In a recent column Shawn Redden asks, “[W]hy not [punish] anyone with a CD burner?…Of course this isn’t plausible; it’s so ridiculous on its face as to barely warrant ridicule.” Would that it were so. The technology to do just that will begin appearing on a wide scale this summer: the U.S. government and multinational corporations are about to give themselves more invasive and coercive surveillance power than Hitler or Stalin ever could have wished. Some of that technology may already be installed on campus by fall. Have a nice break.
United under the name “Trusted Computing Group” (previously “Trusted Computing Platform Alliance”), Intel, AMD, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, and other PC giants-with quiet but explicit approval from both Congress and the White House-are about to lay the technological infrastructure for universal control over the flow of information. Achieving such control, of course, requires fairly precise knowledge of what people are trying to do with said information-knowledge that most of us consider deeply private and personal. In sum, they want to bug everyone’s machine.
And it gets worse. Hardwired into computer chips (Intel’s will be called “LaGrande”), the bug will not merely analyze what you’re doing (and probably report anything suspicious) but will in fact control your computer, acting in ways you don’t want and not acting in ways you do want. While file-sharing may seem the obvious target of the TCG, any bozo can see that this technology will lead to government and corporate strong-arming that goes far beyond protecting intellectual property. TCG technology seems partly designed to put silicon teeth into 1998’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has caused serious academic problems even without TCG hardware. Even though I theoretically have fair-use rights to material on DVDs, I’m not supposed to use that material for various educational activities during class because the DMCA outlaws the necessary technological procedure. Currently I control the computers I use, so I can ignore the DMCA, but the TCG aims to make that impossible. Go ask Shirley Baker, Vice-Chancellor for Information Technology, how else the DMCA has assaulted academic work: you’ll get an earful. Science majors should read http://www.science-mag.org/cgi/content/full/293/5537/2028. For more in-depth technical information on the TCG, go to http://www.-cl.c-am.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html, posted by an internationally respected computer scientist at Cambridge Univer-sity.
A misleadingly titled bill currently in the Senate, the “Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act,” would require TCG technology in all American digital-information devices. Legislation can be fought, however. More troubling is the silent, forced adoption of this technology via an exploitative cartel: every major PC player has climbed on the bandwagon. TCG computer parts will be regularly installed in new computers from all major PC vendors (Dell, Compaq, etc.) starting midsummer. But don’t expect any advertising.
The TCG hasn’t thrust their fingers into everyone’s private and professional lives yet. There’s still a chance to forestall it. But our computing staff won’t act on its own. When I learned that the Gradlab is going to be equipped with new computers this summer, I took my concerns to Gavin Foster, Instructional Technologist for Arts & Sciences Computing, requesting (as a user of the Gradlab) that when the computing staff makes purchasing decisions, to please avoid TCG machines, or at the very least tell Washington University’s supplier that we prefer non-TCG machines. “Here, it’s all about cost,” he replied. “Try talking to [Executive Vice-Chancellor] Ed Macias.” A&S Computing itself, apparently, has little power to push such issues.
“Just stay offline,” Dr. Foster joked as we parted. I know him personally; he was being casually friendly, not malicious. But the TCG harbors no casual friendliness toward academics, and WU should oppose it. The university consumes massive amounts of computing technology. As such, we are in a position to send a high-profile message about the TCG’s aims by telling our suppliers that we won’t buy computing equipment infected with such invasive technology. Vice-Chancellor Macias?