What do you think? Is Palladium a new tool to control us? Or has it been created for our own 'good'? If its possible, feel free to discuss or ask questions...
For those of you who don't know much about Palladium, I've explained below.
What is Palladium
Palladium is actually a set of features incorporated into the operating system kernel, and the hardware, including the CPU, chipset and peripherals. According to Microsoft, "these features will give individuals and groups of users greater data security, personal privacy, and system integrity." More specifically, these features will reduce the risk of viruses, spyware and other attacks. Files stolen from your computer will be useless on another PC, since these have been encrypted by the hardware itself. In addition, Palladium will be supporting several other features such as setting documents to auto expire after a certain number of days, or being able to specify which users may view which portion of which file on your computer. The encryption used will be PC-specific, which means that even if an attack on the core of the system were successful, it would only be applicable to that one PC. The aim of this Microsoft-led initiative is security, and it plans it to such an extent that even the data travelling on the cable between your keyboard and CPU will be protected by the Palladium hardware for the keyboard.
For any of you techies out there, Palladium will also be offering page isolation, so that each piece of running software has the assurance that it will not be modified by any other running software or the kernel itself, and thus achieving protection from virii and trojans. Another highlighted feature is "sealed storage," which means that information can be securely stored and can be accessed only by the Palladium module which placed it there, or any other components which Palladium may deem as trustworthy.
Palladium makes the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, another thing you should know about. DRM restricts the use of files in order to protect the interests of copyright holders. DRM technologies can control file access (number of views, length of views), altering, sharing, copying, printing, and saving. These technologies may be contained within the operating system, program software, or in the actual hardware of a device. This is what Microsoft plans to implement with Palladium.
The implications of this include the fact that any new software you plan to install on your machine will have to be verified by a central DRM certification authority. In this case, it will be Microsoft (wonder of wonders :rolleyes: )
Conspiracy?
As I just mentioned, vendors will wield more control over certain aspects of your computer system. Let us take a look at a few possibilities with the implementation of Palladium:
- There is a GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) in that copy of Windows Media Player sitting on your machine, did you know that? Microsofts eBook Reader requires software activation. Microsoft can effectively trace the users, restrict them from sharing books with one another or prevent the user from running those files on the computer at all.
- Also, Windows Media Player creates a log file of the content a user views, and "phones home" to a central server to obtain content titles. If the file is found to be pirated, it will be disabled, and you will be prevented from accessing your own content. This is an important development for copyright laws: copyright can regulate duplication of works to protect content owners. Now, copyright is being used as a justification to both protect content and to profile the consumers of content.
- DRM, from the looks of it, will lead to a new practice, where each purchaser must reveal their identities to the software vendors, to prevent anonymous consumption of content (You can kiss that evaluation copy of WinZip goodbye). Revealing such information can result in price discrimination. The vendor may sell items at different costs to different prospective purchasers based upon the purchaser's identity and financial profile.
- Many DRM systems will not allow a user to transfer content to portable devices, such as MP3 players.
- Many DRM systems work only with Windows operating systems to the exclusion of Linux and Macintosh users, but we all knew that didn't we?
- For small time software developers and programmers, they may not be able to run their own programs on their own machines. It sounds weird, but it's true.
- As for Open Source Software, the same applies. Since OSS relies upon reverse engineering, some of which even interact with the hardware, they will be deemed illegal, since this is obviously against Palladium.
- What about corporate muscle flexing? Of course! If MS-Word were ever to be seriously threatened by Staroffice, and a significant amount of users were using Palladium PCs, then Microsoft could roll out a policy change to the effect that Word documents would be sealed using keys that would be accessible to 'good' applications such as Excel, but not to 'bad' applications such as Star[office]
- Similarly, if Netscape Navigator were to threaten Internet Explorer some day (stop laughing), Microsoft may simply refuse to certify Netscape software, citing reasons of 'non-compliance with a certain policy,' and that would be the end of it.
- In yet another analogy, HP could just as easily force its printers to output low resolution documents if a genuine HP color cartridge was not used in the printer. This would certainly make some customers angry, but when you consider that HP makes its "printer" money on accessories, losing a customer who isn't purchasing their brand of cartridges is not really losing that much.
- Governments will be able to arrange things so that all Word documents created on civil servants' PCs are `born classified' and can't be leaked electronically to journalists.
- Pirated music can be remotely deleted.
- Remote censorship is another attribute that needs attention: the mechanisms designed to delete pirated music under remote control may be used to delete documents that a court (or a software company) has decided are offensive - this could be anything from pornography to writings that criticise political leaders, maybe even this post in the future.
- Palladium also helps Microsoft in that it makes it more expensive for a user to switch away from their products to others. That is the economic advantage of Palladium, for Microsoft as well as for the other participating companies.
How it affects us
It doesn't have to, but it probably will. The Internet will probably be divided into the 'haves' (Palladium PCs) and 'have-nots' (non-Palladium PCs). Content and services will cater to both these groups initially, but will gradually shift towards the haves, rendering the have-nots somewhat handicapped, if one were to compare the perspectives of today and then.
For those of us who rely upon MP3s as our prime source of audio entertainment, this will mean that only protected MP3s may be run on your PC. These MP3s will, of course, come at a price and cannot be shared.
Cheating on computer games will be difficult. Very, very difficult.
Freelance software developers will
have to work for a company, else they're out of business.
The jokes of yesterday, some of which involved Microsoft deleting files on your hard disk, government looking in on your files etc. are a possibility with this technology.
There is an alternative, of course. To switch over to a platform which will refuse to comply with the TCPA and DRM standards. I'm positive that this will be Linux. I've
heard that a TCPA-enabled version of GNU/Linux is being written currently, which will be the Linux equivalent of Palladium.
You could, also, stick to your present PCs and not go for an upgrade.
Of course, skeptics will remark that such technology has been created in the best interests of user security. That may be true, but greater emphasis has been laid upon corporate interests. You can expect the industry behemoths such as Intel, IBM and Microsoft to grow, at the expense of innovation though. Besides, what technology has not been abused?
One may naively assume that no entity will cross their 'ethical' limits and utilize the technology in any of the ways I've mentioned above. By citing reasons that may appeal to an individual, an effective veil will have been thrown over our eyes, whereby we will be lulled into a sense of security, oblivious to the fact that this very sense of security can (and will) be used against us. (Did someone say "PATRIOT Act"?)
If one were to take a step back and look at recent developments in our 'rights,' one will observe these rights being encroached upon, incrementally albeit.
Besides, when was the last time a technology was not abused?
I end this with a very fitting quotation:
Quote:
This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her--but if he lent her his computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong--something that only pirates would do.
--The Right to Read, Richard Stallman, 1996.
Microsoft Palladium
TCPA
