Longhorn to Require Monitor-Based DRM

Mr_Silver writes "Engadget has an interesting article regarding a new feature in Longhorn entitled PVP-OPM (Protected Video Path - Output Protection Management) which detects the capabilities of the display devices you are using and manages how (and if at all) content is sent to it. In short, this means that if Longhorn detects that your monitor is not "secure" enough, then your premium video content won't play on it until you buy one that is. Who gets to decide? The content providers of course." From the article: "So what will happen when you try to play premium content on your incompatible monitor? If you're "lucky", the content will go through a resolution constrictor. The purpose of this constrictor is to down-sample high-resolution content to below a certain number of pixels. The newly down-sampled content is then blown back up to match the resolution of your monitor. This is much like when you shrink a JPEG and then zoom into it. Much of the clarity is lost. The result is a picture far fuzzier than it need be."

Comments

RTA: It's not just Microsoft

[Call Me Black Cloud]

From the article:

To be fair - it's not just Microsoft. The next generation of digital content will, by and large, be protected to the display. Recently Toshiba released their HD-DVD specifications and have dictated HDMI/HDCP as a display requirement for playing back high-definition content. Most expect Blu-ray to have similar restrictions.

You don't think Apple is going to do this too? What will happen with Linux though? With Linux making inroads into set top boxes there will be some solution for Linux, though I don't think it will make its way to the desktop (legally).

Eh? Monitor based?

[Momoru]

Wouldn't this just be done at video card or motherboard level or more likely software level? I'm assuming it will still have a standard output to any generic monitor, the average person wouldn't upgrade to a new monitor for a new OS.

Actually from the microsoft white paper:
>PVP-UAB provides the last internal link in the Longhorn content protection chain, to ensure that the premium video content reliably makes it from the Longhorn Protected Environment to being rendered on the card without a copy of the content being stolen.

So it's not a monitor thing, and the article writer appears to be a dumbass.

Re:WTF?

[Amoeba]

So, let me get this straight. If I so chose to upgrade to Longhorn, I'd have to buy a whole new videocard and monitor to actually view the OS and any other programs tailor written for it?

Actually, no. Only if you want to use the Secure Computing platform built in to Longhorn. This "feature" is part of Microsoft's Next-Generation Secure Computing Base. Essentially they are putting into place a framework that will provide a secure channel from keyboard to OS to monitor that runs in a protected bubble from the non-secure OS/apps/hardware. Longhorn will use a protected kernel "shell" in which DRM-enabled applications can run without interference (or being touched by) applications or non-DRM-enabled hardware running in the non-secure OS portion.

The videocard tech they are talking about here is ostensibly to prevent things like screen-scraping or intercepting video output. The goal is to provide a secure portion of OS that is inviolate from bootup and has secured pathways for data to travel. Think of it as Uber-root or a chroot'd OS partition that include hardware.

Using this secure channel is optional. You are not forced to use it. You can run all the aps you want, you can run it on your old hardware. However, the NGSCB is there should you need... and provided you have the hardware that supports it.

Now, certainly this feature has the *IIA's drooling. The theory is sound but the actual use and implementation can be (and probably will be) abused.

Re:Not likely

[wankledot]

Lets clear a few things up:

Apple did not create AAC. (Dolby Labs did) AAC does not have DRM. (Apple's DRM only applies to content from their store, not all AAC files.) Apple could easily apply its DRM to pretty much any codec.

Saying that AAC is related to content protection at all is just pure unmitigated bullshit. I'm starting to think you don't know what you're talking about.

Apple has not licensed its DRM to anyone, and there is no DRM in the system itself except for its own products (specifically the iTunes Music Store.) I think the chances of the Monitors pref pane ever having a "security" tab are nil. Go sell your FUD elsewhere.

A fix from our friends in Germany

[Digital_Quartz]

http://www.spatz-tech.de/spatz/dvi_magic.htm

Magic de-HDCPed DVI. Completely illegal in the USA thanks to the DMCA, but the rest of the world can enjoy our content at full resolution.

Re:extreme case of DRM

[Mechcozmo]

Just use AppleScript to get around it. Something along the lines of:

tell application Quicktime
fullscreen
end tell

Should do it. Or use VLC if you want. The latest version (might still be a beta) works great under Tiger.