Mike Eisner's Disney has taken some major strides in the race to see which Big Content dinosaur can alienate their customers first. Last week they bid farewell to Pixar, the top animation studio of the last decade. This week Disney signed a deal with Microsoft to lock its digital content in Windows Media DRM. Disney's dumped the thing its customers want more of: great-looking, well-told stories. As Eisner himself said a year ago:

''What Pixar has that we don't have is John Lasseter,'' Eisner said during an investment conference. ''It's like Walt in a way. He has that quirky sense of humor and understanding. John is unique.''

Bottom line: Disney's stopped trying to compete on creativity. Expect more synergy-driven drivel from the Mouse House (and don't bother me with "Pirates"—for every "Pirates" we have to contend with a "Haunted Mansion") and half-assed direct-to-video sequels. The crap they will produce will be locked down in restrictive DRM from Microsoft:

Microsoft, in Redmond, Washington, calls the alliance with Disney "a significant cooperative effort...to help guide the industry," but offers few specifics of what the two companies will do beyond licensing Windows Media DRM.

This is not the first time Disney's tried to let people do less with the media they buy. Disney was one of the early backers of Divx (the failed DVD format from Circuit City) and, more recently, of the EZ-D self-destructing DVD.