Stefek Zaba's rebuttal

Ross Anderson Ross.Anderson at cl.cam.ac.uk
Thu Jun 27 20:57:44 EDT 2002


Stefek says that TCPA is a purely protective technical measure, and
that my claims about it are `far-fetched imagining'. He denies that it
was started as a DRM play. Yet the DRM aim was admitted to me in April
by a serior Intel person, and has since been confirmed by Bill Gates
himself in the Palladium release.

I've known Stefek for years, and despite his inaccurate and abusive
post I am not claiming that he deliberately lied to us - merely that
if HP sees this as a pure technical security play, you'd better sell
their stock, as they are amazingly less sophisticated about
information goods and services markets than other consortium members.
(The other HP labs person to whom I talked in the course of my
investigations was similarly uninformed about basic economics.)

Sometimes it may suit managers to keep technical staff in the dark
about the business plays behind technical initiatives. However, it is
not in the interest of technical staff to allow themselves to work on
projects with whose goals, once revealed, they and their friends may
have a moral objection. It can damage relationships and impair CVs.

Starting in November, I'm going to be teaching a course in economics
and law to second year comp sci undergraduates at Cambridge. That's
how important I think an understanding of these issues is - it should
be a mandatory part of the undergraduate curriculum. If you need a
quick introduction to the subject as it relates to things like software
and compatibility, I'd recommend Shapiro and Varian, `Information Rules'

Ross



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