Microsoft Patents DRM'd Torrents

Anonymous Crobar writes "Microsoft has received a patent for a 'digital rights management scheme for an on-demand distributed streaming system,' or using a P2P network to distribute commercial media content. The patent, #7,639,805, covers a method of individually encrypting each packet with a separate key and allowing users to decrypt differing levels of quality depending on the license that has been purchased."

Comments

Re:Solves the piracy problem at the user end...

[shutdown -p now]

except that "stealing" a product results in a civil fine.

Depends. This hasn't been true in U.S. for over 10 years, for example.