Cees,

I think you're being a bit hysterical here.  The good news is that the
US has a fairly good track record of correcting legislative mistakes.

But, aside from that, you have to look at where the demand is.  If there
is demand, that demand will be satisfied, even if you have to resort to
the black market.  Matter of fact, laws are almost irrelevant in
determining what goods and services are available to you.  Hopefully, we
won't have to start buying our computer chips on the black market, but
at least you can rest assured that they'll be available.

- Stephen

> Stephen Pair <spair at advantive.com> said:
> >But, short of that, I don't see it panning out in the 
> doomsday scenario 
> >that many seem to think will come about.  Even with M$ 
> ramming DRM down 
> >everyones throats, there will still be a substantial market (even if 
> >small by comparison) for non-M$ solutions.
> 
> The problem with DRM inside your CPU is that your CPU will 
> refuse to be part of a non-trusted computing base. Which will 
> mean that it will not load a BIOS that hasn't got the right 
> sig, the BIOS will not load a OS boot block that hasn't got 
> the right sig, etcetera up to the application. So if you 
> don't get Squeak signed by Micro$oft (or whoever will control 
> the signing keys for Palladium), Squeak will simply refuse to 
> run on your Windows platform. Similarly, Linux will not load, 
> until you run the single copy of the kernel that has been 
> Palladium-certified (which, in turn, will only run signed 
> binaries, i.e. - no Squeak). 
>
> And circumventing this will be illegal by the DMCA and, by 
> that time, the implementation of the EU Copyright Directive. 
> Of course, one law down the road is mandatory DRM so 
> circumventing the whole scheme simply by importing computers 
> from sane parts of the world will be illegal (motherboards as 
> contraband, can you imagine?).
> 
> No, this *is* really scary. Down the road lies a world where 
> copyright laws are dictated by Sony, Microsoft, the RIAA, the 
> MPAA, and other such fine ethical companies. You will have 
> the freedom to choose between whatever they supply. 



- Stephen