A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection

[Jibz]

Not sure if this has already been posted, but it's certainly an interesting read:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

[Carol Haynes]

Waghhhhh ... Looks like a lot of damn good reasons to avoid VISTA, BluRay discs and HD-DVD discs if you want to use them on a PC ... or in fact ANY HD content at all ...

In fact so far no-one has been able to identify any Windows system that will actually play HD content in HD quality, in all cases any attempt to do this produced either no output or a message that it was blocked by content protection. While it's not possible to prove a negative in this manner, it's certainly an indication that potential buyers may be in for a shock when they try and play premium content on their shiny new Vista PC.

Plus if VISTA really can't play SACD etc. through a digital interface ....

The ultimate in DRM - you can't play it in the format you purchased !

Further comment (edit) ...

I have just finished reading this article and it is scary. Everyone should read this from beginning to end before even contemplating Vista ... presumably the same crap will find its way into Windows XP over time too.

It's no wonder Vista feels so leaden when you consider the ridiculous ends MS have gone to with the DRM parts of the new OS - and in particular AES encryption and decryption of all graphics data when sent to a display. The mind boggles!

[dk70]

I guess that would be the article talked about in Security Now 74 http://www.twit.tv/sn74 and later when Microsoft responded http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/01/20/windows-vista-content-protection-twenty-questions-and-answers.aspx in 77 http://www.twit.tv/sn77 They are old ladies those 2 but also nice topic to gossip about.

Also pops up Windows Weekly 11 http://www.twit.tv/ww11

If I remember correctly they conclude MS have bend over to content providers, no alternative to following their wishes. Not if company is MS and product Windows. Fighting them is real issue - some bugfixes, may be even servicepack for Vista is to be expected

Why did Viacom (once again) pull tons of videos from Youtube? Even Google become the little guy with these protection issues.

[f0dder]

Vista: by the industry, for the industry. Screw you, users!

EDIT: the funny thing is, as always, it's the legitimate users that get screwed. The pirates get things like this. So you bought a fancy new HD-DVD or BluRay movie? Well, start you torrent client and download 25 gigabytes from the net if you actually want to watch it. Microsoft and the movie industry (not that Apple is going to be one bit better).

EDIT 2: christ, it's even worse than I thought. Was discussing this with a friend before I had read the full article, and he joked that "I've got an idea... what about RSA encrypting all data before it hits the bus, then we can say we have a nice and protected OS... oh, performance you say?...". Well, just then I reached the following part of the article:

The initial crypto handshake is:

driver -> application: cert + nonce
application -> driver: RSA-OAEP-SHA512( nonce || key || seqNo1 || seqNo2 )

christ.

[Carol Haynes]

Vista DRM cracked ... see http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/29/vista_drm_cracked.html

[f0dder]