DRM Rumors

JJKizak wrote on 8/15/2007, 9:34 AM
My guru buddy was telling me that in the Vista OS you must have the DRM capable Burner/player, video card, and monitor to burn and play Bluray or HD-DVD. This is old news.
New News---Vista DRM monitors all of your video files for DRM protection and if you try to burn a protected DRM video file Vista will disable your hardware drivers. It will also send the data to Microsoft that you are a nasty person doing illegal stuff. I hope this is not just baloney or inuendo. He said this is the newest info from Microsoft.
JJK

Comments

richard-courtney wrote on 8/15/2007, 9:53 AM
Does that imply that we as producers of content can rest at night knowing someone
isn't making a profit without giving me my share?

What about XP? or Linux? or Macs?

What is a DRM capable monitor?

Does that mean someone can't put HD content out on the internet as a transport
stream?

I am still not impressed with Vista.
rmack350 wrote on 8/15/2007, 9:57 AM
Oh dear, here we go again. There is soooo much conflicting information on this that you could probably go out and find ten *reliable* sources on the internet and they'd all conflict. Even if you consider your guru buddy to be reliable I'd still go do the research yourself and get lots of supporting evidence. Lots of gurus have gone off half-cocked on this.

Let's take the points:

1. "Vista DRM monitors all your files for DRM". Makes sense. If you're going to have DRM in the OS you should probably use it.
2. "Vista will disable your hardware drivers". People have taken this two ways - the more hysterical will tell you that it disables drivers "forever" and you need to buy a new computer. I've never seen any sort of confirmation of that (so it must be true). The painfully reasonable people assume that "disable hardware drivers" means that you will be prevented from burning or viewing the media and once you stop everything will be fine. This is certainly more reasonable given the vendor fear of support calls and the cost they incur. But I don't know the real answer to this.
3. "It will also send the data to Microsoft". ho hum. Could be true. Is Microsoft an enforcement body? No. Could the MPAA or other associations be demanding that MS collect and hand over this sort of data? Absolutley. Could you block the reporting with something like Zonealarm? Probably. Will there be class action suits if users aren't properly warned when they try to copy DRM protected media? You bet!

All of this is just my opinion (based on reading a few dozen conflicting articles and posts)

Rob Mack
rmack350 wrote on 8/15/2007, 10:13 AM
There are quite a few DRM and HDCP options and my take on it has been that they will be slowly phased in over the next 5 years or so. Very little of it will be active right away but some of the possible effects are that:
1- protected video content (things you bought or downloaded) played out over non-protected output may
a. Play as is
b. Play at a reduced resolution
c. Not play at all
2- unprotected content (Things you have shot or authored and put onto any media including BD) will
a. Play as is

A DRM capable monitor is actually one that is equipped with HDCP and has an HDMI connection. The monitor (or other device) has to do a handshake with an HDCP equipped output device (like a graphics card). The digital signal between the two is supposed to be encrypted. If any of the parts of the chain don't support HDCP and the media is flagged as requiring it then the media flag will determine which of A, B, or C happens.

If the media is not flagged as requiring HDCP then life is good and you never get vexed. Hopefully.

Much as consumers and gurus are confused, I think you're going to see some hardware and software vendors totally screw this up for a few years.

Rob Mack