Hi Russell,Darcy; Re your recent comments on the fsfc-discuss list: I sent the following [hastily cobbled together] email to Elizabeth May, hoping it would assist her efforts to put forward credible amendments to bill C-11's TPM provisions, but as yet have not received any feedback: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Ms May, I support your efforts to deal with the so-called 'Digital Locks' provisions in Bill C-11.
However, I would a you to use the term 'Digital Snares'. I liken the TPM provision to snares, instead of locks, because the operation of a snare is closer to the concept of TPM, than the operation of a lock is. An (actual) snare is a length of wire, formed into a loop of just the right size for the animal you want to catch, attached to a rope with a supple tree bent and held by a small toggle. The animal runs unaware into the noose, and if the hunter did the set-up corrrectly, is quickly strangled, and the hunter will have a meal. Snares, must be correct for the quarry. A mouse snare will not catch a bear, wolf, hyena, elephant, etc. Unfortunately, a snare (physical or digital), has no way to know that the action it took was what you intended. For example, the Sony company, not *that* long ago decided that it was a *good idea* to put a TPM on some of its physical media disks. The fall-out was, unforseen, and eventually resulted in a class-action lawsuit. Imagine instead, that a control system to a nuclear reactor had malfunctioned and had lead to a melt-down because the new alert system's manual (on a TPM-'protected' document had unforseen results. To summarize: A TPM provision is *certain* to cause far more damage that it allegedly will prevent. It has been decades since it was possible for one individual to understand everything about a computer system. To believe that this concept is useful is delusional at best, and willfully ignorant at worst. I urge you to pursue the course of action you are on. Thank you. =============================================================================== certainly, my metaphor is flawed, but then, so is the whole TPM concept. Please, if the 'snare' metaphor is useful, I would like some feedback. Thanks -- David Dawson VE7HP VE7HDC IRC: (Freenode) VE7HP _______________________________________________ fsfc-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfc-discuss
