Peter Gutmann: A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection

[ Thanks to Anonymous
for this link. ]

“Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS
elements in order to provide content protection for so-called
“premium content”, typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD
sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in
terms of system performance, system stability, technical support
overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not
only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects
of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and
software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it’s
not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh
computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost
involved in Vista’s content protection, and the collateral damage
that this incurs throughout the computer industry.”

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