Challenge to David Wagner on TCPA

[Jay Sulzberger]

On Fri, 2 Aug 2002, Albion Zeglin wrote:

> Quoting Jay Sulzberger <jays at panix.com>:
>
>
> > b. Why must TCPA/Palladium be a dongle on the whole computer?  Why not a
> > separate dongle?  Because, of course, the Englobulators proceed here on
> > principle.  The principle being that only the Englobulators have a right to
> > own printing presses/music studios/movie and animation studios.
> >
>

> A separate dongle can't verify the integrity of the processor.  The
> important part is that the processor's state (including initial RAM load)
> is verifiable.

But if you just want to show movies "securely" you need not use my general
purpose and today untrammeled computer.  You can either show movies in
movie houses, or use some slightly trammeled version of a "cable ready TV",
or the variant product mentioned earlier, the "donglified monitor/speaker".

There is no need for the MPAA to "verify the integrity of the processor" if
all the MPAA wants to do is sell me tickets to movies.

> Without this the OS could be virtualized and modified after the integrity
> check.

What does the enforcement of the laws against copyright infringement have
to do with my general purpose and today untrammeled computer?  There is no
relation of the sort you, and all the mass media, implicitly assume here.
Indeed no OS at all should be involved in the "secure showing of movies".
It is like using the standard C libraries to write "secure code"!

>
> Just imagine running Windows Media Player on a virtual machine, trapping
> the calls to the audio card and thus being able to copy content
> perfectly.  A dongle can't prevent this.

My donglified monitor/speakers combination, of course, offers greater
assurance.  Here is part of my argument: the explanation of my proposed
protocols can actually be understood.

>
> Eventually for TCPA to be effective against hardware hacks such as memory
> probes, not only will the harddrive storage be sealed, but RAM must be
> sealed as well.
> Once TCPA moves onprocessor, I expect encrypted RAM will be next.
>
> Albion.

The dilemma "Either give over all the computers in the world to the
Englobulators, or never get to see another big budget Hollywood movie." is
a false dichotomy.

oo--JS.