Challenge to David Wagner on TCPA

David Wagner daw at mozart.cs.berkeley.edu
Thu Aug 1 17:36:43 PDT 2002


James A. Donald wrote:
>According to Microsoft, the end user can turn the palladium 
>hardware off, and the computer will still boot.  As long as that 
>is true, it is an end user option and no one can object.

Your point is taken.  That said, even if you could turn off TCPA &
Palladium and run some outdated version of Windows, whether users
would object is not entirely obvious.  For instance, suppose that,
thanks to TCPA/Palladium, Microsoft could design Office 2005 so that it
is impossible for StarOffice and other clones to read files created in
Office 2005.  Would some users object?  I don't know.  For many users,
being unable to read documents created in a recent version of Office
is simply not an option.  However, in any case we should consider in
advance the possible implications of this technology.





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