Animated Short: Trusted Computing?

[Liquidize105]

What is "Trusted Computing" and what does it have to do with you?

Watch this animated short film (http://www.lafkon.net/tc/) to learn more. For a comprehensive look into what "Trusted Computing" really does, refer to this website (http://www.againsttcpa.com/) and this FAQ (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html).

My hat's off to the makers of the short and Boing Boing (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/10/antitrustedcomputing.html).

[FunkyPoopMonkey]

Been hearing about this site a lot in the past few months. Scary stuff, when you read about it.

[Zeal]

Very informative and also puts the message in clear english for those who aren't computer savy.

Highly recommended.

[Klade]

Excellent quality, and the music is rather catchy. Overall though I'm not terribly worried about this. Its the kind of thing that gets proposed in board meetings and then gets either shuffled away or toned down to the point of uselessness.

[Zeal]

I would have to agree. I never see this happening, simply based on the fact that it would put too much power in the hands of corporations. Taking away the ability of the user to 'choose' is just idiotic.

Esentially, trusted computing, as they call it, would be nothing more than "spyware-ready" PCs.

[Lint of Death]

Anyone else think that picture next to Christian Hoening's name is a Red vs Blue reference? From when Tucker describes Tex as a half woman, half shark who won't even sleep with him?

[Jinmu]

such beautiful use of type. reminds me alot of Knife Party's What Barry Says (http://www.knife-party.net/flash/barry.html) :D

[Namielus]

Quick question, Not that I like people with their fingers in my pies, but does anyone know if this video represents the truth of trusted computing future implementations?

This little media clip does a great job at catching your eye and saying things that certainly sound bad, and making you associate bad with trusted computing.

[Skookum]

Letting someone else enforce his ideas of what is "appropriate" for you to download is bad, granted, but this video really oversimplifies its argment. What exactly are the makers so upset about? What will a machine with a "trusted computing" chip not allow you to do?

[baz]

That is one slickly produced clip. Without even taking into account the message its still worth watching for production values.

Dammit, I went to the website www.againsttcpa.com, and now I'm reading everything there in a german accent.

[Varsity]

Quick question, Not that I like people with their fingers in my pies, but does anyone know if this video represents the truth of trusted computing future implementations?
No, not a chance.

Letting someone else enforce his ideas of what is "appropriate" for you to download is bad, granted, but this video really oversimplifies its argment. What exactly are the makers so upset about? What will a machine with a "trusted computing" chip not allow you to do?It's theoretically a completely self-contained DRM environment. The programs you run and data you create are all protected and any unsigned programs won't work unless you turn the TC features off, at which point you lose access to anything that is protected. You could keep everything disabled and use your computer normally, but to counter that the consortium is allegedly pushing for legislation to make it compulsory. Which I don't personally believe is true, and will certainly never happen if it is.

Long story short, it conflicts with a PC's flexibility. Home users probably wouldn't notice but pirates and other criminals and buisinesses would find themselves locked out and locked in respectively. It's ideal on consoles though.

[retsudo]

In fact home users WOULD notice, as even if they have no pirated material of their own, other people who they are sent things from / communicate with (eg sons/ daughters away being educated)'s correspondence would not be readable on their PC.

[Varsity]

It's only non-TC executables that can't run. Data isn't affected.

[retsudo]

No it isn't. Read the FAQ and info. You are wrong.
TC computers will not open, for example, word documents created by pirated, censored, blacklisted, or in some way defined as 'bad' computers or software.

[Commissar Rob]

Sooooo, I'm reading from these responses that this is one of those "loyal citizens have nothing to fear from the Empire" kind of things.

I guess I'm confused as what to do about it...I mean other than try and explain the issue to a legislator (in the U.S. that is) who is probably more worried about gas prices and Katrina...

If "teh INDUSTRY" *cue Imperial March* decides to push this through...then what is my response supposed to be? Embrace my inner, latent luddite and reject all technology?

[retsudo]

Don't buy these products, tell others not to buy these products, and make the companies aware that you dont want this shite.... none of which will do any good, but its about all you can do

[Varsity]

TC computers will not open, for example, word documents created by pirated, censored, blacklisted, or in some way defined as 'bad' computers or software.
How does it tell that they came from a blacklisted source, if they were created without anything to say so (i.e. no TC data)? Either they block everything non-TC indiscriminately or, as you seem to be saying, it's only TC stuff made on these 'bad' machines that will be affected.

[OldeWolf]

One got to think about the Blogging world, News world, or any opininated areas of the internet...Those will be impacted in a huge way by this worthless concept of TC.

[retsudo]

"How does it tell that they came from a blacklisted source, if they were created without anything to say so (i.e. no TC data)? Either they block everything non-TC indiscriminately or, as you seem to be saying, it's only TC stuff made on these 'bad' machines that will be affected."
Read the FAQ as you were asked and you won't need to ask and disbelieve someone telling you the truth.

[Azrikam]

This is the kind of thing that people need to refuse completely. Even if a small portion of the potential uses are implemented, it could cause untold hassles to legitimate users.

Imagine a situation in which all documents on your work laptop are protected. Your internet connection goes down? Well, no more authentication, so you can't do any work until it gets fixed.

And the worst thing about it is that the companies rolling it out know just how wary people can get, so they'll be doing it piece by piece so as not to scare anybody. If you're running fully patched Windows XP, just take a moment to think about how much less control you have over your machine than you did back when you were running Win95.

[The_Reckoning]

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[The_Reckoning]

Anyone else think that picture next to Christian Hoening's name is a Red vs Blue reference? From when Tucker describes Tex as a half woman, half shark who won't even sleep with him?

Haha, I noticed that aswell. Probably is.

http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~beste/TrustedComputing/TrustedComputing_LAFKON_HIGH.mov