WorldNetDaily wrote:Don't trust your computer
Posted: December 8, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
It is understandably difficult for Americans to
worry much about the
future. We are the wealthiest, most powerful society
in human
history, and as many astoundingly silly expert
predictions have
proven, it is notoriously difficult to imagine the
future as being
anything but a linear projection of the status quo.
But an ominous new technology is appearing like a
small cloud on the
horizon. It is being embraced by a consortium of the
world's largest
technology companies and it threatens to completely
overturn the
computing world as we know it.
Twenty years ago, Microsoft was an integral part of
the personal
computer revolution, and fulfilled Bill Gates'
daring dream of a
personal computer on every desktop. But now,
Microsoft has gone to
the dark side and embraced an evil vision. Instead
of liberating
individual creativity through the personal computer,
Microsoft hopes
to use a
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html Trusted
Computer to chain the individual into the digital
bondage of consumer
serfdom.
The Totalitarian Control Group is a consortium, led
by Microsoft,
intended to force all computer users into a new
computing paradigm.
This new paradigm, based on the Non-Governmental
Social Control Box
or NGSCB, will be the new PC standard, according to
Bill Gates,
and "will allow computers to be used in ways they
currently aren't
secure enough to be used for."
How are computers insecure? In many ways. But the
only ways that
actually concern the TCG are those relating to the
use of software
and other digital products in ways that the TCG does
not approve. A
Trusted Computer containing the NGSCB will place a
digital stamp on
all files created on that machine, which can be
encrypted so that
only another Trusted Computer can open them. So far
so good, and no
different than GnuPG or any other private encryption
scheme.
However, a Trusted Computer can also * and will * be
set so that a
document or file produced on a unTrusted Computer
will not open or
run. This is designed to not only eliminate the
ability to run
pirated software, but also to put pressure on those
who do not have
Trusted Computers to migrate to Trusted technology.
Today, for example, I can write a letter in
OpenOffice on my Linux
machine, save it in Microsoft Word format, attach
the document to an
e-mail and send to someone using Microsoft Office on
a Microsoft XP
machine. That person will have no trouble receiving
the e-mail or
opening the document. If the TCG gets its way, my
recipient will
neither be allowed to receive the e-mail in the
first place * it
comes from an unTrusted computer * nor will they be
able to open the
document.
The scheme is diabolically brilliant. Since
Microsoft has learned
that it cannot compete effectively with the Open
Source movement, it
has decided to change the game entirely. In one fell
swoop, the Evil
Empire can hope to achieve the following goals:
1. Lock users into a permanent upgrade cycle.
2. Turn the movie-music cabal from an enemy into an
ally by
converting software from a de facto product into a
per-use license.
3. Slow, and perhaps reverse, the move to Open
Source application
software.
4. Eliminate future challenges to its desktop
supremacy.
5. Sell software licenses in Asia.
6. Win the favor of governments everywhere.
While the first two goals are the most immediately
irksome, it is
this last goal which is the most troubling. Trusted
Computing spells
the end to all privacy in individual computing. Your
ISP * which is
already required to divulge all information about
you when hit with a
subpoena * will know exactly what you downloaded, to
which machine
you downloaded it, and on which machine whatever you
downloaded was
first produced.
Or to put it in words that hit closer to home,
gentlemen, Trusted
Computing spells an end to anonymous porn. Among
other things.
That's why I'm not really too terribly worried about
the likelihood
of the TCG's nefarious plan succeeding. In one
corner, we have the
most powerful entertainment and technology companies
in the world, in
the other we have little but the male desire to look
at pretty naked
women. Obviously, the totalitarians don't stand a
chance.
But how do we fight it? There is only one answer.
Refuse to use all
things Microsoft, in your work or in your home.
Cleanse yourself.
Purge your system. Microsoft delenda est.
sorry, got carried away)
