Dell to Add Security Chip to PCs

James A. Donald jamesd at echeque.com
Fri Feb 4 19:07:12 PST 2005


    --
On 3 Feb 2005 at 22:25, Anonymous wrote:
> Now, my personal perspective on this is that this is no real
> threat. It allows people who choose to use the capability to
> issue reasonably credible and convincing statements about
> their software configuration. Basically it allows people to
> tell the truth about their software in a convincing way.
> Anyone who is threatened by the ability of other people to
> tell the truth should take a hard look at his own ethical
> standards. Honesty is no threat to the world!
>
> The only people endangered by this capability are those who
> want to be able to lie.  They want to agree to contracts and
> user agreements that, for example, require them to observe
> DRM restrictions and copyright laws, but then they want the
> power to go back on their word, to dishonor their commitment,
> and to lie about their promises.  An honest man is not
> affected by Trusted Computing; it would not change his
> behavior in any way, because he would be as bound by his word
> as by the TC software restrictions.

The ability to convincingly tell the truth is a very handy one
between people who are roughly equal.  It is a potentially
disastrous one if one party can do violence with impunity to
the one with the ability to convincingly tell the truth.


    --digsig
         James A. Donald
     6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
     6B7i0tiB4vUHqQnAP6nXT2z+B+zLB8624+K6+ENU
     47fFHg6cY0KInzxMe/l+L2c7LqmPZyrwOSZepYIR3





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