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Clearly an attack on general purpose computing materialized, but it came about in a very different way from what was predicted here. If I had to summarize the o

by _23sd 4y ago

Clearly an attack on general purpose computing materialized, but it came about in a very different way from what was predicted here. If I had to summarize the overall thesis of the article it would be this: sectors of the economy other than the tech industry want computers to stop running programs that lose them money, and the government wants computers to stop running programs that break the law. In the future, with Hollywood as the vanguard, laws and regulations will stamp out general purpose computing and replace that model with more easily regulated computing appliances with a clearly defined purpose. To quote the article on how computers and an open internet would be stopped: >Regardless of whether you think [things like 3D printed guns] are real problems or hysterical fears, they are, nevertheless, the political currency of lobbies and interest groups far more influential than Hollywood and big content. Every one of them will arrive at the same place: “Can’t you just make us a general-purpose computer that runs all the programs, except the ones that scare and anger us? Can’t you just make us an Internet that transmits any message over any protocol between any two points, unless it upsets us?” I don't think that was an accurate prediction of the past 10 years. Hollywood lost the copyright wars: even the most locked down TV dongle will happily play pirated movies with the right apps, often available from the official app store. SOPA failed, and to this day the US is free from IP and domain blocking (though many other democratic countries are now under court ordered blocking regimes). UEFI didn't kill the freedom to run any OS on your PC. User-modifiable device firmware wasn't banned, and thanks to the right to repair movement the law is actually being used to open up devices. Instead, the threat to general purpose computing came from the tech industry itself: Apple, Google, and (to a lesser extent) Microsoft, the same companies that used their influence to kill SOPA, locked down devices and operating systems to protect their own profits, not to protect non-tech sectors or to appease regulators.

drewcoo 4y ago
> the government wants computers to stop running programs that break the law I thought the government was more concerned with surveillance than law-breaking programs. Or were you saying that they want us to stop running things like VPNs?
- _23sd 4y ago
  In the article Doctorow talks about both surveillance and regulatory concerns, like vehicle safety and the ability to create weapons with 3D printers. If there was a law requiring surveillance backdoors in operating systems (as he speculated repressive governments would enforce with UEFI) then both are about law-breaking programs.
  - GekkePrutser 4y ago
    The guns are really easily tackled though. Instead of restricting guns (and parts thereof), just restrict ammunition. I know some people can create ammo but they need the casings which could also be restricted. And really, whoever wants to can create a weapon from a few pipes and other easily fabricated parts. Shinzo Abe's murderer did just that. 3D printers are not gamechangers here. They just make things a little easier.
    - blep_ 4y ago
      (I know almost nothing about guns and this comment is not advocating for any specific policy) > they need the casings which could also be restricted Are casings particularly hard to make? It seems like anyone with the tools and skills to make a gun from parts could also make little cylinders that fit in that gun. Or just do the cannon thing, have a vaguely spherical ball and some explosive stuff packed behind it.
      - bombcar 4y ago
        Casings can be reused and reloaded to make new bullets. And you could build a black-powder gun that might be a bit less accurate but would involve nothing really traceable.
        GekkePrutser 4y ago
        Yeah perhaps in the US this might not work. I was thinking more of europe where even ammunition isn't readily available to buy already (and people don't have stockpiles except highly regulated sportshooters). But I thought the part where the firing pin hits the cartridge gets damaged and the primer there isn't easily replaced. I'm probably wrong, I never even held a real gun.
tinus_hn 4y ago
> UEFI didn't kill the freedom to run any OS on your PC. With the new Secure Boot rules this ‘goal’ is ever closer. By default, new computers must now only boot the Microsoft boot loader, which can only boot Windows. https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/60248.html https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/60248.html
- _23sd 4y ago
  The worry with secure boot would be manufacturers taking away the ability to manage/disable it on consumer devices. This rule doesn't seem to get any closer to that scenario, it's a change in the default configuration of "secured core" systems marketed for enterprise use. Secure boot can still be managed or disabled, and the change only impacts big Linux distros that got MS to sign their bootloaders. For the general case of being able to run any OS it's been necessary to go into BIOS settings since computers started shipping with secure boot by default around the time of Windows 10 release.
  - tinus_hn 4y ago
    Any unsigned OS perhaps but they could still run the signed operating systems they can now no longer run, like the Ubuntu releases.
nunez 4y ago
> I don't think that was an accurate prediction of the past 10 years. Hollywood lost the copyright wars: even the most locked down TV dongle will happily play pirated movies with the right apps Did they? Remember how "music lockers" like Google Play Music and the original incantation of Amazon Music, used to be a thing? Yeah, Big Music killed that. The closest thing we have now is music matching services that will happily nuke your music when the publisher delists those compositions for whatever reason. Plex and the like make organizing and consuming pirated movies easy, but finding the source of those movies is still not trivial, and people _still_ get scary emails from their ISPs if they detect that enough of your traffic is being used for this purpose. The Netflix app does not allow AirPlay (used to) or Bluetooth streaming (also used to). It's still very much a cat and mouse game, and the cat is getting smarter every day.

by _23sd 4y ago

drewcoo 4y ago

> the government wants computers to stop running programs that break the law I thought the government was more concerned with surveillance than law-breaking programs. Or were you saying that they want us to stop running things like VPNs?

_23sd 4y ago
In the article Doctorow talks about both surveillance and regulatory concerns, like vehicle safety and the ability to create weapons with 3D printers. If there was a law requiring surveillance backdoors in operating systems (as he speculated repressive governments would enforce with UEFI) then both are about law-breaking programs.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  The guns are really easily tackled though. Instead of restricting guns (and parts thereof), just restrict ammunition. I know some people can create ammo but they need the casings which could also be restricted. And really, whoever wants to can create a weapon from a few pipes and other easily fabricated parts. Shinzo Abe's murderer did just that. 3D printers are not gamechangers here. They just make things a little easier.
  - blep_ 4y ago
    (I know almost nothing about guns and this comment is not advocating for any specific policy) > they need the casings which could also be restricted Are casings particularly hard to make? It seems like anyone with the tools and skills to make a gun from parts could also make little cylinders that fit in that gun. Or just do the cannon thing, have a vaguely spherical ball and some explosive stuff packed behind it.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      Casings can be reused and reloaded to make new bullets. And you could build a black-powder gun that might be a bit less accurate but would involve nothing really traceable.
      - GekkePrutser 4y ago
        Yeah perhaps in the US this might not work. I was thinking more of europe where even ammunition isn't readily available to buy already (and people don't have stockpiles except highly regulated sportshooters). But I thought the part where the firing pin hits the cartridge gets damaged and the primer there isn't easily replaced. I'm probably wrong, I never even held a real gun.

tinus_hn 4y ago

> UEFI didn't kill the freedom to run any OS on your PC. With the new Secure Boot rules this ‘goal’ is ever closer. By default, new computers must now only boot the Microsoft boot loader, which can only boot Windows. https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/60248.html https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/60248.html

_23sd 4y ago
The worry with secure boot would be manufacturers taking away the ability to manage/disable it on consumer devices. This rule doesn't seem to get any closer to that scenario, it's a change in the default configuration of "secured core" systems marketed for enterprise use. Secure boot can still be managed or disabled, and the change only impacts big Linux distros that got MS to sign their bootloaders. For the general case of being able to run any OS it's been necessary to go into BIOS settings since computers started shipping with secure boot by default around the time of Windows 10 release.
- tinus_hn 4y ago
  Any unsigned OS perhaps but they could still run the signed operating systems they can now no longer run, like the Ubuntu releases.

nunez 4y ago

> I don't think that was an accurate prediction of the past 10 years. Hollywood lost the copyright wars: even the most locked down TV dongle will happily play pirated movies with the right apps Did they? Remember how "music lockers" like Google Play Music and the original incantation of Amazon Music, used to be a thing? Yeah, Big Music killed that. The closest thing we have now is music matching services that will happily nuke your music when the publisher delists those compositions for whatever reason. Plex and the like make organizing and consuming pirated movies easy, but finding the source of those movies is still not trivial, and people _still_ get scary emails from their ISPs if they detect that enough of your traffic is being used for this purpose. The Netflix app does not allow AirPlay (used to) or Bluetooth streaming (also used to). It's still very much a cat and mouse game, and the cat is getting smarter every day.