maximize best case, worst case, or average case? (TCPA

[jamesd at echeque.com]

    --
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
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