Microsoft furious at $2,000 bounty for open source Kinect drivers

Re:Microsoft furious at $2,000 bounty for open source Kinect... by alextgordon on Friday November 05, 2010 @05:35PM (#1875027)

The utility of DirecTV is the service it provides. The box has no utility per se. Because being able to receive DirecTV's service is dependant on having compatible software, there has to be some way for the box (hacked or not) to receive updates. If the pirates don't patch, they lose their utility.

The utility of Kinect is a physical piece of equipment. There's no service (although it may be used with a service), therefore there's no requirement to receive updates once hacked. Microsoft only gets one chance to deploy their defences: when the Kinect is in the factory.

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Re:Microsoft furious at $2,000 bounty for open source Kinect... by tptacek on Friday November 05, 2010 @07:59PM (#1875434)

You apparently think the Pay TV providers can issue new smart cards on a semiregular basis. No, they can't. They operate under approximatelly the same constraint Microsoft does; updates to their core protection scheme are ludicrously expensive.

(Microsoft could use the exact same scheme by bricking their devices with fuses when they fail some routine checkup; they could also brick every device and then issue a recall/reissue. They have better options than that, though).

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