Microsoft Answers Vista DRM Critics' Claims

skepsis writes "Recently there have been some stories on Slashdot claiming that Vista would downgrade the quality of audio and video for every application in a machine where protected content was running. One of the stories painted a scary scenario where a 'medical IT worker who's using a medical imaging PC while listening to audio/video played back by the computer' would have his medical images 'deliberately degraded.' A post has been put up on the Vista team blog explaining exactly how the content protection works, and it turns out the medical IT staff and audio pros can relax. From the post: 'It's important to emphasize that while Windows Vista has the necessary infrastructure to support commercial content scenarios, this infrastructure is designed to minimize impact on other types of content and other activities on the same PC. For example, if a user were viewing medical imagery concurrently with playback of video which required image constraint, only the commercial video would be constrained -- not the medical image or other things on the user's desktop.'"

No way!

Recently have been some recent stories on Slashdot claiming that Vista would downgrade the quality of audio and video for every application in a machine where protected content was running. One of the stories painted a scary scenario where a 'medical IT worker who's using a medical imaging PC while listening to audio/video played back by the computer' would have his medical images 'deliberately degraded'.

Slashdot posting anti-MS stories with only speculation to their correctness? Say it isn't so!

Re:No way!

Point of fact: the source for that claim was not Slashdot, but New Zealand computer scientist Peter Gutmann. See http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_c ost.html [auckland.ac.nz].

Marketdroid speak

such as newly released HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs, can be enjoyed on Windows Vista PCs.

Arrrr. I despise the use of 'enjoy' in that way. When you see the word used that way, you know the writer is selling something.

Re:Marketdroid speak

bahhh you nerds will knit pick at anything, bunch of nervous recks you all are sometimes.

1) 'bahhh' needs to be capitalized.
2) s/knit/nit/
3) s/recks/wrecks/
4) s/sometimes//

Re:Marketdroid speak

And don't forget that Bahhh is an interjection. It sets itself apart from a sentence by an exclamation point, or a comma when the feeling's not as strong.

Well, I know now what song is going to be stuck in my head for the next few hours...

Security and Quality

"the content protection mechanisms ...... will lead to better driver quality control."

Less freedom = better quality?

Might as well say it.

War is Peace.

Freedom is Slavery.....

Re:Security and Quality

Right. And there are a few silly things said in that rebuttal that I picked up from even a cursory glance...

"If the policies required protections that Windows Vista couldn't support, then the content would not be able to play at all on Windows Vista PCs."

No, the PCs would display a message along the lines of, 'This media cannot be played by Windows Vista because of the overly-restrictive policies of content providers with millions of dollars, mainly based in Hollywood. If you don't like this, please contact your local senator/representative and tell them you'd like to see this sort of content being released without silly anti-fair use restrictions.' See how much that would sting.

"In fact, much of the functionality discussed in the paper has been part of previous versions of Windows, and hasn't resulted in significant consumer problems"

The existing 'functionality' for restriction of content playback is chickenfeed compared to the 'encryption-all-the-way' attitude taken by Vista's premium content protection mechanism.

"In the case of HD optical media formats such as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, the constraint requirement is 520K pixels per frame (i.e., roughly 960x540), which is still higher than the native resolution of content distributed in the DVD-Video format. We feel that this is still yields a great user experience, even when using a high definition screen."

So, pirated content will still deliver a 'great user experience'! Just not-quite-as-great as HD. I think people who are pirating stuff will generally be happy with that, especially given that ultra-high quality content would require way larger files to download.

"Will the Windows Vista content protection board robustness recommendations increase the cost of graphics cards and reduce the number of build options?

Everything was moving to be integrated on the one chip anyway"

Whose ass was this assertion pulled out of?

"Will Windows Vista content protection features increase CPU resource consumption?

Yes."

Teh sux.

"However, the use of additional CPU cycles is inevitable, as the PC provides consumers with additional functionality."

This isn't additional functionality, it's reduced functionality against the user's wishes.

"In this case, additional complexity is added to the graphics driver, but that complexity comes with the direct consumer benefit of new scenarios such as HD-DVD or Blu-Ray playback."

Wouldn't be needed if HD-DVD/Blu-Ray content weren't laden with unnecessary DRM. Should've tried to force (or preferably, break) Hollywood's hand.

Translation needed

Windows Vista has the necessary infrastructure to support commercial content scenarios

WTF?

Re:Translation needed

It means it proactively leverages the synergies of blue sky entertainment by thinking outside the box and innovating front-end methodologies for consumer satisfaction. It also empowers cross-platform deliverables by maximizing mission critical schemas.

and plays teh new moviez!

A lot of effort to prevent casual piracy

At best, this will prevent point and click piracy. With HD-DVD already compromised and Blu Ray on its way, I hate the idea of losing CPU cycles for a copy protection scheme that doesn't even work. If it comes to a point that everyone and their grandmother can pirate high defintion content with the click of an icon, can Microsoft make a Windows Update that removes this "feature".

Re:A lot of effort to prevent casual piracy

I hate the idea of losing CPU cycles for a copy protection scheme that doesn't even work.

No worries - you'll be losing many more to Aero, which, most likely, won't work all that much better. Not to mention the new tcp/ip stack chugging away with QOS processing that will likely be nullified as soon as the packet hits your ISP's first server's kernel. Enjoy.

Re:My dl speeds using Vista are 3x faster than XP

Not to mention the new tcp/ip stack chugging away with QOS processing that will likely be nullified as soon as the packet hits your ISP's first server's kernel.

My download speeds have *tripled* since installing Vista.

I have Vista installed as my primary OS at home (dual-booting with my previous installation of XP SP2.) I was quite shocked when I first fired up my usenet newsreader and discovered that I could download at sustained speeds of *24 MBit/sec* over my *8 MBit/sec* Comcast cable modem connection.

After happily shouting "Holy crap! What the hell?" I verified this download speed on several speed test sites on the web. In addition, my wife's XP computer on the same network seems to be unaffected; she can surf the web with no slowdown, as if I'm not even downloading at all. When I used XP, my download speed would affect her download speed considerably, so that I had to throttle my downloads whenever she was at her computer. I tested my speed by booting back into XP, and my speeds top out at 8 Mbit/sec, as expected.

I have no explanation as to how Vista accomplishes this "magic" speed boost that exceeds the rated speeds of my cable modem line by three times. Something about IPv6? Does Comcast have a separate IPv6 network built for future use that I'm tapping into? I don't know enough about networking to know. I can download a GB of data in about 5 minutes, so I'm definitely not complaining.

Don't discount the new tcp/ip stack in Vista so quickly without trying it yourself. It's the best feature in the OS. I don't like everything about Vista, in fact there's a lot NOT to like about it, but the enhanced tcp/ip performance is reason enough for me to keep it. I do a lot of downloading that would probably not be condoned by the RIAA/MPAA, but so far Vista hasn't stopped me from playing anything, the way I want to play it...including HD video. I don't intend to use HD-DVD or Blu-Ray any time soon...neither my HD-resolution monitor nor my video card have HDCP anyway. But who needs that when you can download DRM-free HD video TODAY?

I'm just waiting for Comcast to discover this "bug" and throttle my connection, as soon as new Vista-preinstalled computers start to appear at the the end of the month, and Comcast sees their bandwidth usage triple. I've been downloading daily, almost 24/7, at 24 MBit/Sec, for over a month now, and have yet to receive a letter from Comcast informing me I'm using too much bandwidth. (However, since I download at 24 MBit/sec, I don't NEED to download 24/7, my downloads finish so quickly!) It might be the fact that I live in a fairly poor area of my community (the poor side of Hillsboro, OR), where the computer and broadband penetration is probably not that great...so I'm not likely impacting many others' cable performance with my downloads.

I'd like to hear from other Vista users, to see if I'm just an anomaly, or if others have experienced the same download speedups. I could find nothing on google to explain this, except the following link, an in-depth interview with the Microsoft team that wrote the new Vista network stack:

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=1163 49 [msdn.com]

Quite a long video (40 minutes), but very interesting. They say at one point in the video that they were able to realize drastic speedups using a Vista computer on some of their data lines...with no change on the server side, the only change being using a Vista computer as a client.

Speaking of the QoS on Vista...while I was watching that video, Vista automatically throttled the bandwidth allotted to my newsreader, allowing that high-bandwidth streaming video to play without a hitch. As soon as the video completed, my newsreader's full data bandwidth was restored. No, I have no complaints about the new network stack in Vista. :) Only time will tell if it is more secur

Which required constraint

if a user were viewing medical imagery concurrently with playback of video which required image constraint

Who decides if it requires image constraint?
Who else except me has such a call to make on my private property?

mildly flawed

'medical IT worker who's using a medical imaging PC while listening to audio/video played back by the computer' would have his medical images 'deliberately degraded'

For the $400 per hour I get charged, that PhD can focus his whole attention on my MRI. If you job is important enough to complain about possibly degraded video, it's also important enough to not multitask. Listen to MP3's on your own dime.

Re:mildly flawed

You don't need to be entertained at your job, you need to do your job.

      Something that would seem extremely complicated to you, because of your lack of training, becomes merely routine for someone else after a while. Do you drive a car? Is it as tough as it was the first day you drove? Have you ever listened to the radio while driving? Do you think your driving has suffered because of the radio?

Comparing with Gutmann: mostly spot on

a

Will the Windows Vista content protection board robustness recommendations increase the cost of graphics cards and reduce the number of build options?

Everything was moving to be integrated on the one chip anyway and this is independent of content protection recommendations. Given that cost (particularly chip cost) is most heavily influenced by volume, it is actually better to avoid making things optional through the use of external chips. It is a happy side effect that this technology trend also reduces the number of vulnerable tracks on the board.

Am I hearing a resounding yes?

Will Windows Vista content protection features increase CPU resource consumption?

Yes. However, the use of additional CPU cycles is inevitable, as the PC provides consumers with additional functionality. [...]

Yes, we know that what we call DRM they call "an additional functionality".

Will the 'tilt bit' mechanism cause problems even when the driver is not under attack from a hacker, e.g., when there are voltage spikes?

It is pure speculation to say that things like voltage fluctuations might cause a driver to think it is under attack from a hacker. It is up to a graphics IHV to determine what they regard as an attack.

How can one say "yes" that will sound mostly like "no"? See above.

All in all, the article is a great read. There are useful details about the bricking mechanism (it's actually more forgiving than was suspected), and a general consensus with the costs identified by Gutmann.

Wow

Just Wow. That's the biggest piece of bullshit response I think I've ever seen. Look closely and compare that and the original article. For example, the original article says that the component and S/PDIF can be disabled by the disc you put in the drive, and this article says that "Similar to S/PDIF, Windows Vista does not require component video outputs to be disabled, but rather enables the enforcement of the usage policy set by content owners or service providers, including with respect to output restrictions and image constraint" which sidesteps the point that a disc can disable the current standard connection from a normal computer to a normal TV you fucks!!! Of course they also go on about how the degraded image is still DVD quality, which is a great help to the people who spent an extra few grand to set up HD DVDs when they could have just gone to the shop and bought a DVD. They then also point out that you don't actually need a dedicated decoder, even though the original article pointed out that CPUs simply aren't strong enough for the task.

So all this Microsoft article has done is only confirmed my conclusion that they're trying to give the movie studios every opportunity to rape the people who try to watch their stuff. This is just bullshit marketing spin.

Re:Wow

Finally, it's not like MS actually has a choice here. The movie studios can and will use their lawyers to rape any commercial entity that gets in their way right now.

The biggest monopoly in the world, the largest company in the biggest country in the world, run by the richest person on earth, that controls 90% of the desktop computers on the planet, and has the highest cash reserves of any commercial entity --- is being strong armed!?!?!

Re:Wow

Quite possibly. Microsoft is dealing with a monopolistic cartel, that has considerable influence over the legislature. As monopolies go, the RIAA and MPAA have levels of market saturation similar to MS, in the 90% range, and while their members are run by a few hundred major stockholders, adding just the top hundred or so together gives a picture of financial clout far exceeding Bill Gates'.
        Almost nobody in the houses of congress has shown any public sign of personally hating any RIAA spokesman since a few criticized Jack Valetti 20 years ago, while according to beltway insiders there are some congressmen who have publicly expressed great dissapointment that Microsoft didn't get more penalties from the justice dept., and a few that will still publicly say that the company should flat have been busted up.
        Notice that that cartel members make much less per year than the hardware manufacturers collectively do (by some estimates, the hardware companies are about 8x-10x as big as all the commercial media conglomerates put together), but their representitive group seems to be strong arming the hardware makers just fine. Notice too that Sony, for just one example, makes a lot more money on hardware than media, but the media division has steered the company into several stupid decisions in a row and still seems to have plenty of clout, at least internally.
            The **AAs have whole groups of the most charismatic spokesmen possible willing to speak for them, and that greatly amplifies the effects of their campaign contributions. One appearance by the right movie star endorsing a particular candidate can be worth millions in an election year, while few voters would change their minds simply because Gates or Balmer endorsed anyone. (In other words, Microsoft has to do just about everything with money, while big media has other tools that sometimes work better).
           

Re:Wow

"Microsoft does not see this as being their battle to fight, they just want their customers to have a good experience"

Nonsense. Doesn't sell to the end customer; we don't buy Vista. That battle was fought 12 years ago and it's over. All the OEM's must have Windows on their PC, and they must have whatever Vista MS tells them to have.

The customers of MS are the content producers. These new content restrictions are music to the ears of Hollywood. The more we see articles like this, the better, because it reaffirms to the MPAA members that their content is "safe" when it plays through MS.

You didn't think trusted computing was for your or my benefit did you?

Re:Blissful ignorance no more

I'm already doing this. Forced myself to use only linux for a couple weeks, ending two days ago. And with the exception of rebooting into windows temporarily and solely to play multiplayer games with my brother.

There are many things I prefer about it, too.

What About Hardware?

To me, the scarier implication of the original posting is, Vista forces manufacturers to lock down hardware and drivers - making them, in essence, impenetrable black boxes. As I read it, once hardware is designed to operate in a Vista environment, it will never be usable in Linux or other open source situations. Can someone expand on this, please?

Anti-DRM Advocates are Missing the Point Here

I can't help but think that you guys are missing the point.

Anyone building hardware and/or software to play back modern media currently has two choices:

1) Implement the restrictions and allow the content to be viewable.

2) Don't allow the content to be viewable at all. (i.e. No HD-DVD or Blu-Ray playback, period.)

Microsoft doesn't create movies or music. Their only interest in implementing these things is so that users have a way of playing content on their operating system. Apple and Linux vendors will also have to bend over for the RIAA and MPAA if they want to be able to support viewing the content. There's a chance that Steve Jobs will bend the universe to his will on this and avoid it, but it's doubtful. Linux users will probably just find ways hack around it, and ignore the fact they're breaking the law (no matter how ill-conceived that law may be; the point is that if Microsoft breaks the same law they would be sued into oblivion. It's simply not an option.).

Blaming Microsoft for this DRM fiasco is lame. If you don't like DRM, focus your blame on those that deserve it and buy your media from sources that don't promote it.

That said, one thing that could be argued is that Microsoft wields enough money/power that they could fight back against the RIAA, MPAA, etc. and block the media industry's attempts to create such lame DRM policies. Personally I don't believe they have this amount of clout, especially with the antitrust thing still hanging over their head.

Re:Anti-DRM Advocates are Missing the Point Here

Apple and Linux vendors will also have to bend over for the RIAA and MPAA if they want to be able to support viewing the content.

If it weren't for Microsoft handing over our rights to the them on a silver platter, it would be the RIAA and MPAA bending over to the people instead!

There's a chance that Steve Jobs will bend the universe to his will on this and avoid it, but it's doubtful. Linux users will probably just find ways hack around it, and ignore the fact they're breaking the law (no matter how ill-conceived that law may be; the point is that if Microsoft breaks the same law they would be sued into oblivion. It's simply not an option.).

If Microsoft had refused to support this bullshit, Steve Jobs and Linux users would have had a hell of an easier time of it.

That said, one thing that could be argued is that Microsoft wields enough money/power that they could fight back against the RIAA, MPAA, etc. and block the media industry's attempts to create such lame DRM policies.

No kidding.

Pay with DRM Money

I think people should just pay Microsoft (and Apple and the others) with Money that has restrictions on it... Here, you can have this money but you can't use it to sue anybody with it, or buy a ferrari. If you do decide to sue, the lawyer will show up late and sleep through the trial, and the ferrari will have a bum paint job and break down conspicuously on the side of the highway every 15 minutes.

Hollywood wants to control your computer

They want to turn it into a toaster, an "appliance." They want control over what you can and cannot do, and they are slowly gaining it too, from region codes (RPC II) in DVD drives, encryption (in EVERYTHING) like HD DVD and BluRay, HDCP, HDMI, etc... "trusted computing." All of this stuff is creeping into hardware daily, and it's getting to where you can't buy computer hardware WITHOUT this shit.

Of course, this is all necessary so you can "enjoy" all of the great "premium content." This is not normal 'content' mind you, this is Gee-Whiz Shazzamo "PREMIUM" awesome content that just requires all of this new DRM-out-the-wazoo hardware.

And here I thought it was the same crap they have been peddling for years in slightly higher resolution... Guess what, my computer can ALREADY play 1920x1080 AVI's perfectly fine (Elephant's Dream [blender.org]). And I don't have any of that DRM crap on MY system...

it's still....

...deliberate sabotage, any way you slice it, designed on purpose to perpetuate a business model developed when duplicating content was hugely more expensive than it is now from a strictly technological viewpoint. It is (very generally speaking of course) the work of those already rich and powerful to stay that way, and to seek to lock away technological advances only to themselves as much as possible, through obvious and unchecked wide scale cartel market manipulation actions and also through extensive lobbying to make the laws reflect the profiteer's paranoid-and elitist- neoluddism.

It's Ok for the rich and powerful to have any advances and advantages from modern technology-but don't let those slavering "masses" folk have the same, even when it becomes technically and economically possible. Cuts into that "bottom line" thing, or at least that is their paranoid theory.

  Enforcing artificial scarcity combined with the broken-windows economic model is the height of their intellectual business acumen.

No one disputes this is immensely profitable for them, given our current social and economic infrastructure. It remains to be seen if this will always be the case.

We left the caves a long time ago, seems like maybe it might be nice to leave the medieval period some time soon. But I guess the aristocracy isn't quite willing to give that up yet.

Users != Customers

I think people are forgetting who are Microsoft's customers.

The end users are not Microsoft's customers. The end users who purchase Windows are very much in the minority - the overwhelming majority of users get their Windows bundled with their PCs. Microsoft's customers are the computer vendors and big media. Microsoft's customers are demanding that content be controlled and that users are given an incentive to buy new hardware.

The customer always gets what they want.

Re:I don't understand this downgrading stuff

Yes, there is one scenario under which you can watch premium content at full quality: If you have end-to-end HDCP encryption, meaning a monitor that support HDCP (extremely rare), a video card that supports HDCP (rare), an OS that supports HDCP (Vista), and playback software that supports HDCP.

If you are missing any elements of the above, Vista will not playback HD video at full res. Furthermore, XP will never have the ability to play HD-DVD and Blu-ray at full res.

So, in short, all you need to do is wait till the consumer Vista release, and purchase a Vista Ultimate system with a brand new monitor to replace the 23" LCD flat panel you bought last year. Don't forget the DVI-HDCP compliant cables, and the 5.1 digital speakers with HDCP support.

Love, Microsoft

As a consumer, what's in it for me?

OK, so Vista gives content providers a way to lock-down and restrict their products. Microsoft has "added value" to a product for a segment of people that are not their customers.

So as a paying customer (I buy operating systems for personal use, and oh...by the way, I am responsible for IT purchasing for my ENTIRE company), what does Vista give me and my users, that should make me cut a check?

From what I understand, Vista works pretty much like XP, and now thanks to Volume Activation 2.0 Vista corporate copies will now all REQUIRE activation.....every time we re-image a machine. Activation now requires me to either run a key management server (and baby-sit all my roaming users making sure they connect to my network twice per year) OR use multiple activation keys....that means phone calls to Microsoft when eventually the keys stop working.

So microsoft, tell me, why should I fork over my (or my company's) cash?

-ted

China is the Lurking Giant

Wait until China starts importing something other than the Cherry (Chevy) to the U.S.

Next it will be the ChiPC computer line, and I'll bet the OS does not have DRM on it, and I'll bet it undercuts HP & Dell.

No special graphics card.
No special chips.
No VISTA

Microsoft has a LOT to LOSE by aceeding to the demand/acquescence to load the whole system to protect media companies from common consumers. Again, I think Warren Buffet said it right when he said he would not invest in Microsoft because he didn't understand the business model for the long term.

Vista is DRM

Vista is NOTHING but a DRM platform that also happens to run Windows applications.
I am currently running Vista Ultimate on my laptop, a closed system with an integrated nvidia video card running Microsoft Certified drivers... I cannot play videos that *I* have created of screen recordings at full screen, I have to play them back in a window. Running full screen in Windows Media Player causes the playback to simply pause. I also cannot play videos that I have created from scratch and integrated into newly created powerpoint 2007 slides. When playing back on my laptop screen, the video plays fine, but when feeding the signal to the projector screen through the analog video output, the video plays for 1 second then pauses for 1/4 second repeatedly.

This is not protected content.

Sure, it isn't *supposed* to be applying DRM "features" to *MY* content, but it is.

This is horseshit, horseshit, horseshit! And for any of those who don't know what I'm talking about, its the shit that comes from a horse.

You cannot build restrictions into every device, every driver and expect it not to have unintended consequences in everyday usage.

Vista is completely defective by design.

Re:Vista is DRM

Ever consider that it might be a driver issue? I can play both DRMed and non-DRMed videos fullscreen without problems on my Radeon 9800 Pro, including those that I've created myself. It sounds like you're blaming the most obvious target without providing much justification.

Pretty neat trick for a hardware driver

For example, if a user were viewing medical imagery concurrently with playback of video which required image constraint, only the commercial video would be constrained -- not the medical image or other things on the user's desktop.'"

I wonder how they do the mixed content when the degradation is done at the hardware driver level. It must make for a pretty complicated driver to degrade only part of a screen. Maybe the driver is able to do video overlays and degrade just one overlay.

Audio must have the same multipath drivers, one for each application. The phone will work fine while the online subscription radio station is disabled due to the lack of a fully secure audio path to the speakers.

TFA, unspun

OK let's go through this. To be clear: I'm not going to talk about whether MS were forced to implement this stuff or not (I think it's pretty clear that a) they were, but b) it's in their best interests to anyway, and they were probably part of the driving force behind it).

It's just sufficient for us to determine whether this is bad or not.

Sorry to have replied to so much of TFA... there was just a lot to comment on. It's hard to tell whether this was written by a program manager or a politician, with all the spin going on.

Over the holidays, a paper was distributed that raised questions about the content protection features in Windows Vista.

These guys were on holidays?

Associating usage policies with commercial content is not new to Windows Vista, or to the industry. In fact, much of the functionality discussed in the paper has been part of previous versions of Windows, and hasn't resulted in significant consumer problems - as evidenced by the widespread consumer use of digital media in Windows XP. For example:

• Standard definition DVD playback has required selective use of Macrovision ACP on analog television outputs since it was introduced in the 1990s. DVD playback on and in Windows has always supported this.
• The ability to restrict audio outputs (e.g., S/PDIF) for certain types of content has been available since Windows Millennium Edition (ME) and has been available in all subsequent versions of Windows.
• The Certified Output Protection Protocol (COPP) was released over 2 years ago for Windows XP, and provides applications with the ability to detect output types and enable certain protections on video outputs such as HDCP, CGMS-A, and Macrovision ACP.

So... what you're saying is, you've been doing this stuff all along without us knowing, which logically makes it OK to keep doing it.

Would it be ironic if I pointed out that making copies of digital media is not new to the content industry. In fact, at one time it was quite possible to make copies of your own data, and hasn't resulted in significant problems to their business models - as evidenced by the increasing sales of physical and downloadable content over the past decade. Therefore there is no reason to prevent it.

the content protection mechanisms do not make Windows Vista PCs less reliable than they would be otherwise -- if anything they will have the opposite effect, for example because they will lead to better driver quality control.

What? Are we just stabbing at straws here for a reason why they might have the opposite effect?

The paper implies that Microsoft decides which protections should be active at any given time. This is not the case. The content protection infrastructure in Windows Vista provides a range of à la carte options that allows applications playing back protected content to properly enable the protections required by the policies established for such content by the content owner or service provider. In this way, the PC functions the same as any other consumer electronics device.

In an unprecedented move, the people of the free world may now choose the manner in which their freedoms shall be crushed!

Will the Windows Vista content protection board robustness recommendations increase the cost of graphics cards and reduce the number of build options?

Everything was moving to be integrated on the one chip anyway...

1. No, STFU and stop limiting my options. 2. Answer the question about cost.

Will Windows Vista content protection features increase CPU resource consumption?

Yes. However, the use of additional CPU cycles is inevitable, as the PC provides consumers with additional functionality.

In other words, "Yes". I don't consider

Don't Panic!

Drivers, DON'T WORRY! If an unauthorized steering wheel is detected, ONLY THE STEERING will be affected, and ONLY FOR THE ROAD YOU ARE ON. The brakes, accelerator, and "oh shit" handles will still function 100%.

Re:Knaves and Crackers

That Microsoft needs to engage in counter-propaganda is already suspicious:

What is their alternative? Should they let others spew incorrect FUD all day long?

...and trust for tyranny.

What is this trust you are talking about? If anything I'd say that Microsoft is one of the least trusted entities out there. They are so mistrusted that someone can spew FUD about their DRM schemes and people swallow it hook line and sinker.

Re:Knaves and Crackers

But if it is true, and his shiny new computer stops working because of some stupid DRM, then negative word-of-mouth will kill Vista, at least for home users.

Which would be a pyrrhic victory at best. *DRM* is the real villain and proper copyright reform (if not complete replacement) is the real victory.

Re:Knaves and Crackers

A pyrrhic victory would require some sort of substantial loss. I doubt many would call the loss of Microsoft's newest OS a loss.

Your post seems to imply that Microsoft is blameless for leading the DRM charge. DRM and bad copyright legislation are things that we need to fix but that doesn't mean we should ignore the villains who advocate them.

You never saw Microsoft attacking a filesharing program but Microsoft was first in line to implement DRM. Microsoft volunteered to implement DRM measures and led the technological way in the DRM arena. Some companies resisted but caved, some caved without a fight but microsoft is the only company I know of that actually volunteered before any content provider could even think about demanding.

Re:Knaves and Crackers

t means they've abandoned elegance for ad hoc-ery; transparence for evasion; and trust for tyranny.

In order to abandon something, you have to have it in the first place. I can't recall MS ever being in possession of elegance, transparancy and particularly trust.

Re:Should we trust the medical system vendors?

I think a more accurate question would be: Why would someone doing medical imaging play music/videos on the same computer? Let alone at the same time?

"Hey guys, I know this computer is only supposed to be used to control the MRI machine, but let's throw our MP3 collections on it! ROCK OUT WITH YOUR COCK OUT!"

Re:Should we trust the medical system vendors?

Well, I hate to break it to you, ol AC. MOST hospital desktops and MOST radiology desktop software runs under Windows. How the hell could it not? No, the CT scanners don't run Windows, I think the GE unit we have runs some form of UNIX, but the networked terminals for viewing and cataloging are most certainly Microsoft's finest.

Re:So we should trust Microsoft?

The statistics in the IOM report, which were based on two large studies, suggest that medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death among Americans, with error-caused deaths each year in hospitals alone exceeding those from motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516). http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2000/500_err.html [fda.gov]

Maybe they can't multi-task quite as well as they think.

Reports of Vista's suicide have been exaggerated

As Guttman was claiming that this content protection would de-stabilize your computer even if you never played protected content, this seems to have been refuted.

i.e.
Driver revocation, tilt bits, image constricting and encrypting the PCIe bus only happen when you play premium content, and can only affect the content being played. If you're worried about all this don't play HD-DVD's on your PC, play them on your 50 USD Chinese HD-DVD player.

Ideas that your graphics card can be turned off remotely by Redmond, or that accidentally playing a web page with 'protected' content in the background will cause medical images to be degraded are plain incorrect.

Concerns about Audio and Video editing in Vista are unfounded as their content is unprotected and will not go through the protected video path. And if AAC is properly cracked then HDDecrypter.exe is unlikely to use a protected video path / HDCP montior is it?

Points about this open source graphics drivers are a bit more ambiguous, but it seemed graphics drivers were moving towards a closed source model anyway. And there is nothing stopping graphics manufacturers from producing non-HD-capable cards for the business market so it isn't going to drive up all hardware prices.

Having said this, *if* you want to play protected content legally then I think there will be pain.

People will be frustrated by the graphics card and monitor compatibility, and there is every chance that the 'Protected Video Path' will not work as smoothly as intended. Even now HDCP is causing problems with standalone players. And even if it all works concerns that you are no longer trusted on your own computer are valid.

However you can quite happily use Vista and not be affected by the 'content protection' at all.
If you thought Microsoft was going to be able to stop the draconian restrictions on HD-DVD then the think again - their biggest market is in standalone players rather than people playing the movies on their PCs so they could do without Microsoft if they desired. I don't believe Apple will be immune, although they'll probably roll it out on new iMac's and rely on its physical design to

In conclusion, there are issues with the DRM in Vista but if you never play protected content you will never experience them.

Re:Reports of Vista's suicide have been exaggerate

I was just reading through the UK's PCPlus magazine, and their Vista benchmark, even on the CPU benchmarks, showed a solid and consistent 20% loss of performance compared with XP. I will not be keeping my beta Vista install. I will be going back to XP when my license key quits, possibly before.

I keep a Windows machine purely to run Flight Simulator and other games. Anything else can run in Parallels, or has a Mac equivalent.