-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Sunday 03 November 2002 5:27 am, John S. J. Anderson wrote: > "Larry Alkoff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > In the meantime, can anyone please tell me what this TCPA is all about? > > Have a look at Ross Anderson's excellent TCPA / Palladium FAQ at > <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html>.
I am not convinced that Open Source will be killed by this. This question is addressed at No 18 in the above FAQ - but the argument used is not very convincing. If Microsoft can write an operating system that will boot up with the Fritz chip, then why can't the Open Source community. The OSS operating system can then give the control back to the user. The argument in the text of the answer to No 18 doesn't make much sense to me - it definately asserts that it can't be done, but it ignores some fundementals. In particular that there is already very strong commercial (AND political) interests that depend on Linux not dying. The key here is who will issue and control the original keys that the fritz chip needs - and this could well end up coming down to government control. Even if the US government doesn't want to ensure that Microsoft does not strengthen its monopoly (and even if they did only issue keys for windows - wouldn't someone actually use constitutional arguments to argue against it), why wouldn't the Chinese or German or Peruvian - or any other government - step in to ensure that linux does have. If we then have a situation where Windows software has all these controls built in to it - with keys being controlled back at Redmond, and Linux with the keys being controlled by the owner of the PC (I am assuming the open source community will still use the facilities provided by the hardware - but will ensure that the software installer has the control) - then won't this just provide greater commercial pressure for people to switch to open source than now? - -- Alan Chandler [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE9xNkruFHxcV2FFoIRAjYbAJ407ZP0laBHShtEYIJbCPpRSaaNQgCgiErX xs7UqjM1U8xghrsJH2PZL18= =+dGl -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
