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    MS Consumers vs content producers

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    by jack-m ·

    In a controversial technical analysis Peter Gutmann goes into fantastic detail about the recently released Vista operating system and its content protection scheme. One thing became clear to me after reading this analysis. Vista is being marketed to content producers, not consumers. If Windows XP was Microsoft?s attempt to embed a browser into the operating system then Vista is the attempt to embed DRM. Digital Rights Management technology has been applied to literally every ring of the OS architecture.

    Vista’s target market is content producers and the underlying philosophy of the user experience will be far different then what many consumers expect it will be. Microsoft has attempted to plug the infamous ?analog hole? as much as is possible by forcing all data through encryption algorithms. For those unaware of the ?costs? of encryption it is sufficiently high. Pushing HD audio and video content through encryption/decryption routines is a tremendous strain on any system currently available and in the near future. Even with the application of Moore’s Law a conservative estimate could place affordable and usable systems within this new content system 5 years away. It will be interesting to see how these restrictions will be spun by the large marketing and PR teams since none of these innovations will benefit consumers in any way. The job that has been handed to these PR and marketing teams is to dress up a product designed with every restriction a producer has asked for and make a consumer want to buy it. One of the most quotable lines from the Gutmann analysis sums this up perfectly as, ?breaking the legs of Olympic athletes and then rating them based on how fast they can hobble on crutches.?

    In the past when I have delivered lectures to web application developers I would caution them to never trust user input. Perhaps developers took this philosophy a little too far. The entire operating system now seems to have turned against the user. Zero tolerance drivers and regulation code will lock the system down if any type of deviance is detected. So called ?tilt bits? will signal an attack on the system if anything is found out of the ordinary. These changes won?t enhance user security unfortunately as they were designed to protect only ?premium content?. Medical data, credit card numbers, and other private things that do deserve this level of protection are completly ignored. Untrusting of any environmental changes the system will shut down or degrade performance in response to a perceived attack.

    This is a marked turn from the past versions of the Microsoft operating system. In the past one could take a hard drive from a Windows OS and drop it into an entirely different system. The new hardware would be detected and drivers applied on the spot. At most a single reboot would bring the user back into a usable system. This type of resilience was what impressed me during the early days of the new Windows architecture. In those days Microsoft was fairly dominant but still pursuing new customers. The new Vista scheme signals to me that they have exhausted new customer acquisition and are now focused on milking their existing market.
    I have to tell you for years I thought that people that constantly criticized MS as being a little unstable. I apologize to you all.
    No more, I am joining them now because MS has crossed the line this time with VISTA.
    I have installed VISTA 6000 Ultimate Trial and will not be buying VISTA.
    For one thing my VISTA installation crashes on a regular basis because of Audio and Video issues and lots of my hardware has become a paper weight because no drivers will be written according to the manufacturers. Go to the Creative VISTA Forum and read what they have to say about VISTA audio. Most
    of their cards will not function under VISTA.

    VISTA Activation

    MS has no right to enter your home without a search warrant to validate your software but they are now going to use this to leverage a brand new spy business.

    I predict they will set up a new company to validate all of your software through Windows Defender. They will sell this validation scheme, anti-piracy database, to other Software companies for a fee of course and if they do not participate, they will be shut out by not allowing their software to install.

    They just purchased the guy that exposed the Sony Root kit so now he works for MS, Sysinternal’s, Mark Russinovich. I wonder if he will publish how window defender phones home for MS?

    VISTA by definition is Spyware

    Hardware Has To Be Compliant

    For us consumers it means higher prices and we are being forced to buy hardware that will be compromised by design to comply to AACS standards that MS is going to try and force down our throats. They will force hardware manufacturers to comply or they will not be able to make hardware for the new OS.

    Do you not see a problem with MS telling everyone which kind of hardware we can buy that will work in the new OS?

    Do you see any warning labels about the Content Protection measures in all the hype that MS using to promote VISTA? The VISTA EULA is an outrage that gives them all kinds of rights they do not have using DRM to create a whole new business model.

    This is much worse than the Intel fiasco, which tried to ID all of our CPU chips.

    I think this action by MS is not because of Hollywood but a perverse attempt to increase their monopoly power over the Computer Business. If they pull this off, they will have a total monopoly over the PC along with Intel and other co-conspirators.

    They could tell Hollywood to pound sand as they have over 90% of the OS installed base.

    I will be seriously looking at the New Mac OS or Linux because I have not intention of letting them spy on me or prevent me from using my computer the way I want to use it. That is if they have not decided to join the Insane DRM measures too.

    We need to boycott VISTA until they remove the draconian Copy Protection Scheme that violates our Constitutional rights and our freedom to use the PC open source included.

    BTW-I do not support Piracy and I buy all my software but this is getting insane.

    Time for another anti-trust Lawsuit. IMHO

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