Vista’s “burning rights” “fix” for DRM

This is actually worth a read because I am sure that thousands of people are experiencing exactly the same thing and you can see “from the inside out” just HOW MS is approaching the DRM thing.

I had originally planned to post this two days ago, but the very next day had another teacher run down the hall to grab me and see how I could help him with an EXPANDED version of my problem.

The problem I encountered is that Vista’s cd burning program burns .isos, perhaps shall we say… unevenly…. Sometimes they run, sometimes they don’t…

I’ve never had a problem burning .isos with Ahead Nero 5.0 so I figured I would install it and be happily burning .isos again….wrong!

The program…this is Nero 5… is fully functional in Vista…except that it doesn’t “see” the cd burner…all you can do is burn to a “virtual cd” on the hard drive.

Vista popped up and said that there was a “compatability issue” with “this version of Ahead Nero and that I should go to Nero’s site to get a “burning rights” patch.

Ok…after considerable hunting at the Nero sight, I had to use search…I found the “burning rights” .exe download and downloaded it…a few seconds to do so…

I clicked the “burning rights” .exe and Vista popped up and said that there were “known compatability issues” with the program, did I want to cancel or continue and I clicked continue….

A popup immediately appeared that said that I am “not allowed to do this because you don’t have administrator rights”….

Welll ok….I went to change user but…no administrator…. Just little old me as user…

After considerable hunting in control panel, I found how to give myself administrator rights…. And did so…..

I go back to the proggy and …it says I don’t have administrator rights….

Ok…maybe I downloaded it into “user” and not “administrator”… so….I had to “change” views in control panel to get a view which was rather “similar” to “add remove programs”….now it is just….”remove” programs….

Is there the “possibility” that they only want the user to “add” programs that are “allowed”? dunno….

Anyhow, I found the app, and removed the program, and then found the actual executeable and removed it…

As Administrator…I then go back to Nero and download the same file… and click on it…. Again the popup about this program “having known compatability” issues…I click continue….

And guess what? The program installs…. And it asks me who I want to allow to burn stuff, administrator, all users, and an odd way of saying only designated users…

I click all users… and it “seems” to do it’s thing…

I then go back to Nero…and repeat the same process and guess what… It still only offered the “virtual cd” on the hd…

I go through this loop a coupla more times and figure I’ll just try a “for instance”…I tried burning a “virtual cd” on the hard drive…and it did it…

So…. The program is fully functional…. It just won’t burn a cd…

Soooo ok….I unloaded Nero again and got a NEWER version, in the 5 series and installed it…and samo samo….

However, when I was at the Nero site looking around to see if there was a “user burning” rights .exe specifically for it…there was not…

What to my wondering eyes should appear?

I can download Nero 7.0 …..ok….I clicks it…. 48 minutes to download it….

I can download a 650 mb .iso in about 40 minutes…

No way…so I’ll just use a linux machine or an XP laptop I keep for school ….. I stop the download and write up an initial version of this…but…

WAIT… a NEW twist….

The next day, I’m at the j/c and a fellow instructor RUNS down the hall to get me to ask about his problem with….

Vista Business edition….. and “burning rights”!

He had had the EXACT same problem with an older version of Nero and had downloaded the new 7.0 version….

OK…. Time out for perspective here….

I have a brand new Sony Vaio computer….maybe the problem REALLY was with the “older” Nero…not recognizing the “oddball Sony Vaio” cd/dvd/rw etc….

HIS is a brand new…. HP laptop….

And….It won’t ……with Nero 7.0….

It won’t burn EITHER a cd, or a DVD….and it will not burn …..to a MASSIVE usb 250 gig or something HD that he was going to store movies on to take to Iraq…for his unit to watch on his, or their laptops….he actually owns the cds he's not doing anything that a few years ago would be considered "illegal"...like copying them to a hard drive that he owns....he just didn't want to take a stack of dvds to the desert...

but...

Vista Just wouldn’t do it….it WOULD…burn a “virtual DVD”…to the hard drive of the machine…that was all…

There was no way he was going to get a bunch of movies on the hd built into the machine...and the guys in the unit would have to watch them on his machine....he just "might" need to use it for other purposes at the time..

sooooo..

He had done the whole “burn rights” .exe everything….

He didn’t have “administrator” privileges etc. etc…

Now, this guy hadn't done anything the "wrong way"...all his life...but he was LIVID about this....

After all he had downloaded and was willing to PAY for the Ahead Nero 7.0....

Well, within a short while he had obtained an "underground" piece of burning software....

Anyway….to finish the story….. the THIRD PARTY…”underground” software found his a) C hard drive, b) the cd/dvd burner and …the external USB… hd….he burned to all three just as a test….

Sooooo it wasn't a "compatability" issue.... it was DRM...or at least Microsofts "coy" way of saying it.... that one doesn't have "burning rights"...or "there are "known compatability issues"...

Soooo the guy now has a choice....take a locker full of dvd into a rather "gritty" environment...or do something which, a few years ago was not.. illegal...according to today's DRM concept....

Soooo to finish all this up…..

And, I'm NOT advocating the use of "underground" burning software... what I am posting is what is going to be the first experience of what a "lot" of folks will run into...

There are now THOUSANDS….of people that are getting their first taste of all this….

And I guess….. taking the machines back…or installing XP…or I dunno what…maybe downloading third party illegal burning software....which, again, I do not advocate, and do not use...

But the confluence of events with me and the other teacher was rather humerous…although the situation wasn’t…

MS isn’t saying “you can’t copy this because of digital rights management”….they are being oh so every slyly coy about it….

but a spade is still a spade…

DRM being referred to as “known compatability issues”…won’t make the frustrated user any happier! In my opinion, it would be much MORE acceptable to just say DRM and let it go...

And having to download “burning rights” patches that don’t actually GIVE “burning rights”, is not going to sit well either, since the users will surely realize, as did I, that the physical burner is fully functional…

I mean, I was NOT trying to burn a DVD...I was just trying to burn an iso..

ONE LAST THING....if anyone has anything to REFUTE this I, for one, would be glad to hear it... I'm all for paying for what needs to be paid for...

If I can actually purchase Nero 7 and use it for what I need, which is burning everything but DVDs....I burn copies of open source software to give students etc. and sometimes I need to do it on a windows machine.... an iso should NOT be something that the DRM police think is "illegal"...unless they really do think that an iso is some kind of underground subversive activity ....then I'll buy it....

but....if the above scenario is actually what it SEEMS to me to be...then that is just shinola....

woodsmoke