium content to the driver.
PVP-UAB provides bus encryption
PVP-UAB provides encryption of premium content as it passes over the PCIe bus to discrete graphics cards. It uses Diffie Hellman to establish as session key, seeded HFS for authentication, and AES 128-bit counter mode and an optional High Bandwidth Cipher for encrypting the data.
PUMA provides a protected environment for audio
PUMA is the UMA engine (completely new for Longhorn) running in the Longhorn Protected Environment. PUMA also includes the same level of audio output protection management that is provided by Windows XP SAP, but it is done in a completely different way and takes advantage of the Longhorn Protected Environment.
PAP is long term, but start thinking now
PAP is a much longer-term project that might aim to introduce encryption all the way to audio codec chips. It would have significant audio hardware implications, and would take years to do. Even though it is a long way in the future, it is good to start thinking about possibilities now.
Back to monitors, “To be fair it`s not just Microsoft,” says Rojas in Engadget.
“The next generation of digital content will, by and large, be protected to the display. Recently Toshiba released their HD-DVD specifications and have dictated HDMI/HDCP as a display requirement for playing back high-definition content. Most expect Blu-ray to have similar restrictions.
“What makes the PC situation so insidious is that nearly every monitor being sold today will fall victim to this gotcha. Blame whomever you like (the monitor manufacturers should shoulder their portion of the blame too), just be careful when buying a monitor these days. Or at least know that you could be setting yourself up for disappointment.”
Definitely stay tuned.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
Longhorn – Output Content Protection and Windows Longhorn, April 27, 2005
Engadget – The Clicker: Microsoft`s OPM for the masses, July 14, 2005
July 16th, 2005 at 3:26 pm
Mnnnn maybe soon will be time to move back to a Mac…
July 16th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
If microsoft forces this to become a monitor standard…. then all monitors will eventually have it.
This means.. just like HDCP.. that the encryption wouldnt matter would it? DRM is supposed to prevent interaction by deliberate incompatibility.. but mandating HDCP in everything would be like mandating CSS encrytion handling in everything… in that case everything would work with CSS and the protection becomes meaningless.
It’s like mandating the same exact lock on every door in the USA… breakins are no longer prevented because everyone’s house has the same key.
July 16th, 2005 at 4:17 pm
This will give people even more incentive to move to Linux.
Morg
July 16th, 2005 at 6:09 pm
This is just plain bad.
Has Microsoft suddenly begun thinking that software is unhackable? I’m going to bet that Longhorn will not be a success if the DRM is enabled on monitors. How can it be backward compatible, otherwise?
Here’s my scenario:
Longhorn will be introduced with OPM.
Compliance with Windows standards is sketchy, so that will generate complaints, especially if media content owners jump on the bandwagon right away.
Those using older equipment will draw complaints.
Microsoft will be slow to react so software hackers will offer patched versions of Longhorn. Hardware hacks may also offer video cards with workarounds. Most people will stay with Microsoft XP (sorry I don’t agree about Linux because it isn’t as easy and people are too familiar with Windows).
Microsoft will be forced to abandon OPM because of lagging sales.
July 16th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
MS is really getting delusional. I guess they forget sometimes that they are in a free market, and stupid crap like this (which won’t make them a DIME) is going to sink them.
They are already losing ground VERY quickly to the open-source movement, especially in the business/gov’t environment. Put a bunch of dumb DRM snake-oil into the OS and let’s see how many people/companies are willing to pay a few hundred dollars for their shitty OS when you can get one for free that has wider support. Watch how fast Dell and others start offering a decent MS-free OEM systems.
And if the hardware manus want to start sticking DRM crap into their products that only serves the corporate establishment, watch and see what happens to their profits. Even if they could successfully ram this shit down our throuts, it would be hacked SO fast (remember what happened with CSS?)
I tell ya, these corporate stuffed-shirts spend so much time in the ivory tower they forget just how weak they really are…
DRM, the snake-oil of the 21st century. Even old Bill gets fooled…
July 16th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
You’ve already heard from me if your a regular poster here. I have started using linux for the security issues with windoze. More and more it is getting to the be OS of choice for me. I like linux.
Microsucks has made a deal with the devil. Content owners are saying they won’t allow their content out unless it is protected from theft (also from fair use in the process). If the hardware won’t support the protection as the content owners wish then the hardware makers can’t get licenses for the patents. They are finally trying to close all the doors in that effort.
Heres news for them. I won’t be going to Longhorn. I got enough computers here that it will be a long time before I ever have to buy another computer. A long time. Bill and the Boyz can do what the heck they want, I won’t be part of this insanity.
July 16th, 2005 at 7:14 pm
An interesting fact about HDTV. Sky TV in the UK is going to be broadcast its Premiership games in HDTV from this season. This has forced the outside broadcast television companies to invest heavily in new equipment. I worked on the Isle of Wight Festival this year in HDTV at 1080p – very nice looking pics, but there is a catch to this whole scenario.
HDTV is a format that is going to take years to become dominant over NTSC and PAL. Why? Because of the following: The consumer. All of the world still owns an analog television. The TV companies in the States would love to have moved over to PAL, as NTSC is a poor standard, but broadcasters never did. Why? Because you would have to convince an entire nation to dump their television sets. Today, television sets come in dual standard – PAL & NTSC.
My point is this: the consumer will decide what happens. You have to convince millions of people to upgrade and get rid of their monitors. People, unless going to TFT do not upgrade their monitors. This entire process is costly and at the end of day – people will be resistant to having to upgrade their monitors for the same reason that people have not gone to digital television – the cost and the hassle. Why get rid of something that is perfectly fine!
July 16th, 2005 at 7:31 pm
too much techno-babble. i don’t understand a word of it, or why you’re all so upset.
someone please explain in simple english.
July 16th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
yeah please someone write an article with the very basics laid out simple.
July 16th, 2005 at 7:43 pm
What this basically means is this: You have a PC with a PCI express gfx card. The GFX card will have drivers that must comply to the Digital Rights Management system that the OS will have be enforcing.
So, if you want to record a television show off satellite and it has DRM encoding and your monitor is a non-compliant monitor, you will in all probability not see anything.
What the content providers – read the movie studios, music companies and television companies want is to enforce is copyright. Microsoft is providing a means to that. The new OS Longhorn will control your hardware. What they want to do is ensure that all components of your system will be DRM compliant, so that when you download from Itunes, or record a television show, the hardware will control piracy. If a component does not obey what the OS commands, the system will crash or in this case you will see a black monitor.
July 16th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
it is not there to prevent “piracy”.. it is there to prevent fair use.
one does not have to decrypt information to copy and share it (since all official players can decrypt the same dvd… you can make and share an image with no decryption what soever).
BACK ON TOPIC HOWEVER:
“If a component does not obey what the OS commands, the system will crash or in this case you will see a black monitor.”
not exactly.. you will see a “down rezzed” monitor… additionally theyre using this “new requirement” to push any and ALL video and audio card manufacturers to incorporate hardware based DRM into their chips…
This is highly costly not only for consumers, but for Open Source developers.. as ALL OPEN DRIVERS FOR LINUX would become illegal.
July 16th, 2005 at 8:09 pm
Since these companies are so busy tying us to unfair contract terms and electronic regulation via DRM… why shouldn’t we do the same?
I suggest we lobby for the right to electronically set the terms of use for the revenues we give these companies and see how they like it for a change.
the credit we transfer to them through accounts could be set for use only in delaware.. for convenience store purchases.
It could be earmarked with rules stating it cannot be used to pay sweatshop workers or outsourcers…. or you could do what they do… mark it as “non-transferrable”.. meaning they are only allowed to hold the money..not spend it.
July 16th, 2005 at 8:26 pm
I absolutely agree: it is there to prevent fair use.
The black monitor – it is a possibility alongside fuzzy pics. I would’nt put it past MS to do something like that!
July 17th, 2005 at 2:09 am
i know eh, who would want to have to go out and buy music, lol jk i do , no-infinging uses rule, ya heard that court?
July 17th, 2005 at 3:02 am
“Revenue Rights Management”
The right to not spend anything on crap like this.
The ultimate “Revenue Right “
July 17th, 2005 at 9:16 pm
Will it protect against camcorders? I doubt it. I personally quit running Winblows, but if it is absolutely necessary, I will use their protected monitors, and their LongHorn to show their “protected content” to my trusty camcorder. It can then be re-encoded to a user friendly format and redistributed. Sorry Billy Boy, your crapware designed to contol information has gone out the door before it has been actually “invented.”
I used this same technique to defeat DVD’s before DVD rippers came out. It worked great. As it has been said many times, “If it can be seen or heard, it can be copied.” Give it up, Billy Boy, because the cartels have lost control. We the CUSTOMERS are boss now.
July 17th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
Even if these cartels were able to absolutely control how people watch or listen to their material (which they will not), people will choose better content. Thanks to computer networks such as the Internet, the average person can produce content that may reach millions around the world. My computer programs are used by many different people. I distributed these over the Internet and FreeWan at very little cost. I could have never reached the market without the help of computer networks such as the Internet.
I listen to independent music that is much better than the crap that you find on the various top charts. This independent music is usually available for free downloads (legally). Some Internet shows are much more interesting to listen to then the crap that is on the airwaves.
I have also been downloading independent video. I do have to admit that much of the video produced by the average users is crap, but I see it changing gradually for the better. I have enjoyed such independent video as “The Scene,” portions of “Freedom Downtime,” and many others. The corporate imagination machine has run out of orginal material. The media cartels have to pesent their ideas to focus groups and such in order to determine if a particular film or portion of it is offensive to large segments of the audience. An independent producer just produces the movie and releases it. He or she lets the market be determined by the number of downloads.
An example of this story is what is called the “Turner Diaries.” This is a text file that contains a story on how racists take over the world. Many people find this type of material offensive (I do, I’m Jewish). However this file is emensly popular among a big segment of the population. Like Linux, BSD, Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, and other open source software is putting a big dent in the sales of inferior software from the cartels, independent media will wrest control of information from the cartels should they continue down their current path of intimidation, control, and coercion. It is time for a new order
July 18th, 2005 at 12:53 am
The turner diaries was the title of a book.
It did not start as a text file.
You seem to have an optimistic point of view.
keep in mind all these “requirements” will have to become standard in order to work with longhorn (90% of all OEM machines).
This will mean almost all hardware manufacturers from motherboard manufacturers to video card makers will have to incorporate DRM into their cards.
In the short term this means complete lockout of linux driver development under the DMCA. In the long term this means eventual and complete lockdown of all windows-primary pc’s at the hardware level.
I’m not saying it can’t be cracked… but what a mess!
we’re talking exclusion of all legal open source or third party development for PCs here!.
July 18th, 2005 at 4:54 am
When this happens and there is no choice at all, I will do the same as I have done with buying music, buying movies, buying cable, and the like. Simply, I will find a new hobby and it won’t be involving computers and the internet.
As much as the cartels would have you stuck with no choice, there is one thing they can’t do; that is pull money out of your pocket without your assistance. I don’t agree to such and if I as a customer am not satisfied then I won’t spend the money.
Their lock-down has little effect if you don’t use their products. As they are steadily making the whole computer scene more and more less user friendly, I suspect that there will be some percentage that doesn’t follow the crowd. Already I am making the switch to linux as I don’t like what I see in the microsucks offerings. When the computer equipment fails to accept linux and nothing will support it, I simply will refuse to buy. Call it consumer revolt or whatever but I for one will stick with it.
July 18th, 2005 at 12:22 pm
Thats why i wouldnt touch the steaming pile of shir but move o to linux or stick with my hacked version of xp which works just fine
July 18th, 2005 at 1:31 pm
The revolt is lready happening in places like China, Central and South America, many parts of Europe and other locations. The revolt is called Linux. Whether we like Linux or not, it is a movement that cannot be stopped without causing very serious disruptions within many governments, industries, and other groups. The cartels moved way too slowly to stop the open source movement.
Companies are pretty much forced to produce hardware that is compatable with Linux. I hardware becomes only compatable with Windows, then the producing company will lose a very big market share. Also anything that is compatable with MacOs is pretty much compatable with Linux because MacOS is based on BSD Unix. BSD is also open source, and that makes it easier to reverse engineer the drivers. Just as it is hard for companies to filter spam based on content, it will be as hard to filter source code.
I recommend that anyone who is friends with a local politition show him or her the benefits of Linux and get him or her hooked. That way, he or she will be less likely to find ways of passing laws against it.
July 18th, 2005 at 1:41 pm
Yes, these card will be required to obey DRM, Hackers may be able to findways around this DRM or maybe not. If not, then Linux will not be able to run content that has the DRM, but it will be able to still run free content. There will always be ways to strip DRM from content so that it is free.
Where do you think much of hacker’s information comes from? Like in “The Scene” there are many of us who work in the entertainment cartels. When I was into phones, I got most of my information from telephone company employess. How? simply by asking. The cartels thrive by using peoples’ labour. Hackers work in the labour force. They have access to the inside information that helps the rest of the world. If companies treated people correctly and actually paid them what they are worth, it would go a long way to reduce incentives to leak information. Of course, if companies did this, then they would not have to use coercion to force the issue and DRM would be a moot point.
July 18th, 2005 at 4:32 pm
Unfortunately.. linux depends on open drivers which are often third party.
This is unfortunate because if DRM is built into everything added on to a PC then any linux driver can be considered an unauthorized circumvention device under the DMCA.
No matter how many congressmen don’t mind linux.. they already passed the law back in 1998.
July 18th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
You think apple won’t follow suit? The content “owners” will demand hardware protection for content regardless of platform.
July 18th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
Makes sense to me. One thing to keep in mind. You will not be able to view or listen to this “premium” content they are refering to. I don’t want anything to do with so called premium content much less “trusted” computing so I’m thinking I’ll be switching to Linux too.
July 18th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
What it really comes down to, if I understand this correctly is that Longhorn will only affect DRM enabled content – Itunes, movies that are downloaded from the Studios and so on. If you have your own non-DRM DVD quality movie downloaded from the p2p networks, this won’t apply. I assume that this is just to ensure that DRM is respected – in other words, you only use what you pay for, and cannot share it. I can’t M$ screwing up backward compatibility. I think that Longhorn is a sign of things to come. However, I believe that if you can see it, you can copy it, if you can hear, it you can copy it. There will always be a way to circumvent copy protection in any form. And hardware copy protection is not fool proof either. A friend of mine has Avid Video Editing software – an authentic version along with a dongle that makes the software work. The dongle circumvents the copy protection.
July 19th, 2005 at 9:28 am
However,
The much-maligned Pentagon has recently signed major contracts with — GASP — Redhat, a Linux / Linux support reseller. The CIO’s in government know full well that Windows is an unsecurable, expensive, resource-hogging piece of crap. Many USG Departments are now using Linux as their backbone servers. M$ is losing that market and this content ballywho is not going to have any impact there. The USG is turning to Linux, and as W says, you are either with us or with the terrorists.
Even M$ doesn’t know what is in its own code since so much of it is either illegible or written by people living in countries hostile to the US (India, China). Heck, they still let ISRAELIS write all their security and crypto code (including their firewall server, ISA), but that’s OK, I am sure we can trust them not to leave any back doors in there. If you doubt that you can trust those developers just ask the surviving members of the crew of the USS Liberty about the Israeli’s trustworthiness. Or the crew of the USS Cole. (Gee, where would an Arab get 2000+ kg of C4? Don’t they always use Semtex?)
Let M$ do as it will, but if it thinks it is going to turn off DOD and USG computers with this asinine idea, well, perhaps they too can become guests of the government in that wonderful new federal resort in Gitmo.
And as for the “content providers”: screw you. You are nothing but useless parasites pushing mindless garbage. When the next generation of artists finally figures out just how useless and evil you are, they might actually begin to bypass you en masse, selling their art directly to their fans over the Internet. Then you can jump right on to the ash heap of history where you so richly deserve to be. Hear that, David Geffen? We don’t need you anymore. You are a useless anachronism.
July 19th, 2005 at 10:42 am
Bill, Bill what you done. The devil always collects and torments the soul. You don’t think people will put up with this, do you ?
“Fuzzy monitors” more like your getting a fuzzy brain.
July 19th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
I couldn’t have said it better
July 20th, 2005 at 5:59 am
And when the premium content doesn’t play, what is Microsoft going to say? I can see it now:
customer: The picture on my screen is all fuzzy when I play this.
Microsoft: Sorry, but you need to upgrade your monitor to view the premium content.
customer: I will not upgrade my monitor which is perfectly fine. Fix this.
Microsoft: Sorry, but the only way to fix it is to upgrade your monitor.
customer: I’m switching to Linux.
July 20th, 2005 at 6:03 am
Exactly. The signal must become analog at some point. Hell, you could tap the audio right off the speaker if you wanted to.
July 20th, 2005 at 8:23 am
Hehe! Go on Microsoft, shoot yourselves in the foot! Linux will be there to pick up your customer base!!
