More Microsoft Control Freakery

  • The Register: The Microsoft Secure PC: MS patents a lock-down OS. The patent application seeks to protect “a computerized method for a digital rights management operating system comprising: assuming a trusted identity; executing a trusted application; loading rights-managed data into memory for access by the trusted application; and protecting the rights-managed data from access by an untrusted program while the trusted application is executing.”
  • Cnet: Microsoft to slip audio format into DVD chips. “This will enable not just playback of CD-burned collections of digital music but also the eventual playback of video entertainment using Windows Media Video from CDs.”

    And so it continues. Microsoft is becoming an official partner with Hollywood and the record industry.

    Windows Media Player incorporates digital-rights management. Does anyone believe that its inclusion in various products isn’t part of a larger design to clamp down on CD burning and other “pirated” material? The entertainment industry likes Windows Media formats precisely because of this ability to eliminate users’ rights to such things as fair use.

    Of course, the entertainment crowd is making one of the worst strategic moves in years by partnering with Microsoft. Guess what company will end up controlling content? Hint: It won’t be any of the entertainment companies.

    Comments

  • This entry was posted in SiliconValley.com Archives. Bookmark the permalink.