Some excellent non-too-technical sources of information to understand how computing can change in the near future are Ross Anderson's TCPA/Palladium FAQ, and Richard M. Stallman's essay ``Can you trust your computer?''. A must read is also Microsoft business overview of their Palladium platform, which blatantly speaks of

an authenticated mechanism that allows a program to store secrets that cannot be retrieved by nontrusted programs [and] cannot be read by unauthorized secure programs

and

Attestation: a mechanism that allows the user to reveal selected characteristics of the operating environment to external requestors. For example, attestation can be used to verify that the computer is running a valid version of "Palladium."

Many people don't realize that using a computer will no longer be the same if TCPA/Palladium is adopted by large masses and corporations. In essence, your computer will become a machine that will execute your orders only if it has the right software keys and rules; for instance, if you want to open a document or play a DVD, you're allowed to do that only if you have the right keys, which are stored in your computer and kept secret from you. Then, the same keys can be revoked by external authorities, like the US government, or Microsoft. For example you could watch a DVD only 3 times, and some of your emails might disappear after a few days. I'm not saying everything is going to be like that, but the system will be able to do that because it is designed to do that. This way, your computer becomes a machine which no longer does what you want. You won't own the digital content stored in your computer or on your discs (CDs, DVDs, etc) anymore. Using a computer will be like driving a rented car, which drives you where other people want you to go, still making you believe you're in control. But if you ever try to steer, you'll be sued of copyright infringement.

That's why we must stand up and block treacherous computing. One thing you can do is visit the web sites of the Digital Speech Project, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public Knowledge, so you can sign up to support their work.

Palladium deadline is 2004. TCPA hardware is already supported by many models of the IBM Thinkpad A, R, T, X series of laptops, check it out:

• ThinkPad A series
• ThinkPad R series
• ThinkPad T series
• ThinkPad X series

Many of them feature the new ``TCPA-compliant IBM Embedded Security Subsytem 2.0''

Microsoft has a couple of DRM patents and related patents:

• Microsoft DRM Operating System: US Patent No. 6,330,670, US Patent No. 6,327,652
• Electronic software license with software product installer identifier, July 11, 2002: US Patent Application: 20020091644;
• Hardware ID to prevent software piracy, Nov. 22, 2002: US patent application: 20010044782;
• US Patent Application: 0020091644

You can check them out and do more extended searches at the US Patent & Trademark Office web site.

IMHO, I think the only secure way to stay out of this plan is by embracing free software. Only with free software and through the free software community you can be sure that you are in charge of what your computer does. In fact, with free software everyone can freely obtain the source code of every program intalled on their computer: if there is a malicious algorithm inside a program, someone will find out and post a corrected version to the community.

But there are already laws aimed at stopping users to use old computers (that is, non TCPA computers) to connect to the internet, as well as any devices that has no copy-protection mechanism. The CBDTPA is one of them. This bill has been proposed in Congress by Senators Fritz Hollings (D-SC) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), along with Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI), John Breaux (D-LA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). It requires copy-protection mechanisms in any hardware or software that reproduces copyrighted works in digital form. That means that every program - even a BASIC program - that reproduces copyrighted content must include and utilize standard security technologies that adhere to the security system standards - tipically, include "certified" libraries. Any simple program will become bloated with unnecessary routines that limit our freedom. And what if the DRM library is not available for the language I'm using?

More information:

• The full text of the CBDTPA: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/hollings.s2048.032102.html
• For more information on the CBDTPA read http://www.houseofmyrrh.org/cbdtpalk.htm.
• For action against the CBDTPA: http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=1521,
  http://www.houseofmyrrh.org/cbdtpa.htm

Please look at stoppoliceware.org to fight the CBDTPA. The CBDTPA is not a law yet, but it will become so if noone stops them.

On the contrary, the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) is a law, and has been enforced many times already. Again, to fight these methods of enforcing laws please support the websites listed above and below. In particular, read the insightful introduction by the Digital Speech Project, and also visit http://anti-dmca.org/

The European Commission presented its proposal "on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions" as a moderate attempt to clarify that recent american software patent excesses are kept out of Europe. Evidently the European Commission is well aware of what kind of proposal the public might want to see. Unfortunately it is proposing just the opposite in many ways. Read more at http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/papri/eubsa-swpat0202/.