Vista, Micro$oft, and DRM

On February 13, 2007, in tech, by mugen

From Schneier, the man himself when it comes to security:

Windows Vista includes an array of “features” that you don’t want. These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure. They’ll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features won’t do anything useful. In fact, they’re working against you. They’re digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry.

And you don’t get to refuse them.
[…]
Microsoft put all those functionality-crippling features into Vista because it wants to own the entertainment industry. This isn’t how Microsoft spins it, of course. It maintains that it has no choice, that 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. If Microsoft didn’t play along, it’d be relegated to second-class status as Hollywood pulled its support for the platform.

It’s all complete nonsense.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows.html

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P2P: no impact on album sales? EMI dumps DRM

On February 13, 2007, in Music, tech, by mugen

Well now. Isn’t this interesting? A recent study shows that even though album sales (which actually means SHIPPED, not SOLD) dropped by 80 million units, P2P probably only accounts for only 6 million of them. That’s excellent… and it reveals another HUGE problem with the music industry, in that they base everything on shipped units, not true sales.

It’s timely, given this study and Jobs’s comments last week and Schneier’s commentary on Vista, that EMI is moving toward dropping DRM altogether.

(For full disclosure, too… There have been issues with DRM and media with Macintosh computers for a long time. There are limits in Quicktime (especially copying still frames and clipping video), obviously there’s the DRM in iTunes, and other issues. None of these is as insidious nor as bloated as what Vista appears to be doing.)

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Steve Jobs on DRM

On February 6, 2007, in Music, tech, by mugen

Steve Jobs doesn’t like DRM any more than you do. Good points about CDs, licensing Fair Play, and why DRM isn’t working.

(ok, so maybe Jobs likes it more than you do since it’s the only way the iTunes Store can stay in business…)

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