Slashdot Mirror
Intel to Build DRM into Next-Generation CPUs
mdecerbo writes "The Boston Globe is reporting
that next year's Intel processors will include
hardware support for Microsoft's "Palladium"
DRM system. There are chilling privacy implications. AMD, here I come."
Let's all just keep our current computers.
AMD has already agreed to support paladium.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
I mean if you do not plan to run Palladium, where's the problem? This would not stop you from doing anything you do now. Doesn't the OS have to support DRM also in order for this to have any effect?
It's unfortunate, but /.s favorite CPU maker is already on the TCPA bandwagon.
--
E_NOSIG
Look folks - if you are reading Slashdot, then the odds are REALLY good that you run an alternate OS like Linux. Did you note it's a MS DRM technology??? That means poor folks running MS code will be subject to it - not people intelligently choosing to run Linux, etc. ;-)
MS users - have a nice day - if you can!
Have you compiled your kernel today??
The vast majority of people (read; the EULA oblivious) will not adopt it anyway and;
Microsoft will not make it impossible to talk to untrusted machines.
I won't draw any conclusions from this and I won't talk about how the world is going to hell in a digital handbasket, but it's food for thought.
My
Limekiller
or does anyone remember that far back? the pentium III processor architecture was going to allow a special hardware code to be embedded on each processor, unique to each machine so that web transactions would be safer.
however, due to the public backlash about having "big brother" track what their computers were doing, they allowed users to disable that hardware code from being detected.
the hardcoded serial on those pentium III were just a precursor to palladium, however. think of it more of a proof of concept that such a device would work. intel was always heading toward palladium.
The system has a personal information sharing agent called "My Man."
If they want hacker followers they should call the personal information sharing agent "My Women"
This is the most comprehensive read on Palladium available. Forward it to family and friends.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
I use AMD processors anyways. (And yes, I did see somebody's post above that said AMD has agreed to support Pallidium already, I just hope they are smart and change their minds)
But this does raise an interesting question: Does Windows XP already have these types of systems in it, and the processor support will make it come to life?
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
Intel and Microsoft, between Windows Media Center and the forthcoming Palladium might as well just tack on "if you don't want all this crap, please see www.apple.com" at the end of each ad.
While i've been telling my Windows colleagues that this was coming - none of them believed.
And now - bonus - XP.5 and Intel both, in the same week - prove me right.
God.. its good to buy from the "most dangerous company to Intellectual Property today"
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
According to the link in my sig, Intel has a knack for attempting product 'innovations' that aren't very consumer-friendly. My what short memories people have - this is what the Intel CPUID debacle was all about. Now they're going after it again, only under a more righteous-sounding moniker: "Palladium". It sounds like a place you'd go on Friday nights to have fun, but I suspect that fun is the last thing that will come of this mess.
Did you guys forget the rumors that Microsoft's support of X86-64 was due to AMD standing behind them?
If Intel is doing this, AMD will be right behind them. They'll do anything to preserve their relationship with Microsoft.
Don't get me wrong, I love AMD, but they're just as corporate as the rest of the semiconductor industry.
AMD, here I come
I don't think you'll find much comfort in AMD. They are in that DRM working group with MS & Intel. They are also much more eagar to suck up to MS. Their ex-CEO Jerry Whatever said something like: "Wake up, MS has won. I ain't supporting Linux.." in that interview a couple of months ago (it was posted here). I think more appropriate response is: VIA/Apple here I come!
I had thought that this "feature" was able to be disabled in the BIOS. If that were the case, the rest of this problem is a software crack and then DRM isn't an issue. Am I wrong about the simplicity of this?
Remember what happened with the cpuID thing?
I plan on sending out 2 emails, one to Intel and one to AMD. They will state that I will buy whichever processor has the same support to turn this OFF in the bios that the cpuID had and if neither of them do this, I will move to only Mac's.
Now, I don't usually get all email-y/petition-y about this kind of thing, but it's worked before. We're the consumers here. Let's tell the manufacturers what -we- want.
Any responses I get will be posted on the web for all to read.
--
Mike
-- Mike wildcard@illuminatus.org
No, but the government is allowing a known monopolist to force other companies into restricting our rights, or more accurately trying to force consumers into less control of products they've rightfully purchased (not even licensed in this case either)
In this case, the masses are stupid enough to accept DRM-enabled machines for the tradeoff that they get to view some neat-o movie clips on their computer. The masses have some culpability in this, but one could argue that this is one place where the government should step in and prevent a few companies from greatly changing the landscape of information exchange in a way that only benefits a few.
Damn, how you never cease to amaze me, Knox. =)
Just because we're not required to use it doesn't mean it won't do anything. When Microsoft controls 95% of the desktop market, and they're regulating those desktops, that gives them a lot of power. And they've proven that they'll stoop low to push out competition.
I won't go any further than that, it would be speculation, but don't tell me that because we're not forced into buying it that it doesn't affect us.
That also doesn't take into account the wonderful people in Congress who are looking at the TCPA as law.
~Dalcius
Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
So, Intel includes digital rights management in their chips. And Microsoft includes it in the OS. What's the big deal? Where do you get most of your MP3s from, anyway? Your DIvX movies? Your pr0n? I'm sure you don't purchase it. Pirated stuff is always going to be DRM-free.
Don't worry about it. All DRM is defeatable, and it's MUCH better than the alternative (unrippable CDs, anyone?)
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Just like if we don't buy Windows, nobody will use it, right? Microsoft will just go out of business?
That's why they run ~95% of the desktop market.
Look around! That libertarian "vote with your money" argument doesn't work often in the real world, simply because most folks are not intellectuals. Most folks don't care.
~Dalcius
Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
I take it all you worried people are running Windows? Frankly I don't give a crap about this. Because is the DRM going to do anything at all under linux? Probably not. Atleast if MS's DRM efforts pay off, all the kiddies running windows to rip DVDs will be cut off. And the people that want to just play the DVDs will still be able to. Face it, this move is pointed directly at Joe User. He don't understand it, so he don't care. Oh well, I don't care either.
PS: I don't endorse Intel, nor Microsofts DRM bs, I'm just voicing my worthless opinion..
Can all fish swim?
I don't know what all the fuss is about. Microsoft and Intel are obviously just responding to the demands of their customers. Joe Public has been crying out for these DRM features for ages.
Many people on Slashdot just don't seem to understand how having completely free markets in the USA leads to companies supplying the best possible products for their customers. This is just an example of that.
(Yes, this is sarcasm).
The Register has a report about this w/ some good insights:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/27047.html
Suffice to say, all of this is going to blow.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
I have struggled with MS vs Linux for quite some time now. Over the past several years I have set up various Linux boxes and used them initially, but I always found myself migrating back to the Windows box for simple and daily tasks. Tasks that would seem a lot easier and quicker on Windows vs the Linux boxes (only desktop/office/school tasks though, my OpenBSD box has a permanent place on my shelf as my designated household router/firewall). However, if Palladium interfaces caused enough of a problem with my fair use rights (and perhaps even some non-fair use) I would be forced to leave my Windows boxes and set up some Linux boxes for my permanent use. And I have a feeling that there are a lot of people out there that may be in a similar situation: they know about Linux, perhaps have checked it out a few times, and are just waiting for some sort of bomb shell to put them on the other side of the fence. If people suddenly could no longer play their music collection, or open up important documents, they might decide to take a dive into the alternative(s).
I almost forgot - so long Connectix. :-(...
No more Virtual PC - well, not any Virtual PC's which require Le Grange.
Unless they come up with some way to emulate a valid key that changes with each install.
I don't know - how is Connectix going to deal with this? Can they?
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
I don't suppose you're familiar with the V-chip and the fact that it's impossible to buy a new television without this asinine and needless expense? This was accomplished with a comparatively tiny V-chip lobby.
Now consider the fact that there will be a huge amount of money (i.e. the content providers) pushing legislation to make certain that ALL computers are sold with DRM. How long do you think that will take? I'm sure they'll be doing it 'for the children', too.
That article was mostly speculation short on technical details but long on Micro$oft bashing.
Being a geek I got more mileage out of reading the technical details on palladium by a member of the EFF (Seth Schoen) who was at a presentation and TCPA and Palladium: Sony Inside an article on kuro5hin by a former Microserf.
Disclaimer:The opinions expressed in this post are mine and do not reflect the opinions, thoughts, strategies or plans of my employer.
Bob said it much better than I can.
You said it Bob. Thank you.
Up until now, Palladium has been primarily vapor and hype, and primarily known among techno-savvy people like slashdot readers and privacy types.
Now that Intel has is planning to make it concrete and real, it will be interesting to see if the backlash is to the same level as it was for the CPU ID.
I suppose they're making a decent effort at reporting on this in an even-handed way, but the Globe missed two important points.
I take back all the comments I made about the uselessness of hacking XBOXes. Please continue.
Say what you want about Redhat being the next Microsoft, but they always release their code. I don't see them going into this if there wasn't some non-DRM products coming from AMD.
--
Mike
-- Mike wildcard@illuminatus.org
As Microsoft becomes the gatekeeper of digital identity, I predict that Verisign is the next major company who boasted that their part of the market was safe from Microsoft to be crushed by Microsoft.
Ha, I bet they can't stop me from using my all powerfull 8MM Jack on a Palladium machine.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
You're not kidding. I start reading stuff like this and I start wondering if its not too late to go analog and give up on computers and do something else.
I mean, once they hammer all the fun out of it by making it like cable TV what's the fucking point?
Not everyone in the world is enamored with DRM. China already distrusts Microsoft products enough to fully embrace linux as their OS of choice. Will the same thing happen to Intel products in China?
It doesn't seem like a very smart business decision to lock yourself out of the fastest-growing market in the world.
Granted, I think the way Microsoft(tm) is going to implement this, it'll be generally bad for users of their products. But how much do we really now about what hardware Intel is going to add to their chips? It's quite possible that Linux users will be able to leverage this technology to improve the security of our servers in ways which actually benefit the users.
From what I can tell, the overall thrust of this technology is to allow Microsoft(tm) to prevent a user from doing anything to patch or change certain behaviors of the OS. Basically, it's purpose is to prevent people with physical access from "rooting" the box. If we could leverage that tech to prevent a server at a co-lo from being trojaned, wouldn't that be a good thing? Perhaps there will be whole classes of expliots which will become impossible, or at least controllable? It's hard to say without knowing more. But I don't think we should automatically write off the technology just because some vendors plan on using it to screw their customers.
They weren't convicted of being a monopoly, they were convicted of abusing thier position as a monopoly.
:-)
Maybe AMD will take the entire geek market, by ofering a ClawHammer Lite all of the power that you have come to love with none of the DRM.
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
Anyone care to explain?
That's right. It doesn't.
Trust me, it keeps me up at night, the though of not being able to run *nix on Intel or AMD chips... the future looks dim. Thankfully, Apple boxen are open and free to enjoy. For now.
Pity you got modded down, your satire about the topic article was very amusing. Too bad it was moderated down as off-topic even though it was about MS's DRM technology.
Oh well, I thought it was funny. So even though you took a needless karma bite, at least you have the satisfaction of knowing ya made somebody chuckle.
Cheers man.
Or buy new computers and turn off Palladium. Or just ignore the Windows people and keep using Linux.
Palladium comes down to copy protection of *Windows* software and music in *Windows*, and can, in any event, be disabled.
Worst case Windows users can crack software to make it play even with Palladium turned off, which is pretty much what people already do to attack copy protection on software.
How does it affect us? Why should we care?
And answering "Because MS will make Windows not talk to Linux and isolate it", as some other poster did in these responses, is not good enough. MS has been trying to keep Windows from talking to Linux for a long time.
May we never see th
I mean if you do not plan to run Palladium, where's the problem? This would not stop you from doing anything you do now. Doesn't the OS have to support DRM also in order for this to have any effect?
In short, no.
Consider that if you ever need to pass data from DRM equipped computers to yours, you may need to have DRM installed in order to simply view it.
When everything from a word-processed document to e-mail is encrypted with DRM technologies, and only DRM equipped machines can unencrypt them, you have a *serious* problem.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
Nope -- "opt in" means that it is turned off unless and until the user turns it on, and that it is impossible to turn it on through any means other than a conscious decision to that effect by the user.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Palladium has two sides. The DRM stuff, and the privacy and security stuff.
:-)
Palladium _will_ be broken. Unless they implement the whole of the operating system on hardware, palladium's software side will be hacked quite soon (remember the XBox). That means that by loading a patched version of Windows, all the checks that are done on the signatures will be disabled.
So you will be able to use a patched version of Windows to extract the drm protected media from its envelope and put it into a sensible format.
When you are done with that, you enable the checks again so your signed software runs in the sandbox and you can take advantage of the possible privacy and security advantages of that protection. Or even better, you use the Linux implementation of a palladium type sandbox (surely there will be one when the hardware from intel is available), using the Intel chips infrastructure. This will allow for a more secure Linux.
That will be enough until the hardware side of it is broken
When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
As peripherals become locked unless you have MS's DRM Linux or Apple becomes even less of an option. And by peripherals I mean every peripheral: CR-ROM/DVD, Floppy, monitor, video card, printer, the works. What hapens when you can't buy a printer or monitor that won't work with out MS's DRM. THey have the market dominance to make this happen. This is more dangerous than it first looks.
- Nobody uses Windows Media or SDMI, MP3 is the only real digital music standard, and if iPod isn't the leading MP3 player it's close
- Nobody subscribes to pressplay or musicnet or other crippled services, while the filesharers still seem to share their happy days away
- Nobody outside the US worries one iota about DVD region coding, since region free players are readily available
And so on. We have not yet begun to see the anger from consumers who buy hardware that won't run winamp, or rip dvd's using readily available tools. If/when Microsoft and Intel/AMD are stupid enough to restrict their equipment this way, you'll see people vote with their feet.
And, by the way: S.2048 was laughed out of committee - it didn't even get a hearing. Not to say that it isn't still a threat - it is, and we must be vigilant - but the chances that our beloved Mac/Linux/*BSD/yes, even Win2K PCs will suddenly become all that will work with our media anymore are in fact very close to zero.
sulli
RTFJ.
But every single interest group out there will pressure Apple to conform. Do you really think that they would leave a major American manufacturer to be the hole in the wall? They are going to have enough problems with Taiwan/Asian manufacturers as it is.
And isn't Apple rumored to start using x86 chips soon?
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
MS can generate license codes: I'm sure they can get Connectix the info needed to generate a set. (Which will probably run only on VPC emulation so you can't take that copy of XP and move it to a "real" PC.)
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
'Cept many CPUs aren't made in the States. And they don't all sell there.
Intel is working with privacy groups...
Shouldn't that be "Intel is working over privacy groups?
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
DRM is a very, very different beast. The opponents are much more organized, and much fiercer in their (our) opposition. I have already decided to oppose Dianne Feinstein, my senior Senator, for no reason other than her co-sponsorship of S.2048. (Anyone want to run in the 2006 Demo primary?) I'm sure many others will do the same if necessary.
The point is not that we've won, or even that we're winning; but the battle is by no means lost at this point.
sulli
RTFJ.
and only the guilty are concerned about little things like civil rights and due process.
...this will likely turn out to be for the used computer industry. All those older, but non-DRM'd, machines are probably going to be in great demand when this whole Palladium thing goes into effect.
Keep those old systems, OS's, and applications, folks. You may well end up being deeply thankful that you did!
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Isn't Palladium a hardware/software combination? If so, then you won't be able to play unless you have Palladium enabled AND you are using an "approved" player. Hmm, MS is in this bed, do you think that they will approve of Linux players?
At first I thought I wouldn't mind if they implemented Palladium as long as there was a non-Palladium option. But we all know that if it gets a foothold, the non-Palladium option would be phased out.
Think it won't happen? Who is going to stop them?
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Are [ZiLOG] still around?
Yes. ZiLOG makes the eZ80 Internet server appliance platform based on a 50 MHz pipelined Z80 processor, which is 25 times faster than the non-pipelined 8 MHz Z80-clone processor in the Game Boy Color system.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Actually, I encourage Microsoft's work on Palladium.
Why?
Because it will herald a great (and much needed) rebirth of "personal computing." It'll launch (IMHO) a fairly comprehensive reassessment and reappraisal of why we use computers in the first place. And it'll most likely start a significant portion of us back on (or near) square one -- the late 1970's where the notion of "personal computing" really took off.
I'm serious. For those of us alive in the late 70's, it was a great time to be a "hobbyist." There weren't geeks and no real "hackers" or "script-kiddies". Just a bunch of people who -- especially here in America -- shared a common passion for building little boxes out of solder, wires, and circuit boards so that -- after everything was assembled correctly -- we could watch a couple lights blink on and off.
Later, once stuff like the TRS-80 and AppleII gained ground, it was really pretty cool. I still remember hanging out in the arcades and trying to write stuff like a TRS-80 version of Pac Man or Donkey Kong in Z80 assembly language with -- what? -- 127 X 47 blocky, black and white graphics.
(Insert snide comment here about old, outdated graphics, but if you do, you miss the point.)
I see this sort of "community hobbyism" in the Linux community (even though they don't call it that) but I think if Microsoft pushes forth this Palladium, we'll see a pretty significant split between those who embrace whatever new technology comes down the pike and those who take a hard look at where we've been and what we've achieved vis a vis Palladium and realize that better technology doesn't necessarily mean much. It means better technology, maybe, but it certainly doesn't herald or promised a better "user experience."
Palladium will also, I think, significant a fairly radical leap in the notion of "personal computing." This DRM technology is not personal computing. It's corporate computing. There's nothing personal about it. There's not much fun about it either. It leaves the "hobbyists" -- now called geeks, I guess -- out in the cold and looking toward all the nifty retro-tech.
The retro-tech movement, I think, will be stronger than ever if Palladium -- or something like it -- comes to pass. What that means -- retro-tech -- I'm not entirely sure, but I think it will be a gradual awareness that "good enough" really is "good enough" and something along the lines of "personal computing is dead, long live personal computing!"
It's not about losing the ability to rip DVDs. It's not about downloading MP3s off of the P2P system of the week. It's about the right to decide what I want to do with MY computer. It's about Microsoft telling me that I can't use my leaglly obtained software or entertainment content because it doesn't meet their standards (ie: it's not signed). It's about DRM systems suddenly deciding that you can't boot Linux anymore.
Bottom line: It's about me losing control of what I own. My computer is mine and you, Bill Gates, et al just keep your fucking hands off!
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Especially since you don't really need a new computer unless you are working with multimedia.
Or your old computer breaks, and power supplies, hard drives, etc. with the appropriate hardware interface are no longer available due to either obsolescence or CBDTPA.
If all you want to do is some word processing your old machine is almost certainly fast enough.
In the future, I see the office automation computer industry becoming more like the refrigerator or dishwasher industry: you replace it when it breaks. The most obvious thing keeping this from already having happened is the fact that the prominent editable rich document format (.doc) is controlled by a company that makes its software twice as bloated every two years.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Those of us that run PPC and Mac OS X do not have this problem. Apple and Steve Jobs have publically said that piracy is not a technology issue but a social issue that cannot be resolved with encryption. So while you are worrying about Palladium, I am getting the maximum value out of my Mac and my iPod.
Don't steal music! -- Steve Jobs, as seen on all iPods as its "DRM" system.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
And of course, ALL OF THIS will be backed up by legislation.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Palladium _will_ be broken. Unless they implement the whole of the operating system on hardware, palladium's software side will be hacked quite soon (remember the XBox).
The Xbox didn't require hardward tokens to decrypt code entering the core. Palladium will be broken, but not by software hackers -- people will need a logic analyzer and dedicated hardware on the busses to defeat it. Perhaps something you plug your DRAM into. Of course, that would be a circumvention device which would be considered terrorism under Clinton's legislation being enforced by Ashcroft...
Of course, if a s/w hacker breaks RSA/DiffHlmn then we don't have to worry...
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
the only way they can stop me is to make C compilers illegal and punishable by death...
RMS has that situation covered.
Will I retire or break 10K?
That old boxen with a AWE 32 in it will come in handy then!
It's easy as hell to knock up a PCI card with a ADC on it, say $20 tops.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
The real question is how obnoxious Microsoft will make the OS restrictions.
Incidentally, we ought to be seeing some Palladium-enabled games soon, ones where modified clients can be detected by the server. That will be how the technology gets debugged.
I do not need smart computers, digital right management and all that crap. I can survive on my own. And if someone tells me that I need to have drm enabled I will say "No, sir, I do not" and walk away. If people do not want to do business with me. I will not do it with them. I eagerly wait for the demise Disney et al
So I've read the patents, and they seem like a bunch of silly horse-puckey to me. The whole point is that "protected content" doesn't stay in memory when unsigned code is being executed. If a debugger gets run on the system, it renounces it's private keys that allow it to decode protected content.
What is to stop the entire system from running in a debugger, or an emulator for that matter? Sure, you might need a Palladium enabled CPU to proxy the authentication back to the Palladium OS - a classic man in the middle attack.
Until I hear about some way to stop that, I'm going to continue laughing at this entire scheme, since it will fall flat on it's face. Geez, I fire up VMware with a couple of tweaks, run the Palladium OS in that, and proxy the credentials from my real Palladium CPU, and obtain a scheme level break... how can these people continue to delude themselves?
Registrant:
Brady (PALLADIUMSUCKS-COM-DOM)
Moritz
4040 San Felipe Suite 224
Houston, Texas 77027
United States
713 871 8668
brady[[@fitiri.com
Domain Name: PALLADIUMSUCKS.COM
Administrative Contact:
Brady Moritz brady]]@fitiri.com
4040 San Felipe Suite 224
Houston, TX 77027
United States
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Colin Moritz colin[[@viptx.net
4040 San Felipe Suite 224
Houston, Texas 77027
United States
713 871 8668
Record last updated on 26-Jun-2002.
Record expires on 26-Jun-2003.
Record created on 26-Jun-2002.
Domain servers in listed order:
dns.fitiri.com 216.136.86.132
ns1.granitecanyon.com 205.166.226.38
ns2.granitecanyon.com 64.63.77.89
(interestingly, palladium.com is not a MSFT owned domain)
....and if you dont buy one of these then the terrorists have already won.
> and give up on computers
Here's an mit lecture on the subject, converted from pdf by the mighty google.
Hey...here's "Modern Analog Field Computing", a virtual book. That might be too specialized.
And here's a good usenet post on this, posted by David F. Skoll of doe.carleton.ca back in '92:
Oh...you were joking. Never mind.
"Whatever happened to fair use?"
-- Duff-Man
-1 Overrated
awww, i upset an AMD zealot with mod points...
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Microsoft monopoly+Media Monopoly=Palladium for everyone.
Very simply:
1. Palladium-encrypted (broken) content media helps keep Content Industries (contrast with: Artists) alive by giving them control, so they like it.
2. As soon as it's profitable to do so, the CIs will Palladium-encrypt (break) every piece of media they can.
3. When Palladium is available everywhere, it will be profitable for the CIs to digitally Palladium-encrypt (break) every piece of Mass Market Content that they create.
4. Any piece of Palladium-encrypted content--DVD, Music CD, software program--that is not signed will fail to play unless Palladium is there to decrypt it.
5. The MS monopoly (and Intel's and AMD's respective complicity in that monopoly) can make sure that Palladium is available almost everywhere at once.
6. When broken content is the norm, Mac and Linux will not be able to use that content any more without supporting Palladium.
7. Mac and Linux will have to either support Palladium or (illegally!!, in the US) circumvent it to be useful.
8. Linux is not an organization, so it will likely go in both directions at once.
9. Mac is an organization, and it will probably not support circumvention.
This is very, very bad. Our best hope is for a severe Microsoft anti-trust penalty, and for our legislators to wise up and stop passing laws to prop up business plans.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
I wonder where the PowerPC chip will fall in all of this...
All about me
. I haven't run any benchmarks on them, but it would not surprise me if the chipmakers didn't deliberately put firmware into their chips to slowly make them self-destruct to purposefully make them obsolete sooner so as to sell new chips
CPUs don't have or need firmware. They are purely hardware devices.
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
Are any of you old enough to remember the 1970s? In 1969, the "foreign car" (not made in america) was rare. By the start of the 70s, the American car manufacturers had become clueless, and thought the American public were all idiots that would buy any old piece of crap they cared to produce.
By 1980 the American car industry was nearly dead, with AMC gobe and Chrystler (and Dodge and Plymouth) needing welfare from the feds to stay alive.
They forgot about the Japanese, who had belatedly discovered quality.
Fast forward to now, when hardware and software manufacturers became clueless, and thought the American public were all idiots that would buy any old piece of digital rights crap they cared to produce.
They forgot about the Chinese, who have belatedly discovered Linux. My guess is in ten years we will be buying smuggled Chinese processors and the American economy will make the 1930s look like the 1990s in comparison.
They're not only trying to shoot themselves in the foot, they're aiming squarely at the head of an already shaky economy.
-steve
thefragfest.com
I have a friend who spends lots of time on newsgroups, Kazaa, etc. copying movies. At the same time, I read articles like this, and spend $10 sending certified delivery confirmed letters to congressmen like Mr. Hollings and businesses like Intel and AMD. This is highly counterproductive. My friend saves $10/month on movie rentals, and I spend $10/month on letters.
I've talked to this person and they say "Oh, I just copy movies I wouldn't rent anyway." (I assume because they are too expensive) They have a valid point since some products are just ridiculously expensive. But they are not helping the problem. If they spent their effort protesting, or finding alternatives as they did pirating, we would be in good shape. I would probably be better off paying them $10/month and having them rent the movies, than to spend it writing letters.
What should I do? Do I turn them in? Do I hassle them? Do I pay them to stop doing it? It's my rights they are taking away, but turning them in seems ridiculous. Is there somethnig we can do in mass that could prevent this problem?
(interestingly, palladium.com is not a MSFT owned domain)
Ya, they'd have a real tough time screwing Kevin Siembieda out of that one.
For those that don't know, he's the guy who owns Palladium Games, e.g. Rifts, Robotech, TMNT. Funny that the current Palladium.Com site is not run by Palladium games, as I would have expected a company that is so intamtly intwined with Sci-Fi to try and be at the edge of technology.
Somehow, I don't expect MS to try pulling a tradmark dispute type attack to get the palladium.com domain name. Between the prior existance of a trademark on that name, and palladium being an element, I doubt they could win (but then I am not a lawyer, and I don't even watch them on TV.)
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
This will probably go the way of the processor serial number. It'll come out, people will complain, and it will dissapear.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Uh, yeah, that would be my second paragraph.
What happens if your mission critical apps stop working when you restore after a disk failure or a CPU melt down and you can't get the license center on the phone? What happens to your data if someone steals your computer and all you have left are the backups? What do you do when you are rolling out 1,000 desk tops, and you need to image them? Do you license each seperately? Kind of defeats imaging, doesn't it?
DRM is pseudo intellectual mental masturbation until and unless it's loose enoungh not to cause problems in the data center. And if it's that loose, it's loose enough to wiggle quite a bit through. Anyone remember when all the apps needed a dongle on the printer port? Some of those are still around, but it's a red flag to the BOFH's that this is an app that's a real dog.
DRM as outlined here is a flash in the pan. Soon as it flops in the business world, it's dead meat for everything but entertainment. And if that's all that uses it, Joe six pack will slam dunk it just as DIViX and DAT audio was slam dunked. I say let 'em waste their stock holders money... Hey, that's an idea. Buy stock in these companies and then sue them for wasting profits chasing a non-started like this. Whack 'em hard enough, they've got to stop doing nutso stuff like this.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
As evil as Palladium/TCPA is, there's one really big factor going for us: the economy is in the toilet. People (and certainly not businesses) are not going to rush out to buy all new 'compliant' computers just so they can be test subjects in corporate America's latest marketing experiment. Neither are they going to rush out to buy a successor to DVD, which is only now starting to really catch on as a mainstream format. And how many people have broadband internet? Or for that matter, how many have RELIABLE broadband internet?! So now, you're left with early adopters with deep pockets. And why would they want a piece of the action when the technology sucks and is a step backwards. Go pick up a copy of any Hi-Fi or videophile enthusiast magazine and see how many articles warn of the dangers of Hollywood's latest power grabs. On the other hand, these DRM systems are going to be pushed hard and shoved down many unexpecting consumer throats--components pieced together like a puzzle that will form a jail cell for information when the last piece is placed.
This whole thing could be defeated in much the same way that caused the rapid demise of Circuit City's DIVX format. (also heavily criticized by A/V enthusiasts) But because this is an industry-wide effort, it's going to take a bit more to cripple. We need massive campaigns to inform the public. We need to write our legislators and explain why this movement is bad for the consumer and for small business. We need to boycott all companies and products that support these DRM systems. We need to get Open Source solutions into the marketplace as fast as possible to strengthen the competition and increase the voices of dissent.
These companies are trying to take away basic freedoms paid for us with the bloodshed of brave men and women who fought to make this a free country and an just, open society. We must not let greed take these freedoms away from us. That's not what capitalism is all about.
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/te xt/Pd/key.html
Now, what's that mean? Why did they pick it?
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Q: But can't you just turn it off? A: Sure - unless your system administrator configures your machine in such a way that TCPA is mandatory, you can always turn it off. You can then run your PC with administrator privileges, and use insecure applications.
What that translates into is that you can run Linux and Linux applications (or other non-Microsoft operating systems) on the PC without having to worry about this nonsense. It would keep you from playing copy-controlled proprietary content (because you wouldn't be able to present the right credentials to the remote site to get the data), but that's just fine as far as I'm concerned. I think we couldn't hope for a better booster to Linux market penetration or open content than this.
Firstly, think globally, act locally, as the slogan says. Keep talking to your friends that pirate stuff an overly large amount. I've done with various people and sometimes it works (particularly with younger people). When I run into people who habitually use pirated software, I point them in the direction of true free software that does most or all of what they need. Many times people are surprised that so much truly free software exists. Believe it or not, many people haven't even heard of OpenOffice or StarOffice.
Secondly, some of the problem undoubtedly has to do with the fact that we fundamentally treat information differently than hard goods, even if maybe we shouldn't always do so. Unless your friend is a serious kleptomaniac, I doubt he or she would walk into a store, start stuffing items into his or her pocket, and say "Oh, I'm just stealing the items that I wouldn't buy anyway." But we tend to use this rationalization with information. Part of the reason is probably that we have always had the ability (and right) to copy information to some degree via fair use, where we have never had any right to make such "fair use" of someone else's hard goods. Since fair use already allows some copying, it's very easy to extend the boundary and rationalize your way into more widespread copying which actually goes well beyond traditional fair use. All of the sudden "I wouldn't have bought it anyway" becomes fair use in someone's mind, which clearly it isn't. On the other hand if someone downloads a tune, listens to it once, doesn't like it, and then deletes it, maybe this is fair use, akin to trying out a record in the store before buying it. The actual boundries can be gray, but Palladium will make them clear and hard, and they won't favor the end users.
Rights management only restricts you with respect to rights managed media.
Those that truly believe in an open culture (or at least a less restricted one) can create one... sans rights management. Why do we need the latest cookie cutter pop rock? Or the latest fill-in-the-blanks action movie?
We are creative. We can create. We don't have to buy into the world they're creating. We can create our own. ("They" = those that would assert undue control over they way we... live.)
Yes, it'd be a better place if everyone played nice. But some aren't. So screw them. The only power they have is the power we give them. It wouldn't even be a "boycott", because that implies under ideal circumstances we want the rights managed garbage they'll be shoveling.
...
Well, there it is. Unless the lowest energy state really is absolute greed. In which case, it doesn't matter how many cultures you (re)create, they'll always drift back to the one we have now.
Hrumph... that's what I get for reading 1984 yesterday. But I think perhaps there's at least a kernel of truth in there.
-1 Recursive
awww, and i was stupid enough to comment about the comment about it (anonymously, nonethelesss)
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Hey, I doubt that IBM's new desktop Power4 chip will have DRM... If Apple isn't going to use the Power4, maybe IBM might be planning to sell Linux desktops with Power4... Big Blue Penguin!
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
Went here:
= eb us+feedback_sidelink&
http://www.intel.com/eBusiness/feedback.htm?iid
And posted sent in this:
Palladium support in your products? NO THANK YOU. I promise that I and anyone I have influence over (including all of my clients) will never purchase a machine powered by a Palladium-based chip.
Circuit City Thought Div-x would be a great technology. It was DOA. I will do everything in my power to make sure this one is too.
Thank you.
aside from your trolling....lets address this:
Lets see, they've done it before (cassette -> CD and VHS -> DVD) and they will do it again. The movie industry and the recording industry are one and the same now. The same few people controll both. They can easily decide to migrate (over the course of 5 years or so) all of their new content to a new format. And of course they would probably make their new format machines able to read the 'old' DVDs and CDs....but everything new that is published will be DRM-enabled.
The biggest couterargument to this is that the reason why comsumers went to the new formats was better quality. Hmmm....lets see....the recording industry already puts out DTS (5.1 channel CDs) which are encrypted with CSS and region encoding etc. But people buy them because they are better quality. People buy DVDs (with region encoding, macrovision, css, etc) for the better quality. All the industry has to do is start releasing movies in HDTV quality on the new disks. People will buy it for the better quality over their DVD. It will happen. And they won't get a "fuck off" when things become mandated by law.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Don't use a web browser with Javascript running. This is a fairly annoying, semicommon script on grade-B websites that was probably packaged with some "Design your own website" package.
May we never see th
Does anyone see what is happening? MS who already is a CONVICTED MONOPOLIST, will have a new Monopoly! HARDWARE!
MS will control the software. MS will control the hardware.
You will NOT control it. You are UNTRUSTED. Where does this not make sense? Sure it will take some time, but it WILL happen. Government is firmly and happily swimming in Bill Gates back pocket. They have already shown their inabillity/ineptitude/disinterest/conflict of interest concerning this matter.
Linux, open source, fair use and civil rights are centered in the crosshairs of MS's TOTAL SOLUTION.
Thank you. The above capitalized words are for the Moderators who obviously don't get the message behind my first post. Everyone else, have a Palladium day!
He's not taking away your rights.
Hollywood is taking away your rights.
A few large companies have collectively monopolized movie distribution is the US. They want to keep this monopoly by creating barriers to entry into the market.
Technology is making it easy to make better movies cheaper. I can got to a story and buy a really decent digital video camera and dvd burner for less than $5000. Then I can go ahead and make my own movie. Sure, a can't do special effects as good as the ones in the matrix yet, but don't forget moore's law. Soon I will be able to.
The MPAA and it's members seek to keep anyone from competing with their monopoly by creating laws such as the DMCA, which prevents you from making content viewable on their content delivery devices.
The laws they seek to pass in the name of preventing piracy, have nothing to do with preventing piracy. You don't need DeCSS to pirate DVDs. You don't need palladium in hardware to get security. A software layer could provide the same level of security. The reason MS wants palladium in hardware is so that they can block you from running anything they don't approve of, allowing them to expand their monopoly.
Whining about hackers and software pirates is only done you get people like you, who don't understand the actual motivation for their actions. They know that kid who downloaded some movie off the internet was probably never going to buy it. They'll claim that they lost $20 he would have spent on the DVD and multiply that by the number of nodes on gnutella to get some staggering figure of annual losses due to piracy, but it's not reality.
These laws are all about getting control. When CDs came out, they were cheaper to produce than cassettes, yet the cost to the consumer was higher. They could only do this because they had thighter control over the production of CDs than they did of cassettes.
It's all about getting more control and jacking up prices once you have it. Once every PC can only run MS code, what's to stop them from charging $1000 per user, per year. Certainly not the government, which would never dare interfere with the "free" market or offend one of the biggest spenders on political power.
Life is too short to proofread.
OK, they might have a crappy FPU and be well behind Intel and AMD at the moment, but surely this is a chance for VIA to stick it to The Man (as they have done with DDR mobos) and clean up?
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
Or, another way, Palladium is commercial versions of things like FIPS cards.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
If you have a file that will only work if authorized from a server, couldn't a packet sniffer get the info the server is passing? Then you simulate the server interaction whenever you want to use the file.
This would probably require a seperate computer pretending to be the server on the internet, but shouldn't that work?
"Never, never suspect the dreams within the dreams of dreaming children." ~The Amazon Quartet
Why would CNN refuse to allow me to visit their website? Why the hell is it there if I can't visit it? Its stupid, how does one make money with Palladium? If its not making money its not going to happen, and blocking me from CNN.com is not making money...
As I'm told, Palladium is hard to break because it works as follows:
Every Palladium chip has its own private and public key. It'll tell anyone the public key, but it never outputs the private key. When you download a program or a movie or something from the internet, you send your public key to the server, and it uses that to encrypt it.
The encrypted file is then sent to your computer. Now that it's been encrypted with your chip's public key, the only way to decrypt it is with the private key, which is inside the chip itself and not available to anyone, even the user.
Thus, unless there's a serious design flaw (like with some DVD players), it'd be very hard to crack the protection, because said protection involves strong encryption with a key you can't access. People have been trying unsuccessfully to break strong encryption for a long time now.
As a resident of Madison, WI, I would like to hereby denounce Intel for implicitly making me a representative of their product, the Madison processor. I would rather not be part of a marketing ploy. Thank you. That is all.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
It's going to be quite strange for awhile, thinking of mainland China as a bastion of Liberty.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Are there (or in the future might there be) any movements striving to produce open-source chips and/or hardware systems? It would be truly useful for there to be super-easy cookbook directions that perhaps 5% of the population could use turn easily procured off-the-shelf parts into a linux-booting general purpose computer. Anything like this around?
.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
5. The MS monopoly (and Intel's and AMD's respective complicity in that monopoly) can make sure that Palladium is available almost everywhere at once.
I think you meant to say "almost nowhere at once." How many DVD payers are out there that don't support this? M$, Intel, and AMD are not going to replace my DVD player.
'nuff said :-)
I mean, they named their CPU's "XP" for chissakes.
I've always hated apple, but if M$ keeps pushing in this direction and PC hardware follows, they may have a convert (unless they pull this crap to)
Seriously though, this might be apples chance to have a resonable marketshare if they play their cards right.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Would anyone be surprised if motherboard manufacturers added in little 'easter eggs' to the bios/jumpers that allowed you to circumvent Palladium CPU code? There are pages of codes/mods you can do to U.S. DVD players that allow them to function as region free players. Why wouldn't they? What's going to stop them? I realize that in theory they're supposed to be in on the deal, but that didn't stop the DVD player makers, and I'll bet the scrutiny from Hollywood was just as close as the scrutiny from Microsoft will be.
Just an opinion, could be wrong blah blah blah...
the code only needs to be checked when the programs are first loaded, not all the time.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Wrong. Very wrong, in fact.
You can divide CPUs
in two groups: the "wired ones" (only "hardware")
and the microprogrammed ones (IIRC the first
CPU of this kind was some IBM mainframe - 360
maybe??).
Wired ones rely the implementation of all the
intruction set on hardware gates (ORs, ANDs, XORs,
etc) while microprogrammed ones rely on a
control memory which contains the microcode
that actually implements the instruction set. Each
microinstruction basically controls all the
signals in charge of the CPU (register bank
selection, multiplexers of the CPU operands,
main memory R/W, etc...).
I wont go in further details, because you
can read all of this things (and more) on almost any
computer architecture book (Hennessy & Paterson
Computer Architecture series is an excellent
start point). Go learn
Make It Secret . Free JavaScript implementation of AES for your browser
Okay, this is something I don't understand about this proposed scheme. Let's say media server A wants to send content to client B. A of course asks B to confirm that B is in secure mode, so that the owners of the content about to be transmitted can sleep well at night knowing that the recipient has paid. What prevents B from running a nonsecure client/OS and reponding "yeah sure, palladium enabled" and receiving the content and storing it unencumbered?
My first thought would be some sort of cryptographic challenge/response would be used to signal this fact. But client B is totally under our control, since we've disabled the secure mode of the CPU, or we're running a non-DRM OS, or we have a legacy CPU, or whatever. So now it appears that we're back to the same situation as the content scrambling system on DVDs. There's some secret key or challenge/response protocol imbedded in the secure OS that's supposed to be running on client B. But we've hacked that software, found the key, whatever. As long as we have the binaries to this OS, someone will eventually find the secret key and that will be the end of that.
In short, how could this form of digital rights management ever work? The situation is almost exactly analogous to DVDs, as far as I can tell -- you have the "trusted" clients (consumer DVD players -> Microsoft's future palladium OS) and the "untrusted" clients (standard PCs with DVD ROMs -> standard PCs running non-DRM OS.)
How does this protect anything? Why go to all the trouble?
How ironic.
See Palladium - Greek Mythology
Redundancy is good; triple redundancy is twice as good! - Me.
There are these things called 'fair use rights' that you are allowed by law.
Correct. Fair use allows freedom from sufferin the penalties for copyright infringement in particular situations. However, it says nothing about legally requiring constraints on technical devices (like *not* having copy protection).
If you want to go after something in this arena, you should have gone after the DMCA, which *does* alter the legal bounds of copyright law, not Palladium.
This new technology gives copyright holders power that is not offered to them by copyright law.
Maybe not, but it doesn't violate what rights are granted you under copyright law either. Hell, copyright law doesn't give me the right to eat Cheddar cheese, but it doesn't prevent me from doing so.
You loose freedom by the adoption of this technology.
Well, *I* don't lose any freedoms. If someone can't get Max Payne for free, no skin off my back, you know?
Whether or not you see this technology direct affecting you in the near future it should not be supported.
I'm not supporting it. I'm not going out of my way to help it, but neither am I going to fight it.
Perhaps it will upset you when they use the technology to make all future entertainment media pay-per-view/listen.
Maybe they will. They'll charge what the market can bear, and some people want pay per view. I don't -- I rarely watch TV, and wouldn't dream of getting, say, HBO. So, because there are markets of people that are willing to pay more than I am, there will always be goods that I will not have available in the media world. That's true right now.
But so what? If a media company starts charging $50 a view for the X-Files, they'll go out of business. Media companies will quickly find what the general public is comfortable with, and stop there. Going any higher would literally be suicidal.
May we never see th
You don't seem to understand. If Palladium becomes a de facto standard, virtually all content will require a Palladium machine. Microsoft will monopolize the gateway to that content. If you want to read the news, listen to music, or watch movies, you will have to use Palladium. Blind people will be unable to read electronic books because we can't encrypt braille. Search engines will not be able to read web sites. Instead, they will index based on whatever keywords the author tells them to.
Palladium is a direct attack on Open Source Software (OSS). Sure, in theory, OSS can process DRM protected content, but first it has to be signed. If you change the software, it will not work with protected content unless the changes are signed. This flies in the face of software freedom. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the signing authority will sign future versions of OSS. Even if the signing authority signs OSS, it will require a lengthy and expensive auditing process, slowing development and artificially inflating the price.
The Palladium scheme allows Microsoft to decide who can, or can not create trusted software. If it's anything like the DVD-CCA, the opportunity will cost $112,000. After spending the $112,000, the author then has to follow whatever draconian rules Microsoft puts forth or their license will be revoked. This is clearly intended to create an artificial barrier to entry and cut off competition. It also gives Microsoft power over hardware manufacturers and software companies. Based on Microsoft's history, I have no doubt they will use their signing power as leverage when dealing with hardware manufacturers and software developers. If a hardware manufacturer or software company fails to comply with Microsoft's demands, they will encounter roadblocks when signing their drivers and software.
Palladium also sets up a key authority to control the master keys. If you want your content protected, you have to get permission from the key authority. Rest assured, the price and restrictions will be well within reach of most media companies, but out of reach for most independent publishers. This is just another artificial barrier to cut off competition. You can also be certain that the price scheme will be more economical for large publishers than for small ones, thus encouraging consolidation.
Palladium includes the ability to revoke licenses for content, thus allowing the government to outlaw content through court rulings, legislation, executive orders, FCC rules, etc (just like the Bush administration removed content from libraries after 9/11). The system will also allow the media to 'erase' historical news reports (Texaco get accused of accounting fraud, so they pay the media to erase news reports about Enron), and revoke licenses during times of national tragedy, similar to Clear Channel's post 9/11 blacklist (don't want people hearing John Lennon's Imagine when they're supposed to be clamoring for revenge).
By acquiring a Palladium machine, you are helping to entrench Palladium as a de facto standard, making it easier for content companies to wrap all their content in DRM. If you support Palladium, you will be responsible for this.
Stop abusing the T-word you nazi!
Power to the Peaceful
Hasn't Intel floated this particular asinine idea before? Anyone else remember the proposal to put a serial number into their CPUs?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
It's the lack of aftermath in that case that makes me think yes, absolutely, they will try exactly that. They haven't exactly been quaking in their boots since then, have they? They have plenty of support from the politicians and a public that's largely unaware of the issues. Why wouldn't they try it?
I suspect most people got tired very quickly of deciding and just accept all cookies. Now site designers say, "Oh, people don't mind, we never get complaints. Most people have them enabled anyway." They don't complain because once you give in you never know how many cookies you're getting (except by the increase in your spam percentage maybe).
Palladium on the Web will work the same way. Lots of people will leave it off at first, but when half the sites they want to visit (including things like online banking, for example) require PD to be switched on for entry, they'll be worn down into leaving it on all the time.
I am wondering if DRM/Palladium will also prevent perfectly ordinary backups, frex refusing to back up "untrusted files", whatever those might be -- such as data files *you* created (let's say for the sake of argument that YOU own the copyright on said files) with an "untrusted" program??
Anyone want to expostulate on this??
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
You do not own the intellectual property inside the CPU's microcode, the machine's BIOS or the OS. You have an implicit license to use it.
Already hardware devices are shipping with shrinkwrap license agreements; some Compaq machines, for example, do, and opening the packaging signifies acceptance even if you don't open any of the CDs that came with it. Depending on UCITA, the courts and the legislative clout of Hollywood, this may be used to enforce a "beneficial" copyright-protecting Microsoft OS monopoly on Intel/AMD hardware.
The Fritz chip could be used to also kill ad blocking software, preserving the "attention rights" of online advertisers.
With it, web pages would be encrypted with a DRM scheme. Only a trusted web browser, running under a trusted OS, verified with the Fritz chip, would be able to decrypt the content. The content metadata (which the browser would be obliged to enforce) could mandate that ads be loaded first, that third-party ad plug-ins are running (i.e., to display ads outside of the browser window), that the browser window is in "always on top" mode, or even that a specified piece of spyware is loaded and verifies that it can "phone home".
Welcome to the Digital Millennium folks.
It's like in Jeter's _Noir_; when a "crime" is difficult to prosecute, the only way of deterring it is to increase the penalties proportionately. By this logic, Jeter predicted that copyright violation would become a capital crime, and worse.
"Wake up and smell the burning corpses of your dreams."
"The Palladium is the wooden statue that fell from heaven and was kept at Troy; for so long as it was preserved, the city was safe."
Anyone else suspecting that the original codename was "Trojan Horse"?
I want a digital Hifi equipment that allows me to copy bits just like bits, with no restrictions applied. I'm copying my own recordings, for heaven's sake. Who says I can't copy them because they are not original?
In other words, where is the non-restrictive digital technology nowadays? Do you really assume that DRM companies won't just phase out old (non-DRM) stuff, and sue everybody who doesn't comply (see MP3 players and recorders and encoders)?
Home Page
you don't want the internet to become windows as well, now do you?
;-)
I'd suspected that that was Sun's motive in producing Javascript all along.
I've seen exactly two sites in which I feel that the use of Javascript was justified. First, in Yahoo Mail, which also functions without Javascript, you can select all messages for deletion using Javascript.
The second site was demoing a new MP3 player with a name that escapes me for the minute...I think it was Creative's. It literally demoed the UI of the player and let you interact with it to determine whether you liked it.
Other than that, I've pretty much found Javascript to be a nuisance.
* Scrollers/mouseover animated sidebars/bits of characters moving around the screen are Javascript. Any sort of animation on web pages is really annoying to me.
* Javascript gets used for opening a new window. First, I can decide whether I want to open a new window very well by myself, thank you -- that's what the middle button is for. Second, you can do this with plain ol' HTML as well and not inconvenience people that don't use Javascript. Third, I can have *multiple* preview windows, not just get stuck with one.
* Javascript gets used for all sorts of annoying ads. I don't need to name them all -- you've seen them.
May we never see th