Negative news round-up 2008-04-28

Posted by Ken Y-N on April 28th, 2008 at 02:19pm

As a person working with Trusted Computing it is important to follow the negative views on TCG as well as just reading the press releases. By studying the misconceptions (and the correct opinions too) of those opposed, I hope the Trusted Computing Group can deliver a better product and a better message about that product.

Bart Bonamie on DRM and the end of free will. When you buy a CD you are actually buying a license to the music, not the music itself. He recognises the right of the contents provider to sell product and dissuade copying, but not their right to make it hard for the user to copy. Then, we move into the argument that Trusted Computing means trust between the corporation and your PC, not you and your PC. This is a key position that many antis take, and one that the TCG should try to counter.

Unattributed (but easy to determine from whom) article from Geeks and Global Justice on The digital imprimatur and the right to read. There is a quote from The Digital Imprimatur by John Walker (an anti-Trusted Computing person) that is used as the basis for many people’s objections to Trusted Computing:

Just as a Trusted Computing system will load neither programs nor data files without a validated certificate whose signature matches their contents, neither will the Secure Internet transfer any document, in any standard protocol without such a certificate accompanying it.

This Doomsday scenario (yes, I believe it to be such a situation too) is however just his interpretation of Trusted Computing. While this could be realised using ubiquitous Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs), the chance of anyone creating such a Trusted Internet outside of corporate or other specialised environments is unimaginable. There is, however, a valid argument for banking applications blocking non-trusted browsers or environments, which may be a bad thing in certain circumstances.

Trusted Computing [...] has been implemented in Microsoft’s Vista, where Microsoft retains a signature and encryption key to make a DRM that users cannot overcome.

And the problem is? A key argument of the antis is that any control is a step on the slippery slope to all control over contents.

So, there you are. Two sites with views I do not agree with on the whole, but well worth reading.

Tags: negative

Under Advocacy Tags: negative