From: "Tim May" <tcmay@got.net>
I have half a dozen computers, all usable in various ways. Not even in a Chinese-type police state could these legally-acquired computers, acquired for a lot of money, be declared "outlawed."
Now, I love hyperbole as much as the next guy, but you have no idea what a Chinese-type police state could declare outlawed. I heard about a country that declared illegal people's own gold. Wait, maybe you heard of it too! [Duh...] If China declares that all people with an IQ over 70 are to be killed tomorrow, they WILL be killed tomorrow, and those few who manage to escape will be prosecuted by everyone - especially by those with IQs below 70. I've seen something like this at work in my country, right after our revolution - the "We Work, not Think" slogan was actually very much in use, and I won't be very surprised to find people who still believe / embrace it. (People WERE attacked because they were "intellectuals", which was worse than "burgeoise" for several months in 1990.)
Not even counting your computers, and my computers, and 500 million computers already out in the U.S. alone, there are the designs of processors like Pentium 4, Athlon, McKinley, Thoroughbred, Duron, etc., _none_ of which are of this Valenti-friendly TCPA form. None of the hundreds of millions of systems now being prepared for sale are of this form. Saying that general purpose computers lacking TCPA/DRM will be "outlawed" is silly.
You still failed to say why. This is Tim "Saying that gold will be outlawed is silly" May for you. Mark