Windows Vista

[Mirage]

What does all this "Integrated DRM" mean?

Digital Rights Management. It's software that controls the copying and playing of digital media, so as to prevent copying and downloading music.

It prevents much more than that. It sometimes prevent legitimate uses of music like ripping your own CDs or making copies of your own MP3s. It prevents you from watching HD movies (even ones you've paid for) on any but an industry-approved monitor; if you try to watch it on a normal monitor Windows will deliberately make it look like trash. And so forth.

DRM also describes the process whereby Microsoft can at-will disable your entire system if they think you pirated Windows. http://www.computerworld.com/action/...icleId=9004970 Remember, you aren't buying Windows, you're buying temporary permission from Microsoft to use Windows until they decide to take your permission away.

Keep in mind though, that without this built-in DRM, you would most likely not be able to watch HD DVDs at all. This is isn't MS' fault :p, it's decided by that HD DVD interest organisation which most Hollywood studios are members of. I forgot its name.

-edit-
I also have a hard time believing Vista will add DRM to your non-DRMed audio files, and that it will prevent you from ripping an album with CD-Ex.

And to be fair, you don't own any of your music, movies or any of the other commercial programs you've paid for either, the only reason to complain is when the WGA makes a false positive. As long as those are kept to a minimum, people shouldn't be complaining, in my opinion. You're not buying a temporary license either, it's valid until the universe as we know it ends. Unless of course you break the license agreement you agreed to when you installed it, which you should have read before buying it.

That being said, I don't like the way product activation is implemented. I'm making a lot of hardware changes and reinstalls myself, so it just ends up being a bother. I own a license for XP Pro, but I downloaded and installed the corporate edition to avoid product activation.