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HD Monitor Causes DRM Issues with Netflix

Posted by Soulskill on from the new-years-low-resolution dept.

Jeremiah Cornelius points us to Davis Freeberg's blog, where he discusses his "nightmare scenario" of losing access to his DRM-protected purchases by upgrading his PC monitor. "When I called them they confirmed my worst fears. In order to access the Watch Now service, I had to give Microsoft's DRM sniffing program access to all of the files on my hard drive. If the software found any non-Netflix video files, it would revoke my rights to the content and invalidate the DRM. This means that I would lose all the movies that I've purchased from Amazon's Unbox, just to troubleshoot the issue. Because my computer allows me to send an unrestricted HDTV feed to my monitor, Hollywood has decided to revoke my ability to stream 480 resolution video files from Netflix. In order to fix my problem, Netflix recommended that I downgrade to a lower res VGA setup."

7 of 540 comments (clear)

  1. DRM display lockout by Paul_Hindt · · Score: 5, Funny

    This was one of those "features" of Vista that I heard about in the earlier days of the hype. There wasn't a clearly defined explanation of how they would indeed tie DRM to your HD monitor but I guess the results are starting to show. Someday maybe all of our hardware will be locked down so that if you don't buy content with appropriate DRM, it simply won't play. Hurray for freedom!

  2. What do you mean YOUR eyes and ears? by StefanJ · · Score: 4, Funny

    Read the F'ing EULA my friend.

    And if you don't stop fast-forwarding through those Axe commercials we're going to deactivate your reproductive module.

  3. Upgrade to XP by CritterNYC · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is a bug that only affects Windows Vista (defective DRM is prevalent). Upgrading to Windows XP will solve the problem.

    --
    Portable versions of Firefox, GIMP, LibreOffice, etc
  4. OOhhhh Look!! by jon287 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Chickens! Why it seems they've come home to roost!

    I always said that as soon as customers started loosing legally purchased media and having real difficulties with brand new hardware that the days or DRM would be over. Could that day be here already?! Happy 2008 all.

    --
    To boldly use to and too two times and get it right too! They're not gonna believe their eyes when they see it there!
  5. Re:Cancelling by Ophion · · Score: 5, Funny

    Netflix has repeatedly said that they want to make their steaming feature available to more operating systems, browsers and the like.

    Great Freudian slip!

  6. Re:Slashdotted. by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    And he's requested Google to not cache it? That was helpful!

    He DID request in his robots.txt for Google to cache it. Unfortunately his robots.txt file got invalidated during a server upgrade and Hollywood revoked his right to allow Google to copy it.

  7. Drm. by changa · · Score: 4, Funny


    Strange game... only winning move is not to play.