Today, manufacturers seem more likely to produce computers that operate more like VCRs or DVD players than the PCs people are accustomed to. These machines have copy-protection embedded in the hardware, much like home recorders that keep people from making copies of videos they have purchased.The security sounds like a good idea, but it increases corporate control over networked systems. The code for those digital rights management systems is closed to outside developers.
"Microsoft makes life easier, but only in the ways that they want to make life easier for consumers," said Jeff Bates, the director of the Open Source Development Network, a collection of news and programmer sites. "This is a manifestation of the problems with software patents and the problems with non-open standards."
