Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: CallTheShots.com
Author: Paul Snively Posted: 11/18/1999; 6:07:17 PM Topic: CallTheShots.com Msg #: 13207 (In response to 13205) Prev/Next: 13206 / 13208
Dennis Peterson wrote:That erights stuff is cool. The related operating system (Eros) looks far more secure than anything else in use or development.
I agree. I think we need to start with this level of stuff, i.e. address what we can address technically, and keep the law for what we can't (which is just a fancy way of saying "make the probable cost of doing the wrong thing unacceptably high.")
At the same time, Schneier makes a strong case that the copy protection problem will never be solved.
He's right; if you dig through the e-rights mailing list archives you'll find extensive discussion of why he's right (except that the terminology will involve "non-transferrable rights," "delegation," "the confinement problem," and the like, rather than the more familiar "copyright" and "copy protection" terminology).
The only solution that might come close to making the movie industry happy is tamper-resistant hardware that handles everything from taking the encrypted bits in one end and literally directly drives the screen and speakers out the other, and someone's going to be unhappy that you can still get the (analog) signal from the output pins. And given enough incentive, someone will tamper with the tamper-resistant hardware. This is an excellent example of a problem for which a technical solution won't suffice, but this Discussion Group is rife with discussion about other problems for which systems such as EROS and E would definitely suffice as foundations for ensuring their security.
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