Microsoft's new media center caters to entertainment industry preferences:

If Microsoft's handling of digital-rights management in its new Media Center PCs is any indication, Redmond is perfectly happy to sell out its customers to keep the entertainment industry happy.

What I'm talking about are features built into Windows XP Media Center Edition that let some next-generation PCs act like TiVo-esque personal video recorders (PVRs). The first Media Center machines, due before Christmas from HP, also come with a DVD burner. That combination means you can copy TV programs you've recorded using the PVR features from your hard drive to DVD.

THAT'S WHERE the catch comes in: The DVDs you burn can only be played on the same machine on which they were recorded.

I'll pause now to let you reread that last sentence because you couldn't believe your eyes the first time through.

Microsoft says it's designed the Media Center this way to block the "wholesale" copying of copyrighted material. But--stop me if I'm wrong--I always thought "wholesale" referred to one person making a million copies of something and selling them, rather than a million people copying a single program for their own private use.

I THINK the real goal here is to convince Hollywood that Microsoft itself--forget PCs!--isn't a threat, which will in turn make it easier for Bill Gates to cut preferential deals with the entertainment moguls. If solving Hollywood's piracy problems is what it takes for Bill to ink those deals, who cares what consumers want?

Or maybe Microsoft is trying to do to the entertainment business what many people believe the company did to the desktop software industry--helping potential competitors sail to their own doom. It's possible that Microsoft is acceding to Hollywood's wishes in order to let Tinseltown anger customers and make a fool of itself. Then Microsoft can say, "We tried doing it their way and look what happened!"--and then proceed into the digital-entertainment business as it pleases.

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