The “Break it Down” Blog

Laurence Hartje sends in a link to a story that is pure-suck…

The gist of this (as I understand it) is that in Windows Vista, the new DRM functionality in the operating system is universal and tied to the hardware. More specifically, if you purchase movies while a monitor with a specific HDMI signature is attached to the PC, then attach a new monitor and try and play it, the DRM will detect the ID of the monitor has changed and effectively disallow not only the playing of that movie, but all other DRM-protected movies as well.

In this blogger’s case, he upgraded a monitor, went to do a Netflix Watch it Now session and was prompted to allow the Windows DRM unbridled access to all the files on his computer. When the DRM software found different signatures in monitor hardware, all DRM’ed media (Which included movies downloaded from Amazon Unbox service) was deactivated. The only workaround provided to him was to download the highest unprotected resolution allowed: 480p.

The snippet is here as his site is currently beat down:

“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.”

This seems to only effect machines with HDCP enabled video cards and monitors running Vista where one of the devices are eventually switched out. I guess the DRM signature is embedded in the movie itself, so when it plays and no longer matches the monitor, Vista sees it as a “pirated resource” and shuts down DRM-enabled playback… or something equally as retarded.

Jesus christ… this is the result of all the hard work Microsoft put in try to appease the RIAA and MPAA? Awesome, now you can’t change hardware without fear of the software working.