DRM in Vista

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What exactly is this? Can microsoft disable drivers etc? And what reasons would they have for doing it?

Digital Rights Management
Another common criticism concerns the integration of new forms of Digital Rights Management into the operating system, specifically the introduction of the Protected Video Path. This architecture is designed such that "premium content" from HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs may mandate that the connections between PC components are encrypted. Devices such as graphic cards must be approved by Microsoft. Depending on what the content demands, the devices may not pass premium content over non-encrypted outputs, or they must artificially degrade the quality of the signal on such outputs or not display it all. There is also a revocation mechanism that allows Microsoft to disable drivers of compromised devices in end-user PCs over the Internet.Peter Gutmann, security researcher and author of the open source cryptlib library, claims that these mechanisms violate fundamental rights of the user (such as fair use), unnecessarily increase the cost of hardware, and make systems less reliable and vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks. Proponents have claimed that Microsoft had no choice but to follow the demands of the movie studios, and that the technology will not actually be enabled until after 2010; Microsoft also noted that content protection mechanisms have existed in Windows as far back as Windows Me, and that the new protections will not apply to any existing content (only future contents).

 

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OK, to sum up:

The HD-DVD and Bluray specifications can (but don't at the moment) require you to use HDCP devices (basically encrypted DVI) to prevent you capturing the sources in HD. If required, a disc can be enabled to only outpur standard def. pictures if it is being use on any other type of connection even if that connection is physically capable of transmitting a HD picture.

I think the bit about revoking drivers of compromised devices is connected with the HD media specs also having the ability the revoke decryption keys of HD capable software and hardware in the event those keys are cracked or made publicly available, which IIRC has already happened according to a story I saw this week.

 

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