This years prize for most in-approprate nameing scheme goes to ...

[James Baster]

Micrsoft.

Example one.

A new Security initiative called Palladum. Palladum is a classical refrence to a statue in the city of troy which has legendery powers, and was said to be able to keep the city safe. Now hands up who rembers the story of the Trojan Horse and what happened to Troy?

Exmaple Two.

There new hardware product is codenamed Freon. As in that checmical which everyone thought was really cool but turned out to be slowly eating the ozone layer?

They have an amazing knack for this.

[teamonkey]

Heh. Very apt.

Maybe we should get Microsoft to come and talk to us about Palladium then. It's a flipping scary issue. They know enough about me already (my computer hardware, my operating system, a few of the programs I have installed, what music I listen to, quite a few of the web sites I visit etc.), and I don't want them to be my guardians against all that is "bad" and "evil" in this world.

If you haven't heard of Palladium, you will soon. But I suggest you don't blindly accept using it. Go to http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25843.html for a brief run-down.

No really, this is scary "Big Brother Loves You" type stuff in the real world.

[The_Farwall]

Holy Mary, Mother of God! They can't actaully be serious about this can they?
Is there anywhere we can write to to protest?
Sod it, someone get me the Palladium plans then either them or me are going out of a very high window onto something spikey and flaming.
To the Death, Gates. To the Death!

[TheGamesMaster]

One way to combat it would be to install Linux, if you don't like this idea get a mac. The new eMac looks to be very good value (just needs DVD to be better)!

[teamonkey]

Yeah, and MacOS X is lovely. If only I could afford it I'd buy a Mac.

For another way to combat it, check out the links to STAND and Fax Your MP on the front page of the WiredSoc site (http://wired.st-and.ac.uk/).

[The_Farwall]

I'd quite happily run a different operating system if I could be sure that there was some stable and reliable way to run all my games through it. I don't see the point of limiting what software I can use just to make a doomed stand against the richest man in the world. I'll let someone else be the activist, I just wanna play.

[TheGamesMaster]

Thats the ONLY good thing about windows is that you need it to play games on the pc, and yes i know you can also play _some_ with linux but not all the good ones have been ported.

[The_Farwall]

Exactly my point. Get that sorted and the whole world would quite happily defect.

[LeopardSkinQueen]

Yeah, I'm a Mac user, and I love it apart from the lack of games, and the ridiculous price of them. In general though, this far outweighs the horror of Windoze. I have to use it at work, and it always succeeds in making me love my Mac more.

[teamonkey]

The patent application.

You can find it here:
http://nunce.org/ms-drm-os.htm

Tidbits:
2. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein protecting the rights-managed data comprises:
refusing to load the untrusted program into memory.
[Don't run any program that MS says is bad]

5. The computerized method of claim 3, further comprising:
renouncing the trusted identity before loading the untrusted programw hen the untrusted program executes at the operating system level.
[Unclean! Unclean!]

One worrying aspect is that since information is sent to MS for validation, it's easy for them to blacklist you.

[The_Farwall]

Does point 5 mean that if the user finds a way to run an untrusted program, then the user get's blacklisted as well as the program?

Will you be locked out from your own computer then?

[TheGamesMaster]

I wouldn't put it past Micro$oft to charge you for using your own computer.

[teamonkey]

I don't think you will be locked out from your computer. You'd only lose your "clean" status if you actually ran an "unclean" file or program, not just downloaded it. What it means is that you won't be able to connect to any other computer.

The extreme is that your ISP requires you to log on using Palladium security. You then load an "untrusted" program, such as a FreeNet or Gnutella client, Kazaa etc running. The RIAA or other similar body will have previously given MS a brown envelope so that Palladium treats all programs capable of sharing music as untrustworthy, or such programs are banned simply because you can't guarantee that the files you receive are safe (or legal).

What this means is that your computer is no longer trustworthy. You can no longer connect to any other computer using the now-industry-standard Palladium, and this includes your ISP. In other words, you are banned from the internet until you make your computer "clean" again.

What else could this include? How about web sites? "Sorry, this web site is insecure" as you connect to a SSL website (https://)? Say that MS wanted to push Yahoo mail out of business: "Sorry, Yahoo. You're not getting your Palladium licence this year." Now no-one can connect to Yahoo without using an alternative "unsecure" method to Palladium.