Schneier on Vista DRM (It's Evil!)

Of the many, many, many problems I have with Windows Vista, its draconian DRM scheme stands as one of the biggest. Security expert Bruce Schneier weighs in on the issue with his usual candor and insight in a blog post.

If you aren't familiar with how Vista's DRM works, it's worth reading for the explanation alone: In a nutshell, Vista outputs high-definition video in two different ways. First is a high-quality version which is reserved for hardware that uses the proper devices (namely monitors that support the same DRM system and make it more difficult to copy this video). If you don't have the proper hardware, you get the intentionally degraded version of the video.

There are so many things wrong with this that I scarcely know where to start. The biggest issue: If you want to play an HD-DVD on your Vista PC you'll probably be purchasing a new monitor in addition to all the other new hardware you have to buy to make it happen. The DRM scheme uses extra computing resources to check up on all of this (to the tune of 30 times a second), which is one reason why you need so much RAM and a fast CPU to run Vista at all. (Don't worry, they pass the cost onto the consumer!)

But Schneier is at his most eloquent when he points out how ridiculous an abuse of power this is for Microsoft. The company, with 95 percent market share on PCs, has the power to tell studios it is not going to implement such a nightmarish scheme, but it didn't. Microsoft has repeatedly said it is just following the orders of the studios, but that argument makes little sense, and in fact, Schneier notes that ultimately this will turn into Microsoft forcing studios to release content in formats that will play on its hardware. Did I mention "evil" yet?

I won't spoil the rest of Schneier's insights (including a gem about how Steve Jobs isn't telling the whole story in his now-famous DRM missive), so head on over and check out the full shebang.