[A2k] Gutmann, A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection

[Soenke Zehle]

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
===================================================

Peter Gutmann, pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz
<mailto:pgut001%40cs.auckland.ac.nz>
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
<http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt>
Last updated 28 December 2006
Distributed under the Creative Commons license (see Appendix)

(A note to readers: The reaction to what started as an obscure technical
post to a security mailing list has been rather unexpected and
overwhelming, so I'm totally buried in Vista email at the moment. Please
be patient when expecting replies, and apologies if I can't reply to all
messages).

Executive Summary
-----------------
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.