Hollywood demands for Vista
p2pnet.net News View:- Bill and the Boyz have published a paper discussing what they describe as the "new output content protection mechanisms" in Longhorn, read Vista.
"The goal for these new capabilities is to help ensure that the PC is a safer place for premium content," they say with straight faces.
Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hollywood Controlling Parts of Windows Vista Design
By Edward E. Felten – Freedom to Tinker
A recent white paper (2MB Word file) from Microsoft details the planned “output content protection” in the upcoming Windows Vista (previously known as Longhorn) operating system product. It’s a remarkable document, illustrating the real costs of Hollywood’s quest to redesign the PC’s video hardware and software.
The document reveals that movie studios will have explicit veto power over what is included in some parts of Vista. For example, pages 22-24 describe the “High Bandwidth Cipher” which will be used to encrypt video data is it passes across the PC’s internal PCIe bus. Hollywood will allow the use of the AES cipher, but many PCs won’t be able to run AES fast enough, leading to stutter in the video. People are free to design their own ciphers, but they must go through an approval process before being included in Windows Vista. The second criterion for acceptance is this:
Content industry acceptance
The evidence must be presented to Hollywood and other content owners, and they must agree that it provides the required level of security. Written proof from at least three of the major Hollywood studios is required.
The document also describes how rational designs are made more expensive and complicated, or ruled out entirely, by the “robustness” rules Hollywood is demanding. Here’s an example, from page 27:
Given the data throughput possible with PCIe, there is a new class of discrete graphics cards that, to reduce costs, do not have much memory on the board. They use system memory accessed over the PCIe bus.
In the limit, this lack of local memory means that, for example, to decode, de-interlace, and render a frame of HD may require that an HD frame be sent backward and forward over the PCIe bus many times — it could be as many as 10 times.
The frames of premium content are required to be [encrypted] as they pass over the PCIe bus to system memory, and decrypted when they safely return to the graphics chip. It is the responsibility of the graphics chip to perform the encryption and decryption.
…
Depending on the hardware implementation, the on-chip cipher engine [which wouldn’t be necessary absent the “robustness” requirements] might, or might not, go fast enough to encrypt the 3 GByte/sec (in each direction) memory data bandwidth.
These are just a few examples from a document that describes one compromise after another, in which performance, cost, and flexibility are sacrificed in a futile effort to prevent video content from leaking to the darknet. And the cost is high. As just one example, nearly all of us will have to discard our PC’s monitors and buy new ones to take advantage of new features that Microsoft could provide- more easily and at lower cost – on our existing monitors, if Hollywood would only allow it.
There can be little doubt that Microsoft is doing this because Hollywood demands it; and there won’t be much doubt among independent security experts that none of these compromises will make a dent in the availability of infringing video online. Law-abiding people be paying more for PCs, and doing less with them, because of the Hollywood-decreed micromanagement of graphics system design.
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August 10th, 2005 at 2:07 pm
now how does this protect the dvds and cds from bein ripped? Doesn’t it only work if the video is encoded with it? How does this prevent me from doing anything on the hardware side? they haven’t thought to far in the future on this one, and they are especially gonna piss everyone off. but my question is on all this….what part of this is reasonable and necessary? and what on earth does it do to solve piracy? i can understand being worried about people ripping mass amounts of dvds, and spreading them on the net to everyone. but seriously, who cares what kind of monitor someone is using, or even if it’s…..A VCR! Another question….how the hell is TV-Out going to work on something like this…i think people like the tv way more than the monitor…i digress.
August 10th, 2005 at 3:40 pm
Do they really think this kind of thing will sell operating systems, PC’s and content. I don’t think so – I think linux is looking better all the time. Try and impose your stupid standards on that hollywood!
Hollywood’s reply to that would be – “no HD content for you then” – to which I’d then reply “OK, keep that junk then – I cant afford the stuff to play it on anyway – Any how its all the same old remakes and unoriginal stories so why should I bother?”
August 10th, 2005 at 3:54 pm
Previously, a reader write explained to us the intent and inner workings of MS Vista (aka Longtooth).
Avoid Proprietary products, not mainly for its (1) higher cost, (2) lack of features, (3) lack of security, (4) lack of productivity/robustness/flexibility, or (5) lack of interoperatability….
….but for its (6) lack of freedom.
Lack of freedom covers the freedom to use YOUR computer as a tool to do want YOU want. Computers are becoming extensions to the human body. And just as I don’t want other people messing with my body & health, I don’t want my computer to become crippled AND limited.
Make a stand.
You do have a choice.
Use free software, such as GNU/Linux.
For those of you who are kinda scared to jump into the water, think of it as a worthwhile INVESTMENT. A small investment of your time each day, will pay off in HUGE rewards. You’ll thank yourself for it. Plus, you’ll be more marketable in the workplace!
August 10th, 2005 at 3:54 pm
This one is easy to bypass use their protected computer to pump their “premium content” to their protected monitor, Now, grab the premium content from the protected monitor with a regular camcorder, and then pump this content to a Linux machine where it can be recorded in a free format.
Better yet, tell the cartels where they can stick their “premium content” and go with good content independent producers. On the other hand, I just might free their “premium content” just to spite them. Holyw00d and Microshit are beginning to piss me off.
August 10th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
In July 2006, no more products containing lead can be shipped to Europe. At least one reason is the pollution created by discarded computers, which use leaded solder. The cost to re-tool for unleaded solder will be passed on to the consumer.
As Windows Vista rolls out, computing power must be increased to handle the extra burden of Hollywoods demands. 2 GHz or maybe more would probably be required. But what about the millions of computers that are not fast enough or don’t have the required components to run Windows Vista ? Where will they end up ?
Well it’s time for me to say “Hasta la vista” … er, I mean goodbye Microsoft. I went through 95, 98, ME, 2000 & XP and I think I had enough. I believe Linux will prosper and become the OS of choice.
August 10th, 2005 at 6:35 pm
Besides, who needs an upgrade, there’s nothing you can’t do with the current OS’s, and you probably won’t want to do the things you could do with Vista (premium content? HD? new games?), or if you wanted to bad enough, i’m sure there’ll be a way to make them work on XP or linux. But this has nothing to do with windows does it? They are suggesting fundamental changes in the way hardware works? That bit i didnt quite understand, wouldnt that be abusing a monopoly position, to make hardware manufacturers conform to the demands of one specific OS? As far as I know only the entertainment cartels are exempt from anti-trust laws, MS is not, certainly not in the EU, Russia, China, etc.
August 10th, 2005 at 11:23 pm
5 years ago, I would never really have considered Linux. Now I and a lot of other people are slowly getting there.
I stated my move to open source with Firefox. It’s an easy thing to change browsers, and Firefox is better anyway.
Then came Thunderbird. I’m slowly moving all my email over to the OS Mozilla client.
Then I moved to OpenOffice.org after MS Word screwed up one too many of my documents.
I wonder how long it will take before I start dual booting with a Linux distro and Win XP? How long will it take before I’m using Linux exclusively?
I don’ really know, but it will certainly happen before I start using this MS Vista crap.
August 11th, 2005 at 7:02 am
Sounds like Bollywood’s gonna be making a killing selling homegrown HD content to owners of older pc’s doesn’t it? After all, they make it, they own it, they decide how to encode it.
It’s not like the average person in India’s going to have the cash to buy a brand new pc built to hollywood’s specs is it? So they’d be mad to lock out probly 90% of their local market just because a bunch of foreigners starts jumping up and down about their profit margins.
And if it means Bollywood starts grabbing hollywood’s market share off them, even better <evil grin>
August 11th, 2005 at 11:34 am
Interesting point made. Hollybird struts around like “all that”, intimidating people here and there. But the truth still remains, they “produce” a SMALL FRACTION of the movies out there. In addition, the movies that “carry their name” are NOT made by them. It’s sad, when the only way MANY producers can get their content viewed at the theatres if the “give up” their rights and their credits up to hollybird.
FYI
August 11th, 2005 at 12:07 pm
Not a hardware geek by any means, but surely it must be possible to plug the end of the cable/bus that actually goes to the monitor screen into a recording device instead?
Chris
August 16th, 2005 at 10:42 am
If the LCD-controller and the decryption are integrated on the very same chip that could be hard. But I doubt it would be done that way. LCD modules are manufactured by a few companies not specifically for consumer devices.
(Chip replacement)
So it should be possible. That’s the reason why DRM cannot work. If they do it in the hardware there will bei “Open Source Electronics”, where everybody can build his own decoder.
You would grab your copy from freenet and “tweak” your monitor.
Hardware copy protection already did not work for Sony Playstation
July 20th, 2007 at 7:24 am
where can i buy…
Interesting ……