Apparently there is an alliance called TCPA... they're threatening cyber freedom, especially in the US. They're basicaly trying to make there own standard for computers. In the US there is a bill, CBDPTA [Formarly SSSCA], this bill would force compliance to the TCPA's "standards" and it would be illegal to sell/buy non-compliant computers with resulting punishment of up to $500,000 fines, and 5 years jail time. For hardware of software to be "compliant" they would have to have a costly certification, this would virtually kill open source.
This is not good.
Read more at: http://www.againsttcpa.com/

P.S. Yeah...this is advertising, but I think it's stuff that should be brought to attention. [addsig]

Crud like this would also kill off the YPN! What would be the point in learning to program? [addsig]

Well... If you wanted to be an MS' slave... [ie they're the ring leader of the alliance]
[addsig]

I'd agree that TCPA is stupid, and that we the people should be making a stand against it, but it's important to know what you're up against first. The website with poor grammar aside - reading the white papers and public documents describing the TCPA's intentions and methods - none of the documents available suggest that anyone will be restricted in their use of their own personal computers; that all TCPA/palladium/DRM/whatever features will be disabled by default, and (en|dis}ableable at any time by the computer's administrator.
i.e. the main applications of the system will be to
--> stop gov't personnel etc. saving secret_bunker_weak_spots.doc to FDD without encrypting it and logging it
--> stop cube serfs downloading and running FREE_PR0N[NOT_SUBSEVEN].JPG.exe
etc..


Computer trust when it comes to s/w transmitted over the internet is a very serious and real issue, and *needs* to be addressed through code signing, certificate management etc., but it is important we implement this security without expense to the rights to privacy, anonymity, and free speech.

The increasingly prevalent attitude amongst those good pious cristian souls currently in positions of world power seems to be that privacy and anonymity are unneccecary, perhaps even undesirable. With mass hysteria induced by recent terrorist activity, increasing awareness of crimes etc, the adage that those who seek privacy must have something to hide is becoming harder to defend against. "Members of Al Quaeda were communicating extensively through phone and e-mail in the time leading up to the sept 11th attacks. Had we intercepted these communications we would have known much more about their plans. Had we known more, we might potentially have saved thousands of lives. Every such communication is potentially terrorist in nature. Those communications which are legal in nature will be disregarded, causing little or no expense to the parties involved. Therefore, we should endeavor to intercept and analyse ever form of electronic communication in order to preserve the rights of humanity at large"
It is difficult to see the flaws in such an argument, as general legislatory precedent confirms. However, it certainly *is* a flawed argument, and it is important that we react to it.
kind of like "in train crash and derailment incidents, the majority of fatalities are of passengers travelling in the rearmost carriages. therefore, remove the rearmost carriage"
certainly it is possible that such large scale gov't invasion of privacy and anonymity would lead to a reduction in crime and terrorist activity. certainly, too, i would agree that on the scale of the individual, loss of privacy to a gov't official is preferable to being flown into by a 767; but human rights *cannot* be balanced and compromised in this way.

i heard something about new copyright laws, meaning you couldnt do loads of things (like burnt copies of cd's) and also you couldnt buy refileld ink cartrages!!!! grrr, this is so dumb!

Just getting back around to this (must have missed it when the computer was down). Well, I certainly never wanted to work for MS. I want to be a game programmer (LucasArts would be cool ). But I think the copyright laws need some serious revampment. With all the CD burning technology of ours it's opened an whole new world for piracy. Of course it isn't illegal unless the copies are ditributed, but then audio\video compression has allowed this stuff to take place over the net (Napster comes to mind here). Also, I've a friend who downloaded Lord of the Rings off the net before it's video release. Something has to change. Okay, that's my speech for today .

_________________
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[ This Message was edited by: dxprog on 2003-04-18 00:37 ]

Well, as far as people getting software from KaZaA, I'm all for that. (^_^)
B/c it gives people the opertunity to learn a piece of software that would normally be _way_ to expensive for them to try [ya, demos, but, they're just not the same]. The way around this is for the companies to release free [_not_ demo] versions of the software, like Sun w/ Forte&JDK, or Maya with it's learning version.

Movies, Mp3s, ect I dunno... It's not like when you buy a CD that the money goes to the artist, most of it gets screwed off to the recording studio.

I think the downloading and sharing of these things should be legal, but that doesn't mean it's right.
i.e. "Not everything that's legal is right, and not everything that's illegal is wrong"

_________________
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[ This Message was edited by: ItinitI on 2003-04-18 01:35 ]

Well, we need to shut up now. That last post was way to illegal for this place . I don't think Kagez wouldn't be very happy. [addsig]

Ooooppss...
He doesn't like kazaa and such?? [addsig]

I'm not sure, but he'd rather not talk about such things while the FSF is letting us have this site (don't need them peeping in and saying "If all you're going to do is cultivate the use of illegal stuff, you don't need this site"). Okay, may be a bit farfetched, but one can never be too careful. [addsig]

Ah, yeah, okee, that makes good sense.
I had thought it might have been b/c Japan had _very_ strict copy right laws and such. [addsig]

I persoanlly wouldn't advocate that kind of stuff either. [addsig]