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276 Comments
- krystalo, on 02/18/2009, -19/+156Finally, an article that sets the story straight. Thanks Ars!
- inactive, on 02/18/2009, -23/+150If you don't have a lot of time to read the article, this is the most important part at the very end:
When it comes to bashing Microsoft, it seems that any old canard will do; facts are strictly optional. - hamobu, on 02/18/2009, -8/+93From the article: "But just as with Vista before it, the vast majority of users will never see the DRM in any practical sense; the features are there just in case Hollywood decides to make use of them. "
See I always thought that I should be the king of my computing castle, not Hollywood. - klick37, on 02/18/2009, -3/+67The DRM uses DRAGONS?!
- hairysandwich, on 02/18/2009, -11/+67It's the slashdot crowd, hating Microsoft is a favorite pastime over there
- DiscoLando, on 02/18/2009, -6/+51It's not much different over here, either.
- Topher06, on 02/18/2009, -23/+52Yes, Ars gets it right for a change. Once again these so called draconian DRM schemes pose little to no effect on the average enduser, the same as when Vista was released, same as when XP was released, same as when Windows 2000 was released, Ad Infinitum. The only people pissed off are people that are always pissed off on principle and too pissed off to understand the reality of DRM.
- mrbutter, on 02/18/2009, -8/+36Wait so you mean people make stuff up about Microsoft?
Hmm... - agentinfinite, on 02/18/2009, -8/+34Now here's some great insight into what Windows DRM is really about.
- copypastry, on 02/18/2009, -0/+26Draconian or not, programmers will always find ways to circumvent any kind of DRM.
- Paranormalized, on 02/18/2009, -0/+25This was discussed on Slashdot.
"Local Settings" is just a link for legacy programs, it leads to AppData\Local. Explorer doesn't have access to through the link, but it has access to the real folder. It works the same in Vista. - TechnoRabbit, on 02/18/2009, -5/+29However, some DRM is quite evil. Let's look at the super fun DRM of the gaming world! There's some DRM that requires you to have an active internet connection for a single player game. But what if you don't have an internet connection? Then OMG you must be a pirate, no game for you! And then there's DRM that's harmful to your computer system. There are some DRM schemes that install stuff to your computer that is harmful, will cause conflicts with other software. There is some DRM that refuses to let you play a game if you have certain software installed on your machine. And, finally, there is DRM that is harmful to the physical hardware on your computer, such as DRM schemes that take constant random readings from your CD drive even when the game requires no content off the CD, putting strain on your computer (or if you're on a laptop causing your batteries to drain faster). DRM is evil and it doesn't work. All DRM is eventually cracked.
- KibibyteBrain, on 02/18/2009, -0/+22Its not, and its unacceptable. But speaking from a realistic point of view, both both Microsoft and now Apple with their new displayport based machines have it in their products, and they are over 99% of the desktop OS market. And my guess is if Linux ever gets popular enough someone will port some sort of DRM to it too so it could legally play Bluray, even if its not near as twisted into the kernel and such as its competition. The only real way to make this BS stop is to get people to stop using DRM, sadly I don't think any of these software guys can be anything but yes-men to the even bigger Hollywood monster.
- Scira, on 02/18/2009, -1/+21Did he release a jar of dragons on a crowd?
- 4degrees, on 02/18/2009, -2/+21dont use that OS?
- mvader, on 02/18/2009, -2/+20Actually, the real reason is that Win XP fudged the numbers...
It said the file copy/move was complete when the file was in the hard drive CACHE.
Win Vista waits until it is actually written to the disk to tell you that the file transfer is complete.
Source: The Win7 Engineering blog (I forget the actual post) - Jarasmen, on 02/18/2009, -1/+18DRM is retarded. The simple solution is I just don't own anything with DRM and do not plan to. If they want to put restrictions on stuff it's their choice, they'll just lose a customer. Yeah yeah, I know, as if they cared about some random stud on the Internet. Thing is, if people stopped buying DRMed stuff instead of having them and bitching about it, DRM would probably be long gone.
- hamobu, on 02/18/2009, -2/+19We are talking about the workings of a computer here. Control of my computer should not be taken from me just to protect someone’s distribution model.
- wolfing, on 02/18/2009, -0/+17Draconians are not dragons, they're humanoid creatures magically created from dragon eggs. Some of them explode when you kill them, others turn to stone (which sucks, you need to have extra weapons to fight them)
- Zomgondo, on 02/18/2009, -0/+17Uh, no, Blu-ray isn't taking off because Blu-ray players cost a hell of a lot more than DVD players, and most people are plenty happy with DVD.
- TheXboxReview, on 02/18/2009, -0/+15Photoshop is 10x better than Gimp... unfortunately.
- BuzzFriendly, on 02/18/2009, -4/+19Not sure why everyone gives MS, Apple or anyone else a pass on this. I curious as to when Hollywood is needed for operating system development. I would argue that MS and Apple have the upper hand against Hollywood. Hollywood needs these companies more than the OS manufacturer needs them. If MS and Apple refused to add this crap then who would they peddle there products to? Brick and mortar sales are all but gone, CD are almost dead so with this in mind MS and Apple really hold they keys to the sales they get.
- klowngoblin, on 02/18/2009, -4/+19ACTUALLY if you updated your vista to SP1 you'll notice its faster to do network copies
on my laptop from my HTPC i was only able to get around 40MB/s xfr speeds but once i upgraded to vista 32bit sp1 i got over 67MB/s (due to caching to ram and stuff and other adv memory management trix) - Elranzer, on 02/18/2009, -1/+15Diggers hate anything that's popular. Since Microsoft and Apple are both popular, they hate Windows AND Mac OS X. They also hate Ubuntu, and since they think that ALL Linux is Ubuntu, they hate Linux.
Pretty much the only acceptable OS on Digg is NetBSD. - PabloIV, on 02/18/2009, -7/+20Looks like there's still some people who think computers are magic.
Thanks for the clear up Ars. - cawpin, on 02/18/2009, -2/+15It's the network stack. Look it up as I'm not going to write out the entire explanation. I'll sum it up with this, there is a bunch of unnecessary back and forth.
- archer75, on 02/18/2009, -2/+15Blu-ray not taking off has nothing to do with DRM. It has to do with the still high prices in a recession.
Most people don't know what DRM is and are not affected by it. They just put th disc in their set top player and it plays. It's all they care about. - marcus1060, on 02/18/2009, -1/+13Or use the the ripper in WMP.
- sirber, on 02/18/2009, -2/+14windows 7 doesn't prevent you to rip your CDs... gee install any ripper and get the job done.
- pbgswd, on 02/18/2009, -2/+13DRM restricts your freedom. You want less freedom? Go ahead.
- hamobu, on 02/18/2009, -5/+15I don't! And I will advocate to others not to use it.
- WindReaver, on 02/18/2009, -0/+10DRM is not intended to stop piracy, it is intended to kill the second hand or "used" market.
- twiztidsinz, on 02/18/2009, -4/+13"Actually DRM does harm the average user, usually when he or she needs to upgrade and finds out they will have to purchase a new copy of Windows with all those shiny new computer parts. Then you get to spend hours on the phone with a Microsoft rep based in Mumbai."
Hours?
Really?
Every time I've called up to reactivate my Windows XP (which YES it is a pain...) I've spent an average of 5 minutes on the phone from time time I dialed till the time I hung up.
ONE time I spent nearly twice that amount of time, but that was MY fault because I put in the wrong product number during the automated part.
When you call to activate, the automated operator asks you to input your product key.
You type in your key then it'll tell you that you need to speak to a live operator (if it didnt, you most likely could have activated on the computer itself if you had an active internet connection).
Within a minute, maybe two, a live operator picks up (Yes, outsourced to India) and will ask you confirm the first 5 of your product key, then they will run down a list of 4~5 questions (Have you installed this on any other machine? Is this the only machine using the product key at the time? etc..)
Then they read you off a number to put into the computer.
It's annoying, but it's not hard nor time consuming.
You don't have to jump through hoops, you don't have to do it right away (30 days), and they have -FAR- faster response times than many other places that put you on hold when you call up (Stores, Cable/Telephone/Cell, Mechanics, etc). - cromulent742, on 02/18/2009, -1/+10dra·co·ni·an (drā-kō'nē-ən, drə-) adj. Exceedingly harsh; rigorous; unusually severe or cruel:
Sounds to me like it's being used correctly. - TechnoRabbit, on 02/18/2009, -0/+8I do not feel that it is reasonable at all to require an internet connection to install or play a single player game due to DRM. I am often poor. I am often without internet connection and I spend what little money I have on games sometimes to get me through the boring times where my belt gets tight.
- Andy.D, on 02/18/2009, -5/+13You know, I see the claim all the time but it's never bitten me, and I upgrade my video card every year or so, and have even swapped a mobo out once using the same copy. I click an activation button and everything is fine.
- meekrob, on 02/18/2009, -21/+29Actually DRM does harm the average user, usually when he or she needs to upgrade and finds out they will have to purchase a new copy of Windows with all those shiny new computer parts. Then you get to spend hours on the phone with a Microsoft rep based in Mumbai. Eventually their circular logic will defeat you.
- Chronomagnus, on 02/18/2009, -0/+7I don't think I've ever re-installed anything 25 times, hell my oldest computer games which I have to load into dosbox now I don't think I've installed 25 times. You're probably one of a handful of people that has run into that.
- khedoros, on 07/31/2009, -0/+7Because media companies demand it. Microsoft wants the right to claim the ability to play the media that other companies produce, so they'll consistently kowtow to make it possible. Microsoft is just doing what makes business sense. Big media is the jerk in the background forcing Microsoft to screw the customer.
- crazlunatic, on 02/18/2009, -2/+9How come nobody has commented on Adobe being able to insert itself as an exception into the firewall? This could only have happened if the Adminstrator was prompted whether to give it permission or not, and the admin selected allow. However, it seems like the adminstrator wasn't even prompted at all in this case.
- inactive, on 02/18/2009, -0/+7Photoshop isn't Bloatware. Acrobat/Reader? yes. why does a freaking PDF viewer need to be updated every 10 seconds????
- hamobu, on 02/18/2009, -3/+10I said “Control”, not "watch a movie". The DRM restrictions in Vista prevent me from doing two things:
1. I cannot view Blue Ray DVD that I bought on a Holiwood unapproved hardware.
2. I cannot make a back-up copy of DRM-ed content that I bought. If I am not mistaken, I have a perfect right to make a backup copy of anything I buy, as long as I do not distribute it. Maybe there is some way to rip the content, but I should be able to do things how I want to do them on my own machine.
Notice that if I were able to do two things above, I would not be within my legal rights. My legal rights are diminished to protect someone’s method of distribution. - LordVance, on 02/18/2009, -1/+8Perhaps that's because it *is* wrong. The only thing it comes close to stopping is casual piracy; you know, the kind where two kids in middle school want to share a CD (by one burning a copy for the other). How many groups of friends don't include at least one kid that knows any existing DRM is ***** and easily circumvented anyway?
It's an annoyance to legitimate customers, and it does very - very little to actually curb piracy in any meaningful way? - Misterberu, on 02/18/2009, -1/+8Just torrent. If hollywood starts putting restrictions on what I legally purchase, then I'll just go download a torrent of the file. It's cheaper, easier and will be more convenient.
- Ranzera, on 02/18/2009, -9/+16Isn't it though?
Just because it appears to be mostly invisible doesn't mean it isn't going to break on something stupid and create problems for me. Any software that's designed with the expressed intent to prevent someone from using property that they own in the way they choose is wrong.
Laws and law enforcement are for making sure people don't do certain things. Software never should be. - mrclisdue, on 02/18/2009, -12/+18So, explain to us, please, why DRM is necessary on a PC that YOU own.
Lemmings, - PueSi, on 02/18/2009, -0/+6Nobody is imposing anything, if you don't like it don't use it, encourage your employers to avoid it, etc.
- diggymow, on 02/18/2009, -3/+9From the article: "When it comes to bashing Microsoft, it seems that any old canard will do; facts are strictly optional."
- jakem1, on 02/18/2009, -1/+7As the article states, the DRM in 7 is basically the same as the DRM in Vista. As I've never had any trouble playing anything in Vista l can only assume that I won't have any problems with7.
I'd prefer if there was no DRM but I don't think MS are going to suddenly flick a switch that will ***** me up. - Elranzer, on 02/18/2009, -0/+6Vista SP1 is slower than XP for copying files/directories (locally even, not just from a network) from one place to another. But oddly enough, it's the same speed as it's done in Mac OS X and Linux. I've always found it odd how Windows XP (and below) seem to copy files/folders much faster than every other OS... but turns out it's because XP reports it's done before it's actually done. This can mess up copying files to flash disks, I've noticed. Vista (like Linux and Mac OS X) tend to tell you it's done when it's actually done.
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