Re: Smart ID Cards Planned for Sailors to Spot Terrorists
At 10:16 AM -0700 on 7/6/02, Bill Stewart wrote: Bob - This isn't really cryptography-related, and I can't post to DCSB, but this does seem like Cypherpunks material I try not to post news to cypherpunks. :-). I post *lots* of news to the dbs list, of course... To prevent spamming DCSB is subscriber only, as are all my own lists. Cheers, RAH -- - R. A. Hettinga mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation http://www.ibuc.com/ 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA ... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience. -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
Re: Smart ID Cards Planned for Sailors to Spot Terrorists
Bob Open Mike Hettinga kariokaed: I try not to post news to cypherpunks. :-). I post *lots* of news to the dbs list, of course... To prevent spamming DCSB is subscriber only, as are all my own lists. Rolling in the phsst-shot EVA, shitting my spacesuit, wailing for yo momma's impaired irony: gameboy, that's not a joystick.
Re: TPM cost constraint [was: RE: Revenge of the WAVEoid]
At 07:05 PM 7/6/02 -0700, Lucky Green wrote:, Adding the cost of an EMBASSY or SEE environment to the,purchase of every new PC is more than the market for bare-bones or even,mid-range PC's will bear.,,--Lucky, Too bad PCMCIA cardreaders aren't widespread, then a bank could give away smartcards which would be arguably more secure than browserware.
First, get it built into all CPU chips...only _then_ make it mandatory.
My fellow Cypherpunks, Tim May writes: Then, perhaps after some major war or terror incident or other trigger, major OSes will require the TCPA/DRM features to be running at all times. Sure, maybe some little Perl or Java program Joe Sixpack writes won't need it, but anything not on the margins will require it. This then brings up the question of Open Source operating systems like the (GNU) Linux distributions and the BSD operating systems. Is the TCPA/DRM feature code to be published or censored out? For the source code, will the censored code be a binary file? This could be a mess. I believe that there was a discussion of US mandated Malice code in Open Source operating systems on the Cypherpunks list recently, but I couldn't find it with a Google search. Anybody got a Cypherpunk Hyperarchive link? If the above happens, it would keep the coding anarchists busy for years :-) Recompiling your operating system with an outlaw file included would be an anarchic and patriotic act. It could also knock down Microsoft market share. I suspect the the US solution would be hardware. All new hardware would be maliced and old hardware would become obsolete. Yours Truly, Gary Jeffers Beat State!!!
DRM as a Smart Contract
Nick Szabo created the idea of Smart Contracts several years ago. http://www.best.com/~szabo. These would be self-enforcing agreements that were based on technology rather than laws. It all sounded cool at the time. But isn't DRM a form of Smart Contract? If I need a special viewer to download some content, and that viewer enforces the terms of the contract which allows me to do the download, that enforcement happens without any laws. It is all handled by the technology. It's a Smart Contract. It's interesting how ideas can sound good until you realize that they won't let you take other people's creative output without their consent. Maybe it's time for cypherpunks to put principle over greed.
Re: DRM as a Smart Contract
At 07:51 PM 7/7/02, you wrote: Nick Szabo created the idea of Smart Contracts several years ago. http://www.best.com/~szabo. These would be self-enforcing agreements that were based on technology rather than laws. It all sounded cool at the time. But isn't DRM a form of Smart Contract? If I need a special viewer to download some content, and that viewer enforces the terms of the contract which allows me to do the download, that enforcement happens without any laws. It is all handled by the technology. It's a Smart Contract. It's interesting how ideas can sound good until you realize that they won't let you take other people's creative output without their consent. Maybe it's time for cypherpunks to put principle over greed. If a large set of content providers adopt, as a cartel, a specific, single form of smart contract that requires the same specific form of hardware that they approve, and such adoption freezes out non-approved hardware from maintaining commercial scale, then questions of monopoly and collusion arise, and the question of greed seems to shine strongest on the cartel, in my view. Regardless, to look at the entertainment industry and cypherpunks as a group, some might suspect the greater greed is not among the cypherpunks. The largest single cost was distribution. Digital communications can make that essentially free. When may we expect a price reduction that parallels the cost reduction? Or are they greedy?
