Between this, the DMCA, and Sen. Hollings trying to fit the wang of every major Hollywood executive in his mouth at the same time, I’m almost tempted to start pricing shacks in Montana.
Bleh.
DISCLAIMER: I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Microsoft basher. In fact, I own and enjoy several of their fine products. But come on… this is evil. EEEEVVVVIIIILLL.
You would have to be an idiot to buy a computer with such “features”, so of course their evil plan to take over the world may work.
Hopefully, though, it will backfire and Microsoft and Intel will go under and Macs, Linux, and old versions of Windows will rule.
By the way, If you have the newest version of Windows Media Player, you have given Microsoft the right to destroy any data on your PC that they don’t like. At least the agreement you click says you do. It will take MS a few more years of bribing before everything they say is automatically a law.
If I am rich someday and something like this becomes law, I will leave the US and create a company that manufactures and distributes DRM-free illegal devices and sell them throught America through my large underground network. After doing this for a few years I will be able to buy MS.
I know it is really true, and that this really is a problem to be worried about, but that was a really well-written propaganda article. It started out all unbiased and cold, then it slowly transformed into moral attacks on the copy protection schemes.
I’m glad that the users have Cambridge professors on our side. I bet Michael Eisner himself would be swayed by that article!
This is precisely why I object to Windows XP. (for the uninformed, if you use WinXP and change the hardware in your computer “too much” [by Microsoft’s determination], your computer locks and you must call MS to get it reactivated. They can refuse to do so.) This was the start of the slippery slope, and we’re all falling in line.
This business of having the software vendor be the watchdog of piracy through monitoring what you do, smacks of Big Brother. They can’t control piracy thru normal means, so they’ll invade your privacy to do it. How much freakin’ money do they need BTW?
I hope the Palladium fails miserably.
I’ve been a MS user and supporter for 15 years, but this will send me running to Mac in a heartbeat.