:InformationWeek: How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In
InformationWeek: How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In Dec 7, 2006, 16 :45 UTC (10 Talkback[s]) (8296 reads)
"What if you could rig it so that competing with your flagship product was against the law? Under 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act, breaking an anti-copying system is illegal, even if you're breaking it for a legal reason. For example, it's against the law to compete head-on with the iPod by making a device that plays Apple's proprietary music, or by making an iPod add-on that plays your own proprietary music. Nice deal for Apple.
"Microsoft gets the same deal, courtesy of something called 'Information Rights Management,' a use-restriction system for Office files, such as Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets..."