[lug] (Fwd) Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection

[Neal McBurnett]

Thanks to Joe for forwarding this interesting message from security
expert Peter Gutmann about an issue that affects far more than
just Windows users.

Neal McBurnett                 http://mcburnett.org/neal/

----- Forwarded message from Joe Van Andel -----

This document is not light reading, but well worth looking at. It
shows the many technical drawbacks caused by implementing Digital
Rights Management in general purpose computers.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt

Executive Summary
-----------------

Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to
provide content protection for so-called "premium content", typically HD data
from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources.  Providing this protection incurs
considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, 
technical
support overhead, and hardware and software cost.  These issues affect not
only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the
protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever
come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for
example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server).  This 
document
analyses the cost involved in Vista's content protection, and the collateral
damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry.

----- End forwarded message -----