Why Vista is defective by design
Vista’s DRM features have been drawing ever more criticism, but it’s just the latest step among many that takes liberties out of the hands of users and into the media megacorps. So what are you going to do about it?
Even Vista is, of course, just the most recent example in a litany of anti-consumer devices designed to protect monopoly distribution for the media cartels and, most certainly, Microsoft at the expense of the you, the customer.
In his recent column on Forbes, Bruce Schneier covers off all the essential arguments, including Microsoft’s interest in implementing DRM, which I couldn’t have said better myself. In my piece on 10 reasons not to get Vista, some of the comments in response suggested that the point about the inclusion of DRM in Vista was unfair, that Microsoft’s hand was forced by Hollywood. Which is, of course, a gigantic load of wombat poo. As Schneier puts it:
“It’s all complete nonsense. Microsoft could have easily told the entertainment industry that it was not going to deliberately cripple its operating system, take it or leave it. With 95% of the operating system market, where else would Hollywood go?”
But the problem didn’t start with Microsoft. Copy protection, and its newer perverted cousin DRM (Digital Rights Management, or more accurately Digital Restrictions Management) has been around for a rather long time now. And it’s not that products shouldn’t be protected, it’s that frequently these protections comes at a cost to the very people who it isn’t intended for — those who legitimately buy the products.
The problem is that, while piracy is real, Hollywood and ilk make the assumption that everyone in the entire world is guilty until proven innocent. Apparently it’s all too hard to do the right thing, so why not just treat everyone as guilty and be done with it?
It doesn’t matter if you legitimately purchased your DVD or CD, it doesn’t matter if you wish to format shift this product you own to another device you own, and doesn’t matter that you routinely go out and buy more music and movies to enjoy — you’re a criminal, deal with it.
Full story & source: apc