> To properly understand the strategic concessions
> Microsoft made to the entertainment industry --
> concessions that led MSFT to deploy a software-based
> version of the Advanced Access Content System (AACS)
> in Windows Vista -- you need to carefully consider
> that third aspect of neoliberalism.
I agree with everything Dwayne wrote except this word "concessions". Ever since Windows 95 at least, the platform has been conceived more as a marketing tool -- like television -- than as a piece of system software. There was never any question of "concessions."
The marketing-tool design goal is precisely the reason the damn thing has so many security holes. -- Well, it's the main reason. There's a secondary reason, which is that Microsoft produces really bad software. I don't mean bad in intent, or bad in effect, but bad in design and bad in implementation.
I don't quite know why. There are plenty of people working there who _could_ produce good software -- but don't.