On Wed, 2010-02-17 at 02:21 -0200, Alexandre Oliva wrote: > On Feb 16, 2010, Ted Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
> I heard or read somewhere that Tivo's modified version of Linux and GNU > libc do this to prevent you from modifying any of the components of the > system. > > Since their (non-Free) boot loader will refuse to boot up the kernel if > the boot partition isn't signed, Tivo prevents any unauthorized changes > to the system, without requiring a fully-frozen root filesystem. > To maintain my point: if the non-free boot loader was replaced by a free one, we could strip out the other code that uses the TPM. Non-free software is the problem, not the TPM. > > But the point of free software is that users can modify it; such > > software would probably not exist for long. > > Tivo has been around for several years, unfortunately. And most cell > phones that use GNU/Linux, Android, and even Darwin, are tivoized in > similar ways, rendering the software effectively non-Free, even if you > actually got the source code under a Free Software license (not the case > of phones with Darwin, like the iPhone) > > So we can't count on its going away on its own. We have to take a stand > against it. But it's not disabling TPM in the kernel that will make any > difference. When the system reaches the kernel, it's too late for the > TPM modules, or their absence, to save us. We ought to somehow > intercept the *sale* of these devices, or even their very development. > I feel that TPMs could still be very useful as a security device, if their owners had full control over them - as such, the enemy behind both treacherous computing and many other societal ills is non-free software, and the best thing we can do is fight it. But for things already contaminated with TPMs and non-free software, you are right: the best thing we can do is refuse to condone the distribution of these technologies and fight to keep them from becoming widespread.
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part
_______________________________________________ linux-libre mailing list [email protected] http://www.fsfla.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linux-libre
