[KLUG Members] re: DRM in every Samsung machine

[Adam Williams]

> >If this becomes widespread, it's a very short hop for Microsoft to
> >push BIOS manufacturers to ship, and computer makers to adopt, a
> >BIOS that refuses to boot any hard drive whose boot sector has not
> >been digitally signed by a trusted software company like Microsoft.
> >I.e., computers that refuse to boot free software.  The rationale
> >for this will be:  what good is it to have a laptop that will only
> >boot Windows from the hard drive, if the thief can just put in a
> >Knoppix CD and mount your Windows drive on Linux?
> Just off the top of my head, there are at least 3 better solutions to 
> that little problem.  

While I don't 100% agree with Jamie's conclusion about these events, I
do agree that the fact that there are x number of equal & reasonable
alternative solutions is irrelavent; I think the problem is that most
people (and notably people in power) don't grasp that there are x number
of alternatives (and that the original problem is a bit dubious at
best).  Thus the powers-that-be [read M$] COULD attempt to use this (or
similair) technology for nefarious purposes, with the implicit consent
of the silent (and bewildered).

> 1) don't store sensitive stuff on the local drive 
> (which IS guys have been saying for at least 10 years now).

Not an option in many cases, especially laptops.

>   2) Set the BIOS to only boot from the hard drive, and password protect it.  

Circumvention of BIOS passwords is trivial.

> 3) Use Encrypting File System, available on Windows 2000 and up.  EFS would 
> still be vulnerable to reading the password file and 
> dictionary-attacking it, but the files are not readable without a key 
> that's connected to the Security ID.

The point of DRM is NOT for YOU to control access to content on your
system, it is to enable a THIRD PARTY to control access to content on
your system.  Your system is ceritified to boot this kernel, your system
+ user is ceritifed to view this PDF file, these systems are certified
to play this movie, etc....

> For an operating system to work, there must be a well-defined interface 
> between the hardware and the software.  Currently that's the BIOS, but 
> if the BIOS is replaced with something else, it will either be an open 
> standard any OS can write to, or somebody will manage to 
> reverse-engineer it.  

No they won't, or it won't do you any good if they do, if the result is
ILLEGAL.  Your correct;  I think all this is sound-n-furty unless the
other powers-that-be [i.e. congress, the eu, etc...] cooperate [and they
*might* (I'm not convinced they will)].

> The xbox has plenty of hardware support for 
> code-signing and such, but 3 different variants of it have already been 
> broken.

An have you hacked an X-Box in Australia?  Is chipping your game console
worth going to prison? [and prison sucks, they don't get HBO, contrary
to popular rumor]