AACS DRM tentacles reach far into operating systems By Ken Fisher | Published: August 12, 2007 - 11:03PM CT Introduction "The biggest trick the devil ever pulled was in getting folks to blame someone other than Hollywood for video DRM." -not Keyser Söze Peter Gutmann, author of a well-known and fascinating paper describing the tradeoffs of Microsoft's content protection system in Windows Vista, is on the hunt again. Last year, his paper "Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection" painted a grim picture of the lengths Microsoft went to in order to gain full compliance with AACS, the next-gen copy control system for Blu-ray and HD DVD (and they did go far). Now Gutmann is reiterating his claims but also reportedly digging deep in his attacks on Microsoft. While Microsoft deserves some of the blame, the bigger story here is the technical nightmare created by AACS and how its tentacles are reaching into the consumer technology we all use daily. It's a shame that this is getting lost in the mix, but after discussing the issue with a journalist this weekend, I decided to delve a little more into it here. Gutmann's presentation at this year's USENIX Security Symposium in Boston has been profiled at Network World. Gutmann's thesis is fairly basic and unchanged from last year: Microsoft spent way too many resources appeasing Hollywood when it should have been making Windows Vista better. Gutmann is essentially correct; any time a consumer electronics manufacturer or other technology company has to waste time with DRM, that company is wasting resources that could be better spent elsewhere if DRM wasn't a sad fact of life. Let no one doubt that. All of this attention focused on Microsoft is missing the bigger story, however. ... http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/aacs-tentacles.ars ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.