Microsoft Can't Please Everyone
from the caught-in-the-middle dept
A few weeks ago we had a story about Microsoft backing down on their copy protection scheme for their new Media Center PC. The original plan would only let recordings play on the same PC that it was recorded on - but when consumers pointed out that such restrictions made it pointless and not worth buying, Microsoft changed their mind. The system still has fairly restrictive copy protection, so at the time, I thought this was more of a publicity stunt of "backing down" while still making Hollywood happy. Turns out, I was wrong. Hollywood is not happy, even though the system does include copy protection. They're saying it's not enough copy protection, because it's never going to be enough copy protection until they get you to open your wallet every time you try to watch anything.
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