Text 13069, 37 rader
Skriven 2006-09-27 22:24:58 av Rich Gauszka (1:379/45)
Ärende: Microsoft DRM strategy - Sue
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From: "Rich Gauszka" <gauszka@hotmail.com>



http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4355&ref=y

"And the beat goes on." Viodentia releases FairUse4WM 1.1; Microsoft responds
with a patch. Viodentia releases FairUse4WM 1.2; Microsoft files a lawsuit
against the author. Viodentia today releases FairUse4WM 1.3; the ball is once
again in Microsoft's court.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3680

When it comes to keeping Microsoft's digital rights management technology from
getting hacked - a situation that recently provoked one of the fastest patches
ever to be turned around by the Redmond-based company (because of the stakes) -
the company has already shown how its technological options are limited. Within
24 hours of fixing one hacked version of Microsoft's DRM, the same hackers -
the developers of FairUse4WM (the utility that strips content of any Microsoft
DRM that might have been applied to it) - released a new version of the utility
as a countermeasure to the patch. Now, Microsoft is suing those developers.
It'll be an interesting test case since the hackers aren't being accused of
pirating content. They're being sued for creating the tools that enable piracy
which will be a harder case to make. Sure, that case was successfully made with
Napster. But the Napster network also facilitated and carried information that
was critical to successfully pirating music.  But the developers of FairUse4WM
play far less of an active role in any acts of piracy once "a pirate" has their
tool.

The move certainly raises the question of whether such legal options are the
last resort to protecting software-based DRM.  If they are, they won't survive
the international test of time (and Internet). Meanwhile, the Secure Video
Processor Alliance is already out politicking, saying that hardware-based DRM
is the only way to do DRM. It may be right (not that that makes DRM right).

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