Name: Anonymous 2007-06-18 8:55 ID:F893u0Zq
Who decided it was cool to try to turn the PC into the next television? Who decided that your PC should be a place to watch movies?
Does anyone really want this? Or is what I suspect really true, that people want their PCs to be able to manipulate movies and such (including copy)?
I bring this up because I fear that it will be cartels such as the MPAA and others that bring pressure to convert the PC into a closed platform. Totally closed with hardware aids such as TPM and whatever else they'll come up with next. The future may very well be that the clauses in all software saying "YOU DON'T OWN THIS, WE LICENSE IT" will actually mean something. And it's driven by the public's want for entertainment, i.e., movies and music. (Are there more forces driving things in this direction?)
It's like companies want everything digital, but don't want the consumer to have any power over anything digital without their permission. Duh, I know, but that leads me to ask some questions of a philosophical nature...
- Will the PC evolve to something totally closed?
- Is the Internet moving in a similar direction, i.e., ISP packet logs, traffic shaping, outright Internet censorship, etc. If so, which will become "secure" first, PC's or the Internet?
- When/if that will happen, is the future of the PC dead?
- Assume closed PC's become the norm and sharing stuff you've downloaded/cracking programs and/or encryption schemes becomes impossible. What are the implications of this.
- How can one create a computer architecture and be sure that this never happens, that it never falls to domination of corporate barricade?
Does anyone really want this? Or is what I suspect really true, that people want their PCs to be able to manipulate movies and such (including copy)?
I bring this up because I fear that it will be cartels such as the MPAA and others that bring pressure to convert the PC into a closed platform. Totally closed with hardware aids such as TPM and whatever else they'll come up with next. The future may very well be that the clauses in all software saying "YOU DON'T OWN THIS, WE LICENSE IT" will actually mean something. And it's driven by the public's want for entertainment, i.e., movies and music. (Are there more forces driving things in this direction?)
It's like companies want everything digital, but don't want the consumer to have any power over anything digital without their permission. Duh, I know, but that leads me to ask some questions of a philosophical nature...
- Will the PC evolve to something totally closed?
- Is the Internet moving in a similar direction, i.e., ISP packet logs, traffic shaping, outright Internet censorship, etc. If so, which will become "secure" first, PC's or the Internet?
- When/if that will happen, is the future of the PC dead?
- Assume closed PC's become the norm and sharing stuff you've downloaded/cracking programs and/or encryption schemes becomes impossible. What are the implications of this.
- How can one create a computer architecture and be sure that this never happens, that it never falls to domination of corporate barricade?