Are New DRM Technologies Setting Vista Up For Failure? 407
PetManimal writes "Computerworld has picked apart the way Vista handles DRM in terms of hardware and software restrictions. Trusted Platform Module, Output Protection Management, Protected Video Path and various Windows Media software components are designed to 'protect' copyrighted content against security breaches and unauthorized use. The article notes that many of the DRM technologies were forced upon Vista by the entertainment industry, but that may not garner Microsoft or Hollywood any sympathy with consumers: 'Matt Rosoff, lead analyst at research firm Directions On Microsoft, asserts that this process does not bode well for new content formats such as Blu-ray and HD-DVD, neither of which are likely to survive their association with DRM technology. "I could not be more skeptical about the viability of the DRM included with Vista, from either a technical or a business standpoint," Rosoff stated. "It's so consumer-unfriendly that I think it's bound to fail — and when it fails, it will sink whatever new formats content owners are trying to impose."'"
Short answer: No (Score:5, Informative)
So either way it works for Vista. If the DRM fails, oh well, some wasted development money I guess but the OS works as it always has. If it succeds, just another reason for people to upgrade to Vista.
Re:Wait a minute.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why would anyone have a problem with hardware D (Score:3, Informative)
Not the DRM - The Licensing Will (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft Rep: "So as you can see, Windows Vista Ultimate's CD media costs will be very cheap and each copy will have its own CD key for use in activation."
Us: "So umm..is there volume licensing for the Ultimate version?"
Microsoft Rep: "No, but the CD Media is very cheap!"
Us: "So, you don't want us to use the Ultimate version then?"
Microsoft Rep: "No, you can still use it, you just need to buy an individual CD with an individual key for use with individual product activation!"
Us: "So, basically, you don't want us to use the Ultimate edition then, got it."
Not only are they nuking volume licensing for the highest level products, they are also going to require product activation even with volume licensing! In Windows XP, we have a volume-license key that is embedded in the Image during SysPrep and that key does NOT require activation. Activation is annoying when you are imaging thousands of machines every year. No word yet on whether the volume license activation will be requiring an individual key for every copy of Vista you install (if they even let us make an image of it at all!).
Apple is a member of BDA (Score:4, Informative)
Re:should I be buying xp then? (Score:3, Informative)
Um, pushing some FUD yourself?
Vista's WGA and DRM are virtually no more intrusive than WindowsXP, and even with the EULA crap, MS has revised the EULA to be as forgiving or even more forgiving than WindowsXP.
Vista is not going to lock you out. Even with WindowsXP, we had customers that had activated a single copy over 20 times on various hardware (illegally), and MS would still issue them a new activation when they called and never raised an eye.
All the stories of MS forcing Windows to quit working is false. Even on people that had very noticeably cracked or hacked corporate versions of XP, all WGA did was annoy the hell out of them with pop ups telling them the computer wasn't legal. Vista will go one step further and only allow a Safe mode.
However if you are buying a computer with an OEM or Retail Vista copy license, you are MS's new best friend and they would rather cut off their nose than to even accidentally screw with you. The absolute worst thing that could happen is you wouldn't be able to activate it online if you do reinstall it several times, and then you just end up with the voice automation system or even a person, and they will give you a new activation.
Now if you are running a known hacked version, sure they will put Vista into safe mode and make you buy a copy or contact them, and they don't even prosecute people, they just ask you buy it, or report who sold you the hacked copy. (And if you do the later, they give you Vista for free even in case you really did get ripped off.)
Trust me on this...
So can we leave the FUD alone for awhile, this is really annoying.
Re:Wait a minute.. (Score:5, Informative)
I have worked for a very large, high volume (1500+ stores) retail chain, an international, premier law firm, and one of the largest US based banks. All three of them used non-Windows platforms for very significant parts of their IT infrastructure. From all three here is the list of the ones I can think of quickly: AIX, Solaris, AS400, Xenix, HP Unix, Linux, Novell, Windows of course, and I'm sure I'm missing some. All three used Windows in some capacity be it workstation, server, or both, but critical chunks of their infrastructure were non-Windows. The law firm had it's entire financial and billing system on HP Unix but otherwise employed Windows workstations and mostly Windows servers for all other functions. The retail chain (back in the day at this point) had a couple of Novell servers and some Windows workstations but most folks used dumb terminals to a mainframe. Their point of sale terminals in the stores were Xenix and then migrated to a Linux. The bank's systems spanned the spectrum with Windows only being a majority on the workstation end.
I think that most larger organizations have a distinct need to be more than just a Windows shop. Windows can't do it all...and there are a lot of people out there who know that.
Re:yet another article that says "get off my butt" (Score:3, Informative)
This is not what I am saying. One reason DirectX10 is tied to Vista is the WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model).
Unlike any other Video driver technology, and past the DirectX10 features, DirectX10 not only uses but also relies on the WDDM in Vista that introduces new features that DirectX10 EXPECTS to be there. One of them is the WDDM's ability to share system RAM with the GPU and also to multi-task the GPU. The sharing of the RAM is the most important as Vista's WDDM, even with older DirectX 9-7 games, prioritize and place things normally only put in the GPU RAM into System RAM if they are not speed related items, yet the game sees them as part of the GPU RAM.
This is actually a very complex process, and DirectX 10 assumes and works with the WDDM, in other words DirectX10 'knows' that this is happening and is further optimized and designed to work with the WDDM based on this. Games designed around DirectX10 should also expect this to be happening and be built to tell the WDDM what to load into what RAM, etc.
So it is a lot more than just emulating the DirectX features or APIs when you are dealing with DirectX10.
Check on MS's site on DirectX10 or even read here on Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct3D [wikipedia.org]
Take care...
Re:Not the DRM - The Licensing Will (Score:4, Informative)
- it is NOT expected that large organizations will be deploying the Ultimate SKU on their desktops. There are business focused SKUs, and those are what most business desktops will be running. Do you want Media center on all of your employee machines?
- there has been a lot of new feature work in key/activation/whatever handling for the enterprise desktop scenario. AFAIK, this work only applies to the business focused SKU(s). It's what microsoft will be using internally and it has over 100k PCs to manage (not including unmanaged assets like lab hardware)
Based on what I know (and I don't know everything, nor am I an authority on these specific areas) you can safely assume the following:
- imaging is a supported and important scenario
- assuming the right SKUs / supporting infrastructure, individual employees will not need to worry about product keys or activation.
Repeat after me.. (Score:1, Informative)
Again:
DRM amounts to a serial chain of single points of failure, and is based on version 1 hardware and software.
You're dealing with encryption, which means a single flaw can render your information inaccessible or, worse, unrecoverable. You're dealing with multiple systems which will all have to do their job 100% right to allow access to the data, and on top of that this is the first time anyone has been so stupid to try and pull this off, so every single part of this motly collection is new, shiny and untested in the real world, hardware as well as software.
I don't know which blindingly stupid moron has cooked up this idea, but he's no worse than the moron who will actually pay for this to become a corporate standard and then see a single bug render corporate data inaccessible. And remember, unlike other products, with software liability lies with YOU, not with the vendor. MS et all will quite comfortably walk away from your problem, whilst counting the cash they extracted from you. Call it being taxed for being stupid.
Only if your cranial invasion of your rectal cavity is so extensive that you can see the back of your tonsils should you be so stupid to fall for this. And even then.
Re:should I be buying xp then? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:no no no (Score:2, Informative)
From the Wikipedia article you link to:
Making full copies for the purpose of time shifting, format shifting, and backup for personal non-commercial use is regarded as fair use under the Sony Betamax case law. Hence the legality of VCR's and Tivo. Various DRM schemes seek to make this impossible, and the DMCA makes exercising these rights illegal even where tools exist to do it.
Further, DRM also prevents fair use with regards to quoting and excerpting, regardless of the purpose. I can't clip a scene from a movie purchased from iTunes for the purpose of reviewing it on my blog, for example. At least not without first breaking the DRM.
For the record, I don't buy DRMed media. But my unwillingness has absolutely nothing to do with a desire to get it for free or share it on P2P networks.