MS DRM OS

Michael Motyka mmotyka at lsil.com
Wed Dec 19 19:05:25 PST 2001


 Ralph Wallis <mischief at optushome.com.au> wrote :
>On Wednesday, 19 Dec 2001 at 00:38, Graham Lally <scribe at exmosis.net>
wrote:
>> Ralph Wallis wrote:
>>
>> > On Monday, 17 Dec 2001 at 07:58, Michael Motyka <mmotyka at lsil.com>
wrote:
>> >
>> >>Could someone who knows more than I do explain to me why this MS
"IP" is
>> >>anything other than making the owner of a PC unable to have root
access
>> >>to their own hardware/OS? If so it seems to be an idea unworthy of
>> >>protection from lawyers and men with guns.
>> >>
>> >
>> > A more correct analogy is with speed limiters on cars.
>>
>>
>> On your own roads. And the car maker tells you where you can go to.
And
>> which route you have to take. And where you can end up. And then
forces
>> you to pay for a map.
>>
>>
>> If the patent hasn't been picked up by the courts yet, then why not?
>> *If* the SSSCA were to come into effect (and I have heard little
about
>> it for several months now... biding its time?), then surely all other

>> OSes (subject to legal boundaries) would be prevented by the patent
from
>> implementing the requirements in the bill?
>>
>> ...and to appease the pedanty, it's hard to have a /more/ correct
>> analogy when there was no analogy in the first place. There, got it
out
>> of my system...
>
>pedanty isn't a word, and the original poster mentioned "denying root
>access", which is an analogy.
>
I have no idea why speed limiters on cars is even close to being a
relevant analogy. I had a more simple and direct analogy in mind - it
seems to me that what Microsoft is trying to do is what many of us put
up with at work everyday - I use SPARC workstations to which I do not
have root access. I run programs that I cannot modify and those programs
can use data areas and drivers that I cannot access directly.

This is fine at work - the company owns the computers, besides the
sysadmins are actually really helpful. Having an external agent build
fencees inside my own home is an entirely different matter. One worth a
fight to the death.

>Your understanding of patent law is flawed.
>
Since it seems that the possibility to accomplish what Microsoft has
patented has existed for years prior to their disclosure isn't their
patent a bit weak? Maybe it's more of a formality, a prelude to an OS
dictatorship. After all, the 1st says nothing about the government
making any laws regarding an establishment of an OS. Time to form a
church of the homegrown OS. As of even date I consider Windows in all
forms to be spy/subpoena-ware and I don't even trust Redhat anymore. Is
it even safe to compile a TCP/IP stack without first obfuscating it?

BTW - what is pedanty? Peasantry? Pedantry?

I'm voting for 'peasantry' as the proper choice but yes, there was an
analogy at the root of the original post.

Mike





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