FITUG e.V.
Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
FITUG e.V.Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft |
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Microsoft, Allies Gear to Reshape Copyright Debate
Sat Sep 7, 8:47 AM ET
By Elinor Mills Abreu
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An industry push to tighten security on personal computers could be either the salvation of electronic commerce or the bane of consumers, who view the Internet as their digital information playground.
Microsoft Corp. , Intel Corp. and nearly 200 other companies from the computer hardware, software and security industries are working on technologies designed to protect data in computers from being tampered with by intruders.
Maintaining that these systems are needed to impede hackers, proponents say they could help restore law and order in a world where digital piracy is rampant. Critics counter that the technologies are part of an industry power-play that would end the freewheeling culture of information-sharing that now exists over the Internet.
Either way, specialized security microprocessors and related software being developed by members of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) would, if implemented, fundamentally shift the balance of power between individual and corporate ownership of data -- a debate that is already being played out in U.S. courts and Congress.
"If we're going to get content on the 'Net, somehow we're going to have to reward the people who put it on there," said Dave Farber, an Internet engineering pioneer and computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania who is an independent consultant to the TCPA.
Others say the efforts are desperate attempts by PC and media companies to control the next big wave of computing.
"It's a struggle between the wonks and executives," said Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, California. "The real battle ahead is not over desktops, it's in the living rooms. There is a flat-out race to own the video game" and computer entertainment market.
"Microsoft would love nothing more than to be the software forge for Hollywood," Saffo added.
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