Re: Challenge: Find potential use cases for non-trivial confinement

[Bas Wijnen]

On Mon, May 01, 2006 at 05:29:18AM +0200, Pierre THIERRY wrote:
> Scribit Marcus Brinkmann dies 30/04/2006 hora 23:17:
> > Propose a use case for non-trivial confinement.
> 
> Here is an existing use case:
> 
> As a very short part of the algorithm is to be kept secret by the
> company who created it,

In that case they must not give it away at all.

Giving away code in a form that can run but not be studied is something that
the Hurd doesn't need support for IMO.  No computer currently has support for
this DRM (which it really is).  With the new hardware, it may become possible.
I think if the companies can live without this feature now (and they obviously
can), then they can live without it in the future.  This case is nicely
covered by non-technical means called contracts (in this case NDAs, which I
advise you not to sign).  We don't actually need a technical solution to this.

The good thing about non-technical solutions is that they leave room for
humans to decide if things are "right".

> the company would like that the program could be executed without being
> disclosed, while giving guarantee to the user that the processed data would
> not leak from their session.

In that case they must make sure they run it on their own computer, without a
network connection (or at least without a capability for it).  Obviously that
will not work if the software "provider" didn't actually provide the software.
:-)

Summary: I think this is a case of "we don't want to support this".

Thanks,
Bas

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