TCPA/Palladium

[Russell McOrmond]

  I would like some analysis to be done on TCPA/Palladium.  I have my 
opinions from all I have read, but I have not had the time (nor the 
interest, to be honest) to dive into it in detail.


  http://www.trustedcomputing.org/tcpaasp4/
  http://weblog.flora.ca/article.php3?story_id=208
  http://cryptome.org/ms-drm-os.htm
  http://cryptome.org/ms-drm-os2.htm

  TCPA FAQ
  http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/tcpa-faq.html


  Basic flaws for me:

  a) Who is offered the trustworthy environment: The owner/operators of 
     the equipment, or third parties?

  b) What about the Microsoft patent - is this not offering a monopoly on 
     some aspect of this technology to a known criminal (and thus
     untrustworthy) organization?

  c) Can a "Trustworthy computing environment" have any IP claims 
     against it, and truly be trustworthy?  My belief is that like 
     democracy, accountability and transparency is a requirement for 
     trust. Government protected monopolies (copyright, patents, etc) 
     simply cannot be offered in this environment.



  To spark discussion, I am forwarding a message I sent to another forum.  
Since I am forwarding without permission, I have removed the name of the 
person I am replying to.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 See http://weblog.flora.ca/ for announcements, activities, and opinions
 USA and ICC        http://weblog.flora.org/article.php3?story_id=203
 Oppose Violence and Vandalism in politics   http://www.no-dot.ca/


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 14:32:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: Russell McOrmond <russell at flora.ca>


On Mon, 22 Jul 2002, <deleted> wrote:

> I don't understand your analogy.  If a doctor doesn't understand that his
> patient died from lack of air then he's not a very good doctor - the
> environment is a prerequisite for life.  An algorithm can exist
> independantly from anything else - it's mathematics.

  This isn't an algorithm - it is a technological implementation of a
trust model where "who is trusted" and "who is not trusted" is backward.


  In the case of Palladium there are claimed patents where a government
enforced monopoly is attempted.  Given Microsoft is a known criminal and
untrustworthy organization, any technology that they have a monopoly on or
other form of control over is pretty much by definition untrustworthy.


> now there's no way to know if someone is cheating.  Being able to "trust"
> that the user isn't running a hacked copy of Quake that automatically aims
> at opponents would be a good use of this technology.

  Unless the authors of Quake payed for the computer (and all system
administration and other costs associated with the computer), they have no
legitimate claim to having a computer be trustworthy to them, rather than
the owner.


  What is being asked to happen is people have to buy homes where
untrustworthy third parties are given the keys and the owners are not.  
Sorry, but this has nothing to do with algorithms and everything to do
with politics.

> TCPA is a system for supplying trust, independent of implementation;  What
> you're doing is like arguing against encryption because you don't like some
> particular use of encryption. 

  Deal with the patenting and "who is offered the trust" issues, and then
maybe the technology can be discussed.  It is more like people arguing
against land mines because the only visible (and promoted) usage of the
technology is offensive.


  I should be being offered a computing environment where I (as owner of
the equipment) can *trust* that these things you are suggesting are *NOT*
happening, not the other way around.


  The authors of QUAKE have absolutely no legitimate claim to control what
happens to their software when it is running on *MY* computer.  The trust
they want should be handled in contract law, not in technology.  If they
disagree or feel that dealing with this like a legitimate business is too
costly, they can simply not sell me (or anyone else) the software.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 See http://weblog.flora.ca/ for announcements, activities, and opinions
 USA and ICC        http://weblog.flora.org/article.php3?story_id=203
 Oppose Violence and Vandalism in politics   http://www.no-dot.ca/

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