Microsoft, Palladium, Trusted Computing

[ThePreacher]

Have you heard of Microsoft's new project based on the concept of trusted computing? Simply put controls will be put in your hardware that will prevent viruses and spam, and at the same time prevent piracy. This comes at the expense of the freedoms of the computer owner. I highly suggest that everyone reads this article at:

http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/10...0.shtml?tid=19

[KissCool]

Palladium could kill all of our computer liberties if it work (this article describes a nightmare). I hope it will definitively kill M$ if it doesn't sell well.

[Striek]

They've already started; The following is a quote from W2K Service Pack 3 license agreement:

* The OS Product or OS Components contain components that
enable and facilitate the use of certain Internet-based
services. You acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may
automatically check the version of the OS Product and/or its
components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades
or fixes to the OS Product that will be automatically
downloaded to your computer.

* If you have multiple validly licensed copies of the applicable
OS Product(s), you may reproduce, install and use one copy
of the OS Components as part of such applicable OS Product
(s) on all of your computers running validly licensed copies
of the OS Product(s) provided that you use such additional
copies of the OS Components in accordance with the terms
and conditions above. Microsoft, its subsidiaries and/or
suppliers retain all right, title and interest in and to the
OS Components. All rights not expressly granted are
reserved by Microsoft, its subsidiaries and/or suppliers.

Draw your own conclusions...

[Tedob1]

they put safe guards to keep people from doing anything they don't want and then have the nerve to say "there! Now we trust you." but who trusts them? not me!

[[WebCarnage]]

I heard some guy actually bought the copyrights Microsoft is using for "protecting our computer", and he's making sure Microsoft won't put it in their software for exactly this sake - so we won't be restricting our freedoms.

[P.S. - Saw this on TechTv. I've yet to find a link to it (their site is incredibly odd to navigate). But if I do, I'll post it up here. Some guy who goes by his handle. Kind of interesting actually.]

[D.J.]

i agree that this isn't right. it will be like at my school, when they were using Fortress, which locked up desktop icons and the start menu. basically, it controlled what i could do while is was on the computer. yeah, this might be kinda good for big businesses, but this also violates our rights to freedom. i just don't trust M$ that well.

[mmoehring]

windows media player is already incorperated with it . check out the options page and u will find a page with the option to "uniquly identify this computer to web sites. mine is unchecked how about yours.i microserf keeps it up we will all go to linux.

[powertoad5000]

Originally posted here by [WebCarnage]
I heard some guy actually bought the copyrights Microsoft is using for "protecting our computer", and he's making sure Microsoft won't put it in their software for exactly this sake - so we won't be restricting our freedoms.

I found a link to what I think you're talking about at Wired.

Can a Hacker Outfox Microsoft?

But a comment by Peter Biddle, Microsoft's product manager for Palladium at the 11th USENIX Security Symposium this past August revealed that software companies might not be able to use Palladium to fight piracy or enforce the terms of software licenses.

Eager to allay fears about the scope of Palladium, Biddle insisted that the impetus behind Palladium was solely to secure digital entertainment content and that he knew of no way that it could be used for the enforcement of software licensing. This assurance was made while he spoke on a panel at the USENIX Symposium.

Skeptical that this was actually the case, fellow panelist Lucky Green quickly filed two patents soon after the conference. The patents described methods for using the Palladium infrastructure to assist in the enforcement of software licensing. Green has a third patent application on the way.

The twist is that Green has no intention of implementing these techniques himself -- and in an interview with Wired News, declared his intention to "aggressively enforce his patents," if granted, to prevent anyone else from doing so.

Of course if Biddle's claims are correct, and Palladium is not intended to be used to prevent software piracy, then whether or not Green is issued his patents should make no difference to Microsoft.

Microsoft were surely going to use Palladium to crack down on software piracy... whether they will challenge the patents and lose face on previous statements is another thing. Of course, there are other ways around this issue which they could look into.

[gghornet]

This is overwhelming proof that money talks.The manufacturers of the most insecure OS's on the market think they have a right to regulate what we do and and how we do things with our computers "for security purposes"?Screw M$ and everyone else involved with this crap!!! It's amazing Bill Gates is trying to become the network admin for the entire world.He obviously thinks he's some kind of computer god,but does preying on the ignorance of the average computer users desire for a user friendly rather than secure OS make you anything but an oppurtunist?
I've heard thousands of times that Bill Gates is a computer genius.NOT TRUE!!! He's a business savant,and the better you are at cutting corners while keeping your customers unaware of the consequences the better you are at business.He doesn't care about anyone or anything but his own big fat wallet.
Would you trust someone to remotely run anything in your household without you having the option to override it at any given time?I sure as hell wouldn't and a computer can do a hell of a lot more than a toaster can.USE *nix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[R0n1n]

Its amazng how they put a friendly swing on this stuff when all they are doing is taking away more of our freedoms. Alas, the majority of users are not exposed to information like this and the masses tend to do anything that provides the illusion of increasing security, this can be seen more and more everyday, and before everyone does realise whats going on it will be too late.