Italian free software advocates wish to outlaw Trusted Computing
Posted by Ken Y-N on April 12th, 2008 at 03:47pm
Of course, in any democracy people are free to advocate just whatever they wish, but other people are of course just as free to tell them they are talking nonsense.
Marco Marongui posts about two initiatives from the Italian Association for Free Software; the first is asking votes to sign an online petition that declares they will vote for candidates who say they will promote free software. That is a rather sensible platform to demand from government, but of couse “promote free software” is such a vague promise politicians would have no problem declaring their support for investigations into the feasibility of it.
However, it is the second initiative that I have trouble with. Candidates have been asked to sign a document with commits them to promoting and voting for laws that will, along with other measures, enshrine free software and open formats within the civil service and declare freedom-limiting measures such as Trusted Computing illegitimate.
First, getting politicians who expect to be elected to sign a promise is a most difficult thing in itself, but although the bit about using free software and open formats is laudable, simply outlawing Trusted Computing is shortsighted and putting dogma in front of pragmatism.
From a home computer point of view one can argue until the cows come home as to whether or not a TPM is a good thing, but in situations from mobile phones and set top boxes to corporate desktops the TPM is a major plus, enabling companies to protect their investments, protect privacy, and enhance security.
Read the full article on Free Software Magazine’s web site.
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