Nerdy Photo in Vista DVDs Thwarts Disk Pirates

maximus1 writes "Microsoft says that the tiny photo on the Windows Vista Business Edition installation disks is an anti-piracy feature. The tiny photo of three grinning men — less that 1 mm in size — is one of several images incorporated into the hologram's design intended to make it harder to replicate a Vista DVD, according to Nick White on Microsoft's Vista team blog. 'The real story is interesting, but conspiracy theorists will be disappointed to learn that it is not the result of a deliberate attempt to deceive,' White wrote."

Comments

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[wizardforce]

The images are less than 1mm in size and are not visible to the naked eye, so must be viewed using optical magnification. Their presence does not affect the contents of the DVD any more than would applying a label to the front of an audio CD you may have created at home. These security measures were never intended to be impossible to find, but rather difficult to reproduce. While it's extremely difficult to replicate a holographic design in general, the inclusion of original images makes it that much more so. Incorporating optical security into our physical media is just one of many efforts to ensure that Microsoft customers get what they paid for.

since when do software pirates care about watermarks if they can still copy the data just fine? For that matter, how many pirated copies of Vista actually exist? [such negative reaction to it why pirate it?]

Re:"DRM" tag...?

[MythMoth]

The term "DRM" is newspeak.

Firstly copy prevention, then copy protection, now digital rights management. Sure, it's picked up some bells and whistles along the way, but the copy prevention is what it's all about.

If this image is about making it hard to make copies, then it's DRM, regardless of the intentions the progenitors of the term had when they decided the old word was doubleplus ungood. Commit thoughtcrime. It's your duty.