"to outlaw general purpose computers"

Tim May tcmay at got.net
Mon Jul 1 21:31:38 PDT 2002


On Monday, July 1, 2002, at 05:58  PM, jamesd at echeque.com wrote:

>     --
> On 1 Jul 2002 at 15:06, Tim May wrote:
>> I have strong views on all this DRM and TCPA stuff, and
>> especially on the claim that some form of DRM is needed to
>> prevent government from taking over control of the "arts."
>>
>> But we said everything that needed to be said _years_ ago. No
>> point in repeating the same points.
>
> No, it does need to be said again.
>
> You cannot merely do a copy and paste from the cyphernomicon.  You
> will find it necessary a copy and paste from the cyphernomicon
> followed by several global search and replaces and a small amount
> of new material referring to current events.

I didn't say my views on Palladium and TCPA/DRM are already contained in 
an 8-9-year-old document, only that the ground is well-trod. Especially 
the ground involving voluntary vs. mandatory, Brin's ideas, and the 
"policeman inside" notion that if we don't install DRM Big Brother will 
have to do it for us.

I don't try to discourage others, but I have better things to do with my 
time than to argue futilely with statists who are not even reading my 
stuff! (Many of them are cross-posting in from Perrypunks, so my replies 
are unseen by them.)


>
> Palladium, as described by Microsoft, is actually a pretty cool
> idea that would be useful for quite a few cypherpunkly projects.

Probably _not_, for the very reason Palladium will fail: a plethora of 
extant systems which people will not scrap just so they can watch "The 
Fast and the Furious."

> Unfortunately it is being introduced at the same time as there is
> legislation proposed, the SSSCA, to outlaw general purpose
> computers

Anyone who believes this, or even repeats it as a rumor, is on drugs.

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."

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.

--Tim May


--Tim May
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you." -- Nietzsche





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