[Fwd: Re: sad treacherous computing day]

[Patrick Ohnewein]

Am Donnerstag, 10. Mai 2007 14:46 schrieb Ben Finney:
> On 10-May-2007, Patrick Ohnewein wrote:
> > I think the main point is, are we able to fight against a new
> > technology? Can we prevent its introduction and use?
>
> The fight against DRM technology is going surprisingly well. The
> issues are becoming understandable and known by people I would never
> have expected to care about the issues.
>
> I don't see why we can't gain similar exposure of the threats of
> treacherous computing -- but *only* if we make our actions match our
> words, and reject it as clearly and consistently as we reject DRM.

Do you think that preventing the diffusion of TPM chips can be gained by 
convincing all members of the Free Software community not to buy new hardware 
and ignore all new devices?

On wikipedia I read:
"The U.S. Army requires that every new small PC it purchases must come with a 
Trusted Platform Module (TPM)[...]. According to the International Data 
Corporation, by 2010 essentially all portable PCs and the vast majority of 
desktops will include a TPM chip." [1]

I fear that the market share of pure Free Software systems will not grow fast 
enough to prevent the diffusion. :-(

In the same wikipedia article I read about a suggested extension called "Owner 
Override"[2].

I am not an expert on this field, but if this suggestion can be a solution to 
guarantee the owners rights to have full control over his devices and data, I 
would suggest to lobby for its introduction.

Public administrations should have an open ear about the issues of control 
over their systems and over their data. They don't want to be controlled by a 
foreign software company or hardware producer and they want not to risk to 
lose the ability to access backuped data in the future.

Let's change the technology in such a way that it gets usefull and gives 
control back to its users. 

What do you think, could this be a winning strategy?

Happy hacking!
Patrick

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing
[2] 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing#Suggestion_for_Owner_Override