-- On 1 Jul 2002 at 22:10, Anonymous wrote:
The fact is that the market can't solve this kind of problem. That's right, markets are not perfect. [....] But information objects, absent successful DRM restrictions, are effectively public goods. Markets do not handle public goods well. It is a standard theorem of economics that they underprovide public goods.
Unfortunately, good government is also a public good, and so tends to be underprovided -- observe the current patent disaster, which obviously is retarding, rather than advancing, the development of technology. Our current patent and copyright laws show that government is in the pocket of content owners, rather than fostering content creators. Voluntary, genuinely free market DRM, is like voluntary, free market, gas chambers. If free market gas chambers remain free market, they will probably only be used for killing lice, but chances are they are not going to remain free market, since their nature makes them more appropriate to a governmental purpose than a private purpose. In fact, if created, DRM will already be subject to our infamous anti circumvention laws, which means that the necessary legislation to make them involuntary and non free market is already in place in advance.
This is the true alternative to DRM. Anyone who respects the power of markets should understand that DRM is the key to allowing markets to function with information goods.
Palladium is a module on your computer with its own private key and certified public key. Its capacity is to say "I certify that the output with this hash was produced by the code with this hash from inputs with that hash". Nothing wrong with that. But we are already hearing Microsoft say "well naturally governments have security concerns ...." If Palladium is a gun for me, fine. If it is a gun for my government, and not me, not fine. Trouble is the people backing palladium are the people who brought us anti circumvention laws, the people who want guns for themselves, and no guns for me. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG uQgMm/3E4nYxuwkWrA2I281ui9Z8pFN4zJ9pQPX1 2uxQytiBkOD9AWSbzzbDk8Yl0l46vUsa3ySfrb8A9