I spent the best part of an hour reading an interesting document entitled A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection by Peter Gutmann which discusses problems that Microsoft Windows Vista introduces into the general PC market by its implementation of copy protection measures which will both increase the cost of hardware as a whole (not just for Vista users) as well as artificially degrading output of high quality devices.

Microsoft’s new system of handling device drivers (the pieces of software that interface between hardware and the operating system) and the standards they require all such drivers to adhere to will require hardware manufacturers to change the way they design hardware. Specifically, they need to do so in such a way as to make it very difficult for someone to intercept signals for ‘protected content’ (e.g. movies, music, etc.)

To achieve this, hardware designs need to be less modular. Traditionally, modularity has been used by manufacturers to develop multiple products using the same core framework or circuit board, a bit like each car model has the same frame with different extras. This reduces development and production costs as these can be shared across a larger number of units. By removing this flexibility, the cost of hardware (sound cards, graphics cards and motherboards at least) will rise and since Microsoft is in such a dominant position in the market, it means the cost increases will affect everyone including non-Vista users. With requirements to encrypt communications between devices, the cost in processing terms, and therefore power consumption, will also rise. In a world which is increasingly aware of the impact of the green impact of technology, this is counter-productive.

Not only are Linux and other users faced with potentially increasing hardware costs, the author of this document suggests that the specifications for the hardware need to be closed to be certified to work with Vista and thus reducing the likelihood that open source drivers could be developed making them incompatible with Linux operating systems for example.

Essentially, Vista’s new copy protection system means you can’t play legally purchased content (e.g. movies) with a legally purchased high quality monitor if it doesn’t support the copy protection standards.

If this wasn’t enough, Microsoft is employing a driver revocation system which allows it to disable any devices which ‘leak’ protected content (allow you to copy a movie for example) rendering parts of your PC as useless as a brick.

These are just some of the issues raised by this paper. There’s a summary of the issues on TheRegister for those too busy to read the full document:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/27/windows_drm_monstered/

It may not be obvious from the above, but I am a Microsoft fan. I like linux shells but I prefer Microsoft as a workstation OS. I like the way Microsoft software works and how predictable the features are (I’m not quite sure of the new IE7/Vista ideas but I won’t judge that yet). I have dabbled with OS X but I like Windows too much to switch. Will this be the catalyst for change in my position?

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 30th, 2006 at 7:45 am and is filed under general.blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.