After reading through this rather technical breakdown on the subject of "digital rights management" that is part of (read: ingrained into) Microsoft Corporation's new Windows Vista operating system (NASDAQ:MSFT), one has to wonder if consumers are just totally losing control over the content they consume. There seems to be none of this "I buy it, therefore I do with it what I want" attitude when it comes to audio and video content producers -- they want (and need for some reason) to have absolute control over when, how and where consumers "consume" their content.

It's hard for me to believe that there is so much rampant content piracy among the minority that the content producers have to "lock down" just about everything to a single device or format. This erases just about any choice consumers should have about how they should be able to control the content. Yes, there may be differences in "owning" or "renting" content, but the mass majority of consumers have no clue about all this mess -- all they know is that they want to enjoy content on their devices and TVs and computers. Is the mass majority a threat to content producers? Not at all.

So, what is the deal here? Perhaps it's just protectionism by the content producers as they wield incredible influence over the hardware and software makers. And maybe, the hardware makers also don't want commoditization of their products at all (which is inevitable in many industries over time). Reading this, though, is not for the faint of heart.

[Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 1-26-07]