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!!!