Re: Part 2: System Structure

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

On Thu, 2006-05-18 at 09:24 +0200, Bas Wijnen wrote:

> > It seems pretty obvious that we would like to encourage people to move
> > to open formats. However, this program cannot be run unless the
> > developer can ensure that its storage is opaque.
> 
> This is *exactly* the kind of thing we don't want to allow.  By adding such a
> property to the system (yes, I still think it's something new)...

I wrote that badly. I did not mean to say that there were any
restrictions on *executing* the program. The restrictions concern
reverse engineering, and the author of the program must have reasonable
confidence (not TPM-level confidence, just reasonable confidence) that
reverse engineering cannot occur.

I have to say: preventing this particular program seems exceptionally
stupid. Yes, the program itself is undesirable, but if it is necessary
to run an undesired program in order to let people move to open formats,
that is not an unreasonable compromise.

shap