iTunes or WMV more restrictive

I wasn't going to go there, since we've been there so many times before, but yes, Apple also has a strong interest in keeping the content they sell restricted.

I figured that since they've now been pressured away from holding onto that position that we could drop that subject, since it's not as relevant anymore.

Oh, that makes sense I always thought it was Steve Jobs driving DRM.

Some would say because of quality, but it's also probably because it isn't restrictive enough for the content providers.

For the most part, they are the ones that really drive the requirement to make it as locked down as possible, because they believe that's the only way they can make money.

i don't know why anyone offers any web video outside of flash anymore.

Not to defend Windows or DRM, but the IE only requirement is imposed by NBC Direct and the way they wrote the software, not by Microsoft, so you can't really call it a monopoly play.

NBC could have written a client that showed the restricted content without requiring any specific browser at all (by going the same route that iTunes takes). WMV does not depend on IE, NBC's app does.

You are right about me not using this particular (or any other) WMV DRM apps, though. I'd rather not, but I'm just pointing out that most of the drawbacks you're referring to here (IE requirement, long setup time, etc.) are not because of Microsoft, but because of how NBC decided to build their app.

"most people are running Windows (for better or worse)"
further monopolizing the market by not supporting other platforms, even firefox isn't supported.

"and will be able to use WMV DRM fairly easily."
That's subjective to your experience of not using the WMV DRMed applications, according to multiple reports it takes at least "10 minutes" to setup, that's not "fairly easy". Even WMA DRM is awful, which I've used for the Yahoo! music store before.

I wasn't talking about MS or Apple specifically in my comment, although you were in your post.

One thing you should remember though (since you mentioned the "majority of the world"): most people are running Windows (for better or worse) and will be able to use WMV DRM fairly easily.

And again, you favor MS over Apple. ;)

I agree but I don't think it will happen, MS will rule the world because they give what the greedy corporations want more then anyone.

DRM is crap no matter how you serve it.

There's not a debate I'm less interested in than which platform makes DRM the easiest to use.

If anything, I'd love for DRM to be as difficult to use as possible; making it easy to use = making it easy for consumers to adopt, which in the end is a bad thing in my book.