Thread: Windows Vista

There have always been restrictions over what you can do with some files built into Windows, but Vista contains more than previous versions. Restrictions of any kind are frustrating, especially if they impinge on something new.

This has been especially true with all forms of digital media, particularly music. Companies have made a concerted effort to stop people copying music and videos on their computers. This is to ensure the creators and owners of the work get paid.

When Windows Vista was released there was a lot of controversy about the ways in which it enforced Digital Rights Management (DRM). Some of this was true and some was just wild speculation. We will take a look at the ways DRM affects how you can use Vista, and what you can do about it.

How DRM works
A file that has had DRM added to it is encrypted so that it can only be played by those who have permission. That usually means someone who has paid in some way. For example, if you purchase music from a website, a licence is transferred to your PC along with the audio file. The track will play only if the licence is present.

The licence file also stores information about what is allowed to happen to it. In the case of music it may be allowed to play but not be copied from one computer to another. In the case of purchased music there may be a limit on the number of times it can be played or a date after which it will no longer play.

These restrictions do not sit easily with all computer users, especially because they can lock users into particular hardware or software, and the need to decrypt the file places extra demands on the computer.

Moving music
The most commonly protected form of media is music, and you may not even have been aware that this was the case. For example, the default settings for Wmdows Media Player are to include DRM on music copied from CD onto the computer. This only really causes inconvenience when the files are copied from one computer to another.

In this case the music will not play and a web page is loaded asking that the licence for the music be transferred to the new computer. So, if you buy a new Vista PC and try and copy music files over from an old PC, you will most likely come across this.

It is very simple to stop Windows Media Player from adding DRM to files when importing CDs. Hover the mouse over the bottom of the Rip button so that a small arrow appears. Left-click on this arrow, and then click on More Options.
If the Format in Rip settings is set to MP3, the option to copy-protect music will be greyed out anyway. This is because MP3 has no support for DRM. Any of Microsoft's formats can have DRM applied to them.

Click in the box to remove the tick and protection. It is not possible to remove protection from files once they are encoded - the only way to remove it would be to rip the music again. DRM applied to music bought online cannot be removed - well, not legally.

Why is Vista different?
DRM is nothing new, either to computers or to Windows, but this did not stop a lot of attention being paid to the extra DRM restrictions built into Vista.
An article written by an academic at the University of Auckland claimed the extra DRM features in Vista reduced performance and stability, and increased costs.

Most of the new content protection revolved around the added support for the new hlgh-definltlon video formats, Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Because of the risks of films being copied via the video output of the computer,

Vista will only play the films at their highest quality if it is connected to a display with an HDMI connector. This is because HDMI graphics cards and monitors can detect if there is a device connected that might be trying to record the content illegally. Computers with the monitor or television connected with older connectors such as VGA or DVI will never show the films at their best.

At present there are few, if any, HDMI displays for computers, and Computeractiue's take on HD-DVD and Blu-ray is that buying now, before one or other format is clearly established, is a waste of money for all but a tiny minority.



What is surprising about the controversy is that the concept of reducing quality depending on the hardware being used to watch it is nothing new.
Just about any standalone DVD player (such as you might buy from a supermarket) will radically degrade the quality of the film if it is plugged into a video recorder.

Microsoft's response tothe claims in the University of Auckland article was that this was also true of Windows XP if it was plugged into a video recorder. However, Microsoft's response did concede that all of the copy protection in Vista does require more of the computer's power, harming performance.

Does it work?
The crucial question, given the inconvenience caused to Windows users by DRM, is does it prevent people from breaking the law?
Sadly, the answer is no. A lot of DRM protection is simple, although illegal, to get around, especially the protection applied to music files. The protection around DVD movies was broken very quickly and some copy protection on Blu-ray and HD-DVD has also been broken.

Checks are balanced
Vista does include extra restrictions on the way that files, especially media files, can be played or copied. But this is nothing new, as this kind of protection has been included in previous versions of Windows. There is a benefit to these restrictions as, without them, it would not be possible to play the new high-definition movies on Windows computers.