« Diebold in Swarthmore Newspaper | Main | Anti-DMCA forces »
Windows Vista DRM cracked
Since we will be discussing DRM in class, I thought this might be of interest to the PC users who are thinking about upgrading to Vista in the near future. Microsoft has been advertising Vista for its higher security, but it also comes with a whole new set of DRM protection mechanisms. With HD content and Blue Ray discs being the new hot thing, Vista has labeled a lot of that content "premium content" that can only be displayed if you use hardware that offers DRM support. Which means many users might face many frustrations when trying to play their HD content on a system loaded with Vista, but it turns out their audio or video card isn't compatible with the new stricter DRM standards. There's a really good article about this at:
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/02/vista_month_wel.html
But of course, where there is Microsoft there are hackers, and Alex Ionescu has written a code to bypass the Vista DRM system. You can see the details on his blog: http://www.alex-ionescu.com/?p=24. Sadly, due to the DMCA he is unable to release the code to the public (which could be used for legitimate reasons such as playing HD content you've paid for on older hardware), for fear of law suits.
Posted by at February 20, 2007 5:45 PM
in Commentary Posts
