Tim May wrote:
Speculation: I expect the battles over cyberspace to shift to the OS, with the leading private (non open source) OS makers "enlisted" in the War Against Illegal Thoughts. The easiest initial front in this war, one the OS companies like Apple and Microsoft have a corporate interest in, is for the OS to more aggressively check for hacks or products not approved. Software registration and signatures will of course not be granted to DVD hacks.
This is exactly what Palladium is all about, forcing people to use only approved software. Maybe they'll be md5summing websites for version 2 of palladium and only letting you read approved content.
(Much has been made of how the Microsoft- and Intel-backed security regimes will be "opt in" or "voluntary." This seems dubious. It is precisely the non-volunteers who these companies, and Hollywood, and the Nation States, will be most concerned about. So I would expect this "opt in" approach to not be the full picture.)
Microsoft is pushing hard to get palladium into the silicon, with intel and amd happy to comply. It's hard to imagine how it will be voluntary after that happens.
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michael cardenas | lead software engineer, lindows.com hyperpoem.net | GNU/Linux software developer
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