 |
  |
Issues |
|
| Monday, April 14, 2003 | ||
|
I started out to respond and extend the aaxnet article. Instead I got caught in a vicious undertow of cross currents. Here's a bunch of issues whirling around that need to be interconnected somehow. GROUP 1 DRM/DAM. Digital rights management and digital access management are symptoms of the same cause. In the first instance, I have a file that I want to transmit to you, but I want to retain control of the retransmission of the file, copying of the file or playing of the file. In the second instance, I have a file and I want to control whether you can access it and if you can, I want to control what you can do with it. This one is currently whacked out by issues of copyright restrictions and fair use access. It also has strong implications for corporate and government security and secrecy. E2E. End to end, the mantra of the 'net. Simply put, it's the network of cables has no central control switch. Each device attached to the network helps pass the packets of data from one point to the next. Technically, it makes perfect sense to push the smarts to the edges of the network and let the network infrastructure focus on efficient transmission. Politically/socially, this is beginning to run into flak. It's so much easier to sit in one place and watch traffic go by than it is to go knocking house to house, so to speak.
TCPA. Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, Trusted Computing Group and Microsoft's Palladium (Next Generation Secure Computing Base) are all of the same ilk. In short, re-engineer the basic PC platform so that there is an additional chip which will check on the state of the system and only allow licensed applications and secured files to run. The other aspect of the additional chip is that it will allow vendors to monitor how you are using their software.
ENCRYPTION. Pretty straightforward -- putting stuff in code so others can't make sense of it. The thing is that computers are better a making codes than at breaking them, particularly within a time frame that's useful. The tussle is whether the authorities should have a cheat because the bad actors can use encryption to hide their evil intentions. Or are the authorities becoming the bad actors by overreaching the limits of civil liberties. ID. Tracking identification is a linchpin. If you can't establish identity, then it's just about impossible to provide differentiated service. Everyone has access to everything (or everyone has access to nothing, etc.). There are two identities that can be established. One is the identity of a machine connected to the network, and the other is the identity of the person using the machine. The first is relatively easy to do. The second one, the important one, is much harder. SECURITY. This is a huge subject, depending on how you want to deal with it. You could say that all the topics above are subsets of security. But what I'm interested in is two aspects. First is the notion that there is no perfect defense, and that every initiative and protocol has an exploitable flaw. Second is that the threat of punishment is a significant deterrent. IPv4 / IPv6. The basic unit of information and transmission on the Internet is the ip datagram. The current datagram adheres to the IPver4.x standard. The problem is that the number of addresses is running low. The IPver6.x standard provides for a whole lot more addresses and for a bigger datagram. Part of the size increase is to improve routing and security of datagrams. Adoption of IPv6 has been very slow. There are some early adopters, like slashdot. The probable adoption model is the fax machine adoption curve. INTERNET2. Almost as soon as the Internet was discovered and started to become commercialized, work began on Internet2, a bigger and better version. Again, the development of this network is driven by researchers of all types needing to transfer the massive amounts of data that the computer research tools are generating over to the results analysis computers. Recently, they ran a backbone at 10Gbps. Currently, Sprint is rated at 1,240Mbps out of NY. That's about 9 times faster. THE COMMONS. GROUP 2 DMCA. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act, aka the Draconian Media Control Act. Passed in 1998, it deals with protection of copyrighted materials in digital format and makes illegal breaking encryption meant to protect such files from being used contrary to the wishes of the copyright holder. Proponents say is is the least that can be done to protect intellectual property. Opponents say that the act stiffles innovation and research, as much because the legislation severly limits traditional fair use copying. S-DMCA. Either Super-DMCA or State-DMCA, these are bills at the state level pushed by the MPAA that outlaw the obfuscation of any telecommunication transmission. These things are so broadly written that they outlaw many accepted defense measures used to secure networks. More importantly, no device can be connected to a telecom cable without explicit prior approval by the phone or cable company. This is similar to the restrictions in the days of the AT&T monopoly. The new crop limit actionable offenses to an intent to defraud.
COPYRIGHT EXTENSION ACT. This legislation also passed Congress in 1998. It extends the period of copyright protection of currently protected works. Proponents espouse that the product of intellectual work is worthy of designation as property. Opponents scoff at the notion of an idea being property and point instead to the corporate interests that the act really protects. This one has already been the focus on one Supreme Court ruling. UCITA. The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act is an effort of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. Proponents say it will bring laws affecting software into line with other uniform commerical codes. Opponents say that it gives software manufactures significantly more latitude than those that produce traditional goods and services. It accepts the notion that software is a licensed service, not a property right, to the purchaser.
PATRIOT ACT. Passed in a rush after the September 11 detruction of the World Trade Centers, this wide-ranging bill gives federal authorities significantly broader powers to conduct electronic surveillance of US citizens, among other things.
PRIVACY. What you do, what you think, what you are. STANDARDS.
DATABASE FILESYSTEM. atomization of the file sturcutre CMS. Atomization of data MARKUP. The destruction of context STORAGE.
WINDOWS. LINUX. PC/PHONE. WIFI. HOME STATION.
|
||
| © 2002, 2003 satterlee.com | ||