Hollywood + Windows Vista = 4eva

Between TPM support, integrated DRM in next-gen optical drives and codecs (i.e. WMV HD/VC1), and, of course, our favorite,
PVP-OPM, Microsoft seems to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to locking down their next version of Windows. And for good reason too—assuaging the copyright-enforcement concerns of the Hollywood paranoiacs studios means big money for a company at the hilt of The Battle For The Livingroom. According to Cnet, apparently late versions of the Vista beta will begin to feature Windows Media playback sandboxing on the PVP end, wherein media playback data will be locked completely away from other applications and plugins, making it all the more difficult demux, move, or otherwise transcode your content. Microsoft is even putting into place the necessary countermeasures to aid and abet the RIAA in distributing highly copy-protected CDs. We're not entirely sure how effective all these countermeasures are going to be by the time Vista hits the streets, but we can definitely say it's about time the consumers let their dollars did the talking when it comes to fair use.

[Thanks, Uy Tran]