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Microsoft, allies gear to reshape copyright debate

SAN FRANCISCO: An industry push to tighten security on personal computers could be either the salvation of electronic commerce or the bane of consumers, who view the Internet as their digital information playground.

Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and nearly 200 other companies from the computer hardware, software and security industries are working on technologies designed to protect data in computers from being tampered with by intruders.

Maintaining that these systems are needed to impede hackers, proponents say they could help restore law and order in a world where digital piracy is rampant. Critics counter that the technologies are part of an industry power-play that would end the freewheeling culture of information-sharing that now exists over the Internet.

Either way, specialized security microprocessors and related software being developed by members of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) would, if implemented, fundamentally shift the balance of power between individual and corporate ownership of data -- a debate that is already being played out in U.S. courts and Congress.

“If we’re going to get content on the ‘Net, somehow we’re going to have to reward the people who put it on there,” said Dave Farber, an Internet engineering pioneer and computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania who is an independent consultant to the TCPA.

Others say the efforts are desperate attempts by PC and media companies to control the next big wave of computing.

“It’s a struggle between the wonks and executives,” said Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, California. “The real battle ahead is not over desktops, it’s in the living rooms. There is a flat-out race to own the video game” and computer entertainment market.

“Microsoft would love nothing more than to be the software forge for Hollywood,” Saffo added.

Palladium: Microsoft’s latest contribution to trusted computing is a technology it has code-named “Palladium,” which is targeted for future versions of Windows.

Peter Biddle, a product unit manager in Microsoft’s Windows Trusted Platforms Technologies group, said he began in 1997 trying to address the problem of how to protect copyrighted content after media companies complained they wouldn’t release high-quality versions of their published content to personal computers because of piracy concerns.

Later, he says, he realized the same technology could be used to protect consumer data from theft or tampering.

While Palladium is still a long way off, an uproar has arisen over how technologies might be used to curtail consumer “fair use” rights to make personal copies of movies and music and to more tightly control software use.

“I like to call this controlled computing rather than trusted computing,” said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative counsel for the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. “The companies are creating a system or infrastructure that the user cannot tamper with.”

Critics fear new technologies will make it easier for corporations and governments to spy on computer users and even censor dissent by allowing applications like document revocation, or programmable data deletion. What may be perceived as minor intrusions in a Western corporate setting might have Big Brother consequences for computer users in countries with more controlled environments like China and Saudi Arabia.

“Microsoft wants the Chinese to pay for software,” said Ross Anderson, head of computer security at the University of Cambridge in England and a renowned software expert.

Digital rights management: Critics also contend Palladium and the TCPA were created to appease the entertainment industry in order to ensure that the PC is the entertainment device of the future.

As proof, Anderson points to a patent called “Digital Rights Management Operating System,” for which Microsoft has rights. However, Microsoft’s Biddle says the patent title is “unfortunate” and downplays its significance to Palladium.

“That’s not something that really is part and parcel of what Palladium is,” Biddle says, adding that it is related to optional add-on features that customers could elect to use. Biddle and a TCPA spokesman deny the assertions, saying that no monitoring, reporting or censoring capabilities are designed into the systems, and people will be able to choose whether they want to use the security features, or not. Still, they acknowledge that certain controversial functions could be added by others later.

“In developing the technology for the platform, there’s all kinds of usages and capabilities that could be taken advantage of that have not been thought of yet,” said Marc Varady, TCPA chairman and marketing manager for Intel’s Safer Computing Initiatives.

To some, the TCPA plan is reminiscent of Intel’s proposal in the mid-1990s to put a serial number on its Pentium chips. —Reuters

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