[NMLUG] [OT] Palladium

[nmlug@swcp.com (Alex Rice)]

There has been speculation that MS's Palladium might enable MS to keep 
GPL software from running on Windows. Per usual, the NTK now list has a 
lucid summary of what's going on. See the Palladium FAQ at the bottom: 
--Alex

          Lot of talk this week about Microsoft's new bluesky project:
          In the softest of previews in Newsweek, Steven Levy banged
          on about PALLADIUM, alluding to the sacred (but as it turns
          out, a bit horse-blind) guardian of Troy. British readers
          will know the term better as the fancy West End theatre that
          spawned Beatlemania and now shows overpriced performances of
          "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Figures: either way, you're not
          getting in, and we're not sure you'd want to. In a
          (cryptographically hardened) nutshell: Microsoft's Palladium
          will be an area of your future PC, fenced off and unreadable
          except for trusted software. "Untrusted" apps won't have
          have access. And how does code gain Palladium's trust? By
          having you, the PC owner, sanction its entry? Oh no.
          *You're* untrustworthy - you might sign in your dodgy CD and
          DVD ripping programs. No, this area will only be for
          software sanctioned by Microsoft and their paying friends -
          Hollywood-approved media players, for instance. No backstage
          pass for you at this Palladium, even though you own the damn
          theatre. As Ross Anderson points out in his FAQ, "Palladium"
          is just Microsoft's fancy name for the old "Trusted PC"
          initiative. And the only reason why they need to trust the
          PC is: they don't trust its owner. Remember that when the
          hard sell begins: the only person Palladium protects your
          computer from - is you.
          http://www.msnbc.com/news/770511.asp
                    - Levy ensuring that RMS *stays* "the Last Hacker"
          http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/tcpa-faq.html
                               - Ross Anderson, Cassandra to this tale
          http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,274309,00.asp
           - hold on: this project is headed by someone called Juarez?
          http://www.alt2600.com/faqs/
                                          - is that some kind of joke?

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