If you dropped a bundle on a high-end computer display or HDTV, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise when you slip your new high-definition DVD of Star Wars: Episode III into your Windows Vista PC. Vista, the next version of Windows that's slated to appear in about a year, will feature a new systemwide content protection scheme called PVP-OPM (see box below). If your monitor doesn't work with PVP-OPM, all you'll likely see is either a fuzzy rendition of your high-def flick or Hollywood's version of the Blue Screen of Death--a message warning you that the display has been 'revoked'.
High-Def Hard-Liners
Forthcoming Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs promise higher resolution than a standard DVD's 480-line maximum. But to protect its high-quality content from pirating, the film industry, along with disc and hardware makers, has created an umbrella content protection scheme known as AACS. If Windows is to play the new discs, Microsoft has little choice but to support AACS, which is where PVP-OPM comes in. According to Microsoft, PVP-OPM will prevent pirates from attaching recording devices directly to the PC graphics card's DVI or HDMI video outputs in order to capture a pristine digital copy of the disc's otherwise encrypted content. A related component, PVP-UAB, will prevent savvy computer owners from installing data capture cards in order to grab high-def movies straight off the PCI Express bus.
Unfortunately, PVP-OPM will also shut out plenty of law-abiding video watchers whose current displays aren't future-proof. To comply with the film industry's protection scheme, PVP-OPM employs HDCP technology to determine whether graphics boards and displays are allowed to output and display high-def video. If HDCP sees a blocked display (such as a video capture device) or one that does not support HDCP (including any HDTV with only analog connectors), it prevents output or reduces the video resolution until the offending display or protected content is removed from the system.
http://pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122738,00.asp----------------
How do you like that?
Big Hollywood and Microsoft are going to control what you can and cannot do with media that you’ve purchased.
Big Hollywood needs to fucking get a clue. This is going to piss off the people who actually BUY media. And its going to drive them towards PIRACY. What do you think a computer user is going to do when VISTA throws a pissy fit over unblessed hardware? Run out and buy the latest hardware? Or fire up BitTorrent and download the movie that VISTA refused to play? From that point on how much less likely is that consumer going to be to respect : “Intellectual Property?” I’m betting not likely. Because they are going to be PISSED.
You know this latest move just points out how fucking idiotic these people are. The are treating their consumers as criminals and driving them to do exactly what they are trying to prevent.
If the Recording Industry would have bought Napster and charged people $20/month for all you can eat access millions and millions of people would never have heard of Kazaa, Emule, BitTorrent, etc. They’d all be using the RIAA owned Napster. But they just don’t get it. They are dinosaurs and they won’t evolve. The filesharing genie is out of the bottle and so far everything they’ve done to stop it has just made the problem worse. They’ll never get it.
I’ll be boycotting Vista just as I’ve been boycotting XP (over product activation) and you should too. We all need to tell Microsoft and Big Hollywood that we want more choice not draconian Digital Rights Management that tells your TIVO to delete things you’ve recorded, tells you computer you can’t watch your DVD, or tells your DVD player to “self-destruct”. Big Hollywood has no right dictating to Sony or Microsoft how their devices should work. It is up to the consumer to dictate what they want thru the marketplace.
This is DRM crap is bullshit, and it’s only going to get worse.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
