FITUG e.V.
Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
FITUG e.V.Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft |
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28016.html
Of TCPA, Palladium and Werner von Braun
By John Lettice
Posted: 08/11/2002 at 17:14 GMT
[...]
Black helicopters Bringing up the rear, Ross Anderson seemed deeply pessimistic, at least about the medium term. Trusted computing will happen, and it will not happen initially in a way that will be to the advantage of the user. The backlash (Zaba's "political level") will however tend to correct this. Anderson insists that TCPA has an underlying agenda of "fixing the software theft problem, dealing with free software and satisfying the NSA-FBI," and while the extent to which this has been overtly documented is maybe debatable, there is a relentless logic to it.
If vendors have the ability to use trusted computing to lock users into their formats and reject rival formats as 'insecure,' then at least some of them will. If trusted computing tends to isolate or lock out open source, well, some vendors might think that a handy side-effect. And if the security services come knocking, point out that there is good service your system can do in the name of national security, then are you going to turn them away?
Further into helicopterland, Anderson sees TCPA as potentially undermining the Gutenberg inheritance. His argument goes that the invention of moveable type allowed the widespread dissemination of information, and stopped it being suppressed easily (e.g. Tyndale got 50,000 translated New Testaments out before they caught him and strung him up). But if the ability to destroy all copies exists, then by virtue of a court order the controlling entity could be forced to destroy them. The Church of Scientology, for example, could compel the deletion of all copies of the Fishman Affidavit, which it regards as highly damaging, but which it has already had removed from some sites on the basis that it owns the copyright.
And what if the US, in the name of national security, could pull the plugs on every copy of Microsoft Office in China? Or what if the Chinese merely thought the US had this ability? It's really, as Cox pointed out, down to who owns the keys, and if it's not clear that nobody owns the keys (which would presumably be the open source solution) then it doesn't really work. Who do you trust? Nobody? Good, let's put Nobody in charge then... ®
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