Trusted Computing And You

sebFlyte writes "There's an interesting look at the Trusted computing initiative running over on ZDNet UK, written by security guru Bruce Schneier. He looks at the suggestions for best practice made in a recent policy document, and Microsoft's 'Machiavellian manoeuvring' to stall said document. He posits their moves are to avoid having to enforce such best-practice when it comes to Vista's DRM and other copy-restriction technology." From the article: "This sounds great, but it's a double-edged sword. The same system that prevents worms and viruses from running on your computer might also stop you from using any legitimate software that your hardware or operating system vendor simply doesn't like. The same system that protects spyware from accessing your data files might also stop you from copying audio and video files. The same system that ensures that all the patches you download are legitimate might also prevent you from, well, doing pretty much anything."

Comments

Re:Will people realize in time?

[ScentCone]

Think of how funny it would have been to you 20 years ago if someone told you that you wouldn't be able to open a document or run a program on your computer because Microsoft didn't give you a code to do so.

You're right! It would have been really funny, compared to those other software vendors' dongles and whatnot that we had to use back then. Funny then in that "less annoyinng" sense of the word, anyway. Funny now in that "I don't have to use it if I don't want to," and "funny, I wasn't planning on P2Ping disk 6 of Lord Of The Rings to a thousand unknown 'best friends' anyway."

If I produce something that I'd just as soon everyone picked up for free, I'd simply leave off any DRM in the source. If I'm feeling lazy and just want to spend $3.95 to enjoy the experience of a movie, including being able to pause it when I go to the bathroom to pass off the latte that cost more than that, then I'll use any of the choices I've already got to deliver that entertainment to me, and even take it with me on the road, or pipe it to another room in the house.

It's really fucking sad that people are willing to put control of everything into someone else's hands.

It's called civilization. Do you pump and process your own drinking water? Produce your own electricity? Make the hardware you're using to read this comment right now? Spend a few million to produce a really good film so you can watch it once?

To the extent that you don't want to put the control of "everything" in someone else's hands, persuade some artists that they don't really need to worry about whether they're collecting revenue from their work. Persuade an author that depsite the years spent on that great American novel, that it's silly to want to sell it to readers. When enough creative people can be convinced that either they don't need prickly protection for their work, or that they don't need to earn money anyway, then you're all set. In the meantime, you can take "control" away from those creators and the businesses they've chosen to represent them in one simple step: do not buy their works. But if that's your way of communicating to them, have the intellectual integrity to not also run off and pirate that same material.