Truemors
At the end of all this, the question remains: Why is Microsoft going to this much trouble?
Ask most people what they picture when you use the term “premium-content media player” and they'll respond with “A PVR” or “A DVD player” and not “A Windows PC”. So why go to this much effort to try and turn the PC into something that it's not?
Peter Gutmann revealed, “In July 2006, Cory Doctorow published an analysis of the anti-competitive nature of Apple's iTunes copy-restriction system that looked at the benefits of restrictive DRM for the company that controls it.
ITunes channel distribution monopoly is so strong it was able to rebuff the chairman of Warner to go play with himself somewhere else. Warner wanted to have a few more cents in cuts (profit sharing) from Apple. He was cut down to size instead.
The only reason why Microsoft would put its programmers, device vendors, third-party developers, and ultimately its customers, through this much pain is because once this copy protection is entrenched, Microsoft will completely own the distribution channel.
In the same way that Apple has managed to acquire a monopolistic lock-in on their music distribution channel (an example being the Motorola ROKR fiasco, which was so crippled by restrictions that a Fortune magazine senior editor reviewed it as the STNKER).
Microsoft lusts for totally control of the premium-content distribution channel.
In fact examples of this Windows content lock-in are already becoming apparent as people move to Vista and find that their legally-purchased content won't play under Vista
In one instance, the implications are particularly scary because the content actually includes a self-destruct ---after which it (your premium content program) won't play ever again. One needs to re-purchase premium content when switching from XP to Vista. Aside from this, you also need to re-purchase it periodically when it expires.
In addition since the media rights can't be backed up, if you experience a disk crash you get another opportunity to re- purchase the content all over again. Incidentally, Microsoft owns about 38 percent of Apple.
It's obvious why this type of business model makes the pain of ramming content protection on consumers’ throat so worthwhile for Microsoft since it practically constitutes a license to print money.
Microsoft have been saying for some years now that they'd really like the PC to go away, to turn into a kind of media platform and content-distribution center for consumers.
Windows MCE has been the tail and of a long line of (unsuccessful) attempts to achieve this (the only reason why MCE seems to sell at all is because it's the cheapest version of Windows that vendors can pre-install on a PC).
If “premium content” ever takes off, Microsoft wants to be the central controller of all content distribution and playback — only Windows can secure the content, therefore only Windows can distribute it.
The issue now will be: can market forces prevail or can a giant monopoly change the laws that govern the market.
This is similar to what a Bush adviser once said: “You see a trend, an incident and try to buck it or change it or simply react to it. We, on the other hand, create your reality. We make things happen. And we don’t care one bit what or how you think about it.”
Comments (0)