Veteran Microsoft security expert, Jesper Johansson, says he may dump Microsoft's Windows Media Center in favour of Ubuntu-affiliated LinuxMCE after struggling with Redmond's DRM (Digital Rights Management) software.
Johansson -- the ex-senior program manager for security policy at Microsoft who moved to Amazon.com in September last year -- wrote in his blog today that he may drop Windows Media Center for LinuxMCE after experiencing difficulties resolving problems caused by Microsoft's DRM software.
After Johansson's five-year-old child complained that On Demand, a US cable network's on demand video system, was not working through Window's Media Center, he attempted to resolve the problem.
"Upon inspecting the problem I found that the video would turn on, the screen would flicker for a second each of black and the video a few times, and then the Blue Screen of DRM came up. It also wouldn't play any premium channels," he wrote.
Johansson said the recommended work-around involved several convoluted steps, including installing Windows Media Player 10, which crashed, and then being advised to troubleshoot the problem with Windows SharePoint Services. A subsequent Microsoft DRM update then caused Internet Explorer to crash.
Johansson said that DRM software is not only ineffective, but a waste of money which damages businesses that attempt to use it to control the way consumers use copyrighted material.
"How many billions has the industry spent on DRM schemes that the bad guys break in weeks? How many perfectly legitimate users has the industry annoyed and driven away? How many lost DVD sales has it caused? How many lost sales of Microsoft's Media Center software and Windows Vista has it caused because the DRM sub-system randomly decides that you must be a criminal?" he wrote.
It has done very little to stop bootleggers from hawking counterfeit software, he wrote, after witnessing a bustling trade in it on a recent trip to Asia. Johansson is now contemplating using LinuxMCE to avoid further difficulties.
This is the reason why i do not use online services to purchase DRM protected music, and even download pre-cracked games after i have bought the product to avoid various protection software which is install on your pc to verify the validity of the game, which sometimes actually causes incompatibility in other areas of your system. I agree that there shoud be some level of protection to safegauard the intellectual property of artists, companies but this should only go so far as to prevent the majority of society simply copying cd's / dvd's using standard burning software. As stated you are not going to prevent hackers from getting around any sort of copy protection.