Aspects of Windows Vista content protection

The analysis is kinda lengthy but well worth the read, as it’s both informative and entertaining.

The documentation is peppered with sentences like: “It is recommended that a graphics manufacturer go beyond the strict letter of the specification and provide additional content-protection features, because this demonstrates their strong intent to protect premium content”. This is an exceedingly strange way to write technical specifications, but is dictated by the fact that what the spec is trying to achieve is fundamentally impossible.  Readers should keep this requirement to display appropriate levels of dedication in mind when reading the following analysis [Note B].

Note J: The “kool-aid” reference may be slightly unfamiliar to non-US readers, it’s a reference to the 1978 Jonestown mass-suicide in which Jim Jones’ followers drank Flavor Aid laced with poison in order to demonstrate their dedication to the cause.  In popular usage the term “kool-aid” is substituted for Flavor Aid because it has more brand recognition.  There’s also an earlier, less well-known link to fruit juice laced with LSD, I’ll avoid the obvious comment about that and some of the thinking behind Vista’s content protection.

Note K: If I do ever want to play back premium content, I’ll wait a few years and then buy a $50 Chinese-made set-top player to do it, not a $1000 Windows PC.  It’s somewhat bizarre that I have to go to Communist China in order to find vendors who actually understand the consumer’s needs.

I’m so tired of being treated like a criminal. More and more engineering resource will go into deliberately degrading and disabling parts of user experience and technology, adding encryption overhead and the like, instead of developing great things that will bring us great experiences. It’s going to be fun to watch where this goes with Vista.