Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!

Daniel Phillips
2003-04-24T18:17:39Z

On Thu 24 Apr 03 05:59, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> ...I wanted to bring this out in the open,
> because I know there are people who think that signed binaries are an act
> of "subversion" (or "perversion") of the GPL, and I wanted to make sure
> that people don't live under mis-apprehension that it can't be done.

Open source + Linux + DRM could be used to solve the Quake client-side
cheating problem:

http://catb.org/~esr/writings/quake-cheats.html

To join a game, you'd have to be able to prove you're running code that is
secure all the way from boot to reboot, where everything from network driver
to physics engine is known to be compiled from open source that all
participants agree is good. You could call this a "white hat" use of DRM.
It's strictly voluntary and nothing mysterious takes over your computer - no
spyware, no trojans. Just Linux, drivers, and the game.

Granted, this is a pretty theoretical application. Just because of the sheer
amount of work needed to put all the pieces in in place, DRM will actually be
used a lot more for what is really easy: trampling on fair use rights. But
it's not like fair use isn't already being trampled upon, without the aid of
DRM.

The point of this is that, to be maximally effective, DRM wants to be coupled
with open source: with just DRM and no open source, there's no way to achieve
the same level of trust. So there is a silver lining, even in this rotten,
stinking cloud.

Regards,

Daniel