Yes, the data storage. The Vita cards are what holds the games, but for user content, like movies and music, your only choice is to use their very expensive proprietary memory cards.
If you mean the memory cards and not the game cards, then I don't really see how. As long as you can put any kind of file on the, there will be a way to get around any protection system. Just load it up against a firmware that isn't protected against it, and bam, free stuff.
If you mean the ame carts, then i also don't see how that will work. it didn't stop all the GBA and DS flashcarts that came up, and there are already working prototypes of 3DS flashcarts out there.
I honestly think it's just Sony trying to make their system the world-wide accepted standard. They aren't members of the SD Card Association, and they have their own flash memory format, Memory Stick. They would obviously love to have everything use theirs instead of SD, because that's all kinds of licensing fees they would profit off of.
But no, they think they can change the entire electronics industry by making one device use it. It may have worked for Blu-Ray, but that was because one, it was offered in far more than just one Sony device, and two, Sony wasn't the only one invested in it.
It just irks me a bit that they think they can force it upon everyone when there is a more readily available and cheaper (and possibly better in terms of specs) alternative in teh SD format. It just seems... arrogant of them.