thinking bad thoughts...

[rhofland at fastdial.net (Randall Hofland)]

Agreed! And the efforts to preclude fair use of hardware also raises legal issues
UNLESS there is a clear disclaimer up front. So the ordinary consumer should
hopefully have transparent access to new technologies without finding their
previous access diminished by the new options. IF that does continue to be an
issue, it will only encourage widespread non-compliance that may eventually feed
back and severely hurt the media and hardware manufacturers. I predict that new
legal challenges to current patent and trademark practices will eventually temper
the ability of companies using "proprietary" technologies to dominate a
particular market. Until then, hackers will keep everyone on their toes!

Kris wrote:

> I think this is Way far fetched. This guy is a bit paranoid first off and
> second off big deal. People can and will always reverse engineer hardware,
> its in their instincts too -then clone it and manufacture hardware
> compatible with it.
>
> If a new drive standard comes out that only dell will sell and only M$
> win* can drive it then some little linux geek will figure out some code to
> drive it for linux.
> The article brings up Tivo for instance. You can do a ton of stuff with
> Tivo, you can add drives you can make your own listings server there are
> Tons of little hardware hacks for this piece of hardware.
> Techies are always afraid of this and in most situations don't let
> proprietary systems in their infastructures/enterprises(I hope your
> not..). We learned that lesson years ago.
>
> I have recently been playing with a great box that I can IRC from, generate
> SSH keys, etc and I got it for $99*.
> http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/dreamcast/
> Just an example of what you can do with one of these entertainment
> industry type boxes.
> *$99 for console +$59.99 for the "broadband" adaptor/nic
>
>  -Kris
>
> On Fri, 9 Mar 2001, Chuck Young wrote:
>
> > I was referred to http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/17419.html by an
> > internal mailing list and am passing the link on.
> >
> > It's an interesting discussion about a negative utopia where the
> > entertainment industry usurps open PC hardware and software with proprietary
> > devices/software through the politics of big money by killing off open
> > architecture, hardware vendors and the software that powers all of it in the
> > name of protecting their copyrights.  I wonder how the free software
> > movement and grassroots users will respond to such a darkening age, if it
> > comes.
> >
> > Maybe it's far-fetched; maybe not.  You decide.
> >
> > ----------------------
> > Chuck Young
> > Internet Systems Engineer,
> > New England Region
> > Genuity, Inc.
> > ----------------------
> >
> > -
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>
> --
>
> Kris Loranger
> kris at kancer.978.org
> IRC:undernet,#978,Kancer AIM:KancerKris
> "If you're going to sell out, sell out ethically" -Moby
>
> -
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