TPM does not equal DRM!

Posted by Ken Y-N on April 14th, 2008 at 01:19pm

Once again, an article equates the Trusted Computing Group’s (TCG) Trusted Platform Module (TPM) with Digital Rights Management (DRM). While there are some use cases for the TPM that allow DRM to be realised, that is not the reason for the TPM to exist. Most graphics cards have overlay features to try to prevent screen capture of DVD playback, or DVD drives have region coding built in, but one doesn’t hear too many screaming voices about how these devices will murder one’s family in their beds.

This time it is Bad Vista, a blog that is part of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) web site, and their campaign about how the sky is falling thanks to Microsoft Windows Vista. I personally am no fan of the operating system, and they are right to highlight that DRM is built into the operating system and can cause operation problems, especially if you are a fan of the “slippery slope” argument.

Microsoft and other computer companies sometimes refer to these restrictions as “Trusted Computing.” Given that they are designed to make it so that your computer stops trusting you and starts trusting Microsoft, these restrictions are more appropriately called “Treacherous Computing”.

No, these restrictions are not Trusted Computing, but are built upon the principles for Trusted Computing. It is futile to try to justify DRM, so I won’t bother, but there are many more valid and positive use cases for Trusted Computing. I often wonder how many of the critics have even read the TCG white papers such as this one?

Read the full post at the Bad Vista blog.

Under Advocacy