Slashdot Mirror
How Encrypted Binaries Work In Mac OS X
An anonymous reader writes "By now we know that OS X uses encrypted binaries for some critical apps like Dock, Finder and LoginWindow. Amit Singh explains the implementation of this protection scheme which makes use of the AES crypto algorithm and a special memory pager in Mach. The so called Do Not Steal Mac OS X (DSMOS) kernel extension helps along the way by decrypting things for the special pager when apps get executed. A funny thing is that if you print the pointer at address 0xFFFF1600 in your own app you get as output Apple's karma poem for crackers! According to the article there are 8 protected binaries in OSX including Rosetta and Spotlight meta data demon. Interestingly Apple's window server is NOT one of those."
Your choice of words (ie. "do as you wish with other people's IP") is revealing here. Software that you've (legally) acquired, running on your machine? Why shouldn't you be able to investigate and modify it as you like? Note that I said "modify", not "redistribute".
If you purchase a physical item, do you still think of it as the seller's property after you've paid for it and taken it home?
Fundamentally, the whole concept of "intellectual property" just doesn't work in the same way as physical property. I guess that's why many (most? all?) software vendors try to suggest that their software is "licensed", not "sold". Pity that most consumers don't see things quite the same way. :)
Anyway, your link between "fundamental" freedoms/rights is a little hazy. It doesn't have to be enshrined in the law for people to support it as a freedom (or indeed to consider it a right).
It's not something that has to apply to all software - the point is more that you can choose to only use software that guarantees those freedoms.