jets27
Jul 29, 2002, 12:21 AM
check out this article I was reading. ******* microsoft
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html check this out too
If you've not heard of it, Intel is working on an initiative called the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, or TCPA. The initiative is supposed to create more safety and therefore more trust in the PC community. It's being backed strongly by Microsoft, which is creating software they've named Palladium. Palladium is a set of software that already is being planned to be included in future versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system.
The two systems sound ideal and wonderful. They could create added support and security for PCs, increased protection against hackers and personal privacy. It could be a boon to marketing by sensing certain software and only having you pay for how much you use. If you want to pay for a specific song, instead of an entire CD, it can do it easily. The possibilities are endless as to how this will intigrate the software we use with our own personal preferences. Sounds great, right?
Where the system falls apart, however, is in exactly what it protects us from. While we are protected from other computer users with what appears now to be a nearly flawless wall of protection, we are not protected from the companies themselves that create the software. The possibilites, unfortunately, are also endless to the level of access to our personal systems that this gives us. Spyware, as it's called, is a shady gray area of the internet. TCPA and Palladium would make it rather legal for Microsoft and its affiliated companies to do. The software allows them to lock out programs that they don't want us to use. In theory, this would be used only for pirated software and related systems.
However, given Microsoft's aggressive moves in the past in eliminating their competition, and the power this would grant to Microsoft and Intel, the danger reaches much deeper. With a few lines of code, we could be locked out of using any programs that the companies in charge deem unfit for use.
There is also a push among the upper eschilons to make this chip be intigrated into all of the motherboards. The government backs the program because of anti-piracy claims and the fact that the software could be used for increased security for government systems, thereby slipping it in under the radar of anti-terrorism bills that have been passed quickly and usually without discretion in the recent months since 9/11.
Currently, there is a debate in the Senate as to whether granting companies this much power over personal systems is fair, or even Constitutional. There are some senators that see the possible risks of such a chip that would grant total immunity to companies for eliminating competition through unfair means.
The US is not the only place in danger. If you live in a foreign country, this concerns you as well. If the law passes these chips will be installed on almost all American-made systems. If your nation's governments decide the chip is illegal, you'll have to turn to third parties for your computer and software needs. If your government decides it is legal, you'll be in the same boat as all Americans, with the hand of a company deciding what programs you use.
Sliding a law beneath the radar screen of our federal government has become frighteningly easy in the months since the Trade Center attacks. Anti-piracy laws have been easy to pass for years as technology increases more rapidly than an understanding of it. However, it is possible for people to stop laws from being passed. Senators are hired to represent our wishes, and if our senators know that we do not wish for this law, many would have no choice but to refuse to accept it.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html check this out too
If you've not heard of it, Intel is working on an initiative called the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, or TCPA. The initiative is supposed to create more safety and therefore more trust in the PC community. It's being backed strongly by Microsoft, which is creating software they've named Palladium. Palladium is a set of software that already is being planned to be included in future versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system.
The two systems sound ideal and wonderful. They could create added support and security for PCs, increased protection against hackers and personal privacy. It could be a boon to marketing by sensing certain software and only having you pay for how much you use. If you want to pay for a specific song, instead of an entire CD, it can do it easily. The possibilities are endless as to how this will intigrate the software we use with our own personal preferences. Sounds great, right?
Where the system falls apart, however, is in exactly what it protects us from. While we are protected from other computer users with what appears now to be a nearly flawless wall of protection, we are not protected from the companies themselves that create the software. The possibilites, unfortunately, are also endless to the level of access to our personal systems that this gives us. Spyware, as it's called, is a shady gray area of the internet. TCPA and Palladium would make it rather legal for Microsoft and its affiliated companies to do. The software allows them to lock out programs that they don't want us to use. In theory, this would be used only for pirated software and related systems.
However, given Microsoft's aggressive moves in the past in eliminating their competition, and the power this would grant to Microsoft and Intel, the danger reaches much deeper. With a few lines of code, we could be locked out of using any programs that the companies in charge deem unfit for use.
There is also a push among the upper eschilons to make this chip be intigrated into all of the motherboards. The government backs the program because of anti-piracy claims and the fact that the software could be used for increased security for government systems, thereby slipping it in under the radar of anti-terrorism bills that have been passed quickly and usually without discretion in the recent months since 9/11.
Currently, there is a debate in the Senate as to whether granting companies this much power over personal systems is fair, or even Constitutional. There are some senators that see the possible risks of such a chip that would grant total immunity to companies for eliminating competition through unfair means.
The US is not the only place in danger. If you live in a foreign country, this concerns you as well. If the law passes these chips will be installed on almost all American-made systems. If your nation's governments decide the chip is illegal, you'll have to turn to third parties for your computer and software needs. If your government decides it is legal, you'll be in the same boat as all Americans, with the hand of a company deciding what programs you use.
Sliding a law beneath the radar screen of our federal government has become frighteningly easy in the months since the Trade Center attacks. Anti-piracy laws have been easy to pass for years as technology increases more rapidly than an understanding of it. However, it is possible for people to stop laws from being passed. Senators are hired to represent our wishes, and if our senators know that we do not wish for this law, many would have no choice but to refuse to accept it.