Vista Bytes Netflix User with New Monitor - The Predictions Come True! (updated)

Back in February 2007 I wrote about how Microsoft's Vista OS could "bit-rot" your files if you did something they (Microsoft) thought you should not do. http://blog.pacdat.net/article.php/20070204201516220

Well, here we have evidence that this is exactly what is happening - and it is even worse than I predicted!!!

The original article  was unfortunately not available when I first read this because the guy who posted it has "exceeded his CPU limit" at his ISP - something that won't happen on my site as I own the whole server :)

This http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/03/2339248 article from Slashdot points out that when the original author purchased a new HDMI monitor for his PC, the Netflix Digital Rights Management software (which uses Microsoft's DRM base in Vista) would have (if he'd allowed it to run) removed movies he'd purchased from Amazon's Unbox video facility - a completely unrelated product - just because they didn't conform to Microsoft's DRM scheme.

So in this case the files he had from Netflix would not play at all - even in downgraded resolution (they're less resolution than the new monitor could show) but the fix would have removed other content that he legally had paid for!!!

If you run Vista, you don't control the use you can put your machine to - Microsoft does - and that's just WRONG!

So if you received a new HDMI monitor for Christmas and are having problems with it hooked to your Windows Vista box this may be part of the problem.

If you purchase an new monitor in the future and things stop working until you "put in the correct fix" - make sure you read the messages that come up when you are about to install whatever the tech people tell you do - as the Gotcha's in it can be significant. In this case the guy did read the messages and didn't run the fix - but now he can't use Netflix and view those movies unless he "downgrades" to his older VGA (analog) monitor instead of using his new (and expensive) digital one.

Beware!!!

Update - July 25, 2008:

And now Yahoo! Music is "going dark" (being turned off) and with this comes the note that anyone who had purchased music from the store will no longer be able to move that music around or to a new computer because the DRM (Digital Rights Management) key server is being turned off.

Again, the DRM concept is simply music RENTAL - not purchase. You have NO RIGHTS under even the Copyright laws if you can't decode the music.