What is Trusted Computing
I saw a neat video today about trusted computing. I hope at least one reader learns something new about this scary new technology. I admit the video is short, and as a result, shallow.
In summary,
The long term result will be that it will be impossible to use hardware and software that’s not approved by the TCPA. Presumably there will be high costs to get this certification and that these would be too much for little and mid-range companies. Therefore open-source and freeware would be condemned to die, because without such a certification the software will simply not work. In the long term only the big companies would survive and could control the market as they would like.
There’s a lot more to trusted computing. It makes anonymous web-surfing much more difficult since who you are is directly linked to your computer. People speculate this issue could interfere with free speech. Everything on your computer is essentially married to that PC, making it very difficult to move data between machines (DRM on all data). And of course, if used for “evil,” it could be responsible for some of the most devastating viruses/malware ever written (by abusing the death grip it has on your system). More here.
