At 9:49 AM -0700 2002/7/5, Tim Rowledge wrote:
>"Stéphane Rollandin" <hepta at zogotounga.net> is claimed by the authorities to have written:
>
>> I don't get it. Do you mean that you could simply not program your own computer ? What's the
>> difference between an external non-certified application and your own non-certified stuff ?
>> Is Emacs going to be illegal because you can use it to program in Lisp ? 
>> This does not make any sense.
>The way the Black Hats (and really, truly, they are out there, though
>fotunately not completely in control yet) will try to have this work
>is:-
>hardware _must_ be compliant with DRM stuff.
>somebody gets to 'certify' software as 'trusted'.
>nobody is allowed a certificate for a compiler except 'authorised'
>software houses.
>
>End result - you won't be able to make your own software. And it's all
>for your own protection. Just like '1984'. Or the soviet union in it's
>wettest dreams.
Politics will probably dominate the power struggle.

The political clout of black hats should not be underestimated. 
Senior moment: I forgot how many KGB people were later elevated to head of the whole Soviet Union or Russia.
George HW Bush (not Duh-bya) went from chief of CIA to president.
Few of us seemed to blink when Rumsfeld took the pulpit on Sept. 11 or 12
and warned that loose lips sink ships...
presumably warning a diffuse audience within "our" side.
I immediately wondered what secrets he might be concerned about.
Did our war department have forewarning and bobbled intervention?
Despite a phenominal failing (we hope) of our intelligence apparatus,
congress fell all over itself to increase
the budgets of those very organizations.
BillionS.
Can we trust them when money like that is at stake?

Rik Fischer SmOOdy     riks at smoo.com
	smOOdynamics    -     Systems Made Outa Objects
		503-249-8300 ph/fx
	2400 NE 25th, Suite 800
	Portland, OR 97212
---
NuclEar weapons are the ultimate terror yet devised by humans.