kg.... It's the industry that is driving this, not Microsoft. As has been pointed out earlier in the thread it's not a new idea. Media Player under XP and Windows 2000 supported DRM (it was somewhat optional, but I digress).
Microsoft is in a lose-lose situation. If they don't support DRM while other OS'es do it opens up avenues for law-suits, public ridicule, etc. Vista is introducing some sneaky practices for licensing of the Vista OS that will combat alot of the pirated Windows installs in the world... heck even for businesses where in the past a Select customer under XP would get a Volume License key for use and any installation using that key (and the Volume License version of the install media) would not have to go through the activation headaches that other customers would. This, obviously, led to alot of pirated versions of XP Pro in the world. That is no longer the case with Vista.... Had they implemented their new licensing model and did nothing to protect the digital rights of other companies... well you are the lawyer but it would seem to me that in a world where DRM is very capable yet ignored, if you give the customer tools to be able to do illegal things without attempting protection of the copyrighted media you might be opening up yourself to... if not lawsuits at the very least public ridicule and further bashing of your brand.
Also, on this article that was posted alot of assumptions are being made regarding Hi Def and their use. I wouldn't put alot of stock in this article.
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