A coworker brought to my attention the latest cross-company DRM consortium effort: Advanced Access Content System (AACS). When I hear about these efforts, I feel as apathetic as the AACS model pictured here (they put all this effort into making their movies and music secure but they still can not stop me from ripping the still images from their website):

She just does not look too happy, does she? Almost as if she is getting burned out on multimedia technology. All of the usual promises are there: All multimedia hardware and software will eventually adopt this standard. This includes HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, recording from broadcast, and the capability to move the content around in a “managed” fashion, probably designed to optimize the amount of cash moving out of consumers’ wallets.