"Palladium" and TCPA

[Quentin Campbell]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ross Anderson [mailto:Ross.Anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk]=20
> Sent: 27 June 2002 17:19
> To: ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk
> Subject: Re: "Palladium" and TCPA=20
>=20
>=20
> The fact that Palladium will ship with bugs doesn't help us=20
> much. It may make things worse by helping M$ blunt public=20
> alarm. When I first questioned an informed Microsoftie about=20
> TCPA, the response was `don't worry, it won't be proof=20
> against hardware attacks, so you can get in if you have to' -=20
> as if that made it OK to lock out the competition forever=20
> from your file formats, on pain of DMCA jail time.
>=20
> Watch out for the copyright regulations that the DTI is due=20
> to consult on this year. We were promised a three-month=20
> consultation period; what's the betting it will be shortened?=20
> What's the betting that the scope of criminal penalties will=20
> be increased, and fair use clawed back? What's this got to do=20
> with the 35K per annum consultancy that Chris Smith is=20
> getting from Disney? How many other influential people are=20
> starting to get consultancy from TCPA consortium members, but=20
> won't declare it until the next Register of Members' Interests?
>=20
> I fully expect that copyright law will cover for any initial=20
> technical defects in the implementation. I for one am not=20
> going to expect students to put chips into ion beam machines=20
> if it's going to land them in jail.
>=20
> Palladium / TCPA is a policy issue at least as much as a=20
> technical one. Bad technology and bad law can sometimes sort=20
> of cancel out; in this=20
> case, however, a huge amount of money is being spent on=20
> making sure that they interact in the most pernicious=20
> possible way. For example, I heard yesterday from someonw who=20
> interviewed at M$ three months ago that they had 170 people=20
> working on Palladium back then. Bill's not spending that sort=20
> of money for love of Hollywood, or out of concern for Owen=20
> lewis's privacy either :-)
>=20
> Ross

Perhaps I am being naively optimistic but there may be some benefit for
consumers once Palladium/TCPA is fully in place. It will make it harder
for O/S and other software vendors to disclaim responsibility/liability
for faulty software and operation. This and pricing may have the effect
of raising customer expectations of quality of service.

Perhaps the pitch for the technology would sound more convincing if
software vendors like MS acknowledged their liability for software
failure and sold Palladium/TCPA as part of their plans to manage this
liability for the benefit of customers.

We should not blame vendors for wanting to protect their investment in
developing a technology but the problem is that the protection is so
heavily weighted to the benefit of the supplier and not enough to the
benefit of the consumer.

Quentin