Omniscience Protocol

solidox writes "There is a new RFC discussing the Omniscience Protocol. It proposes that every computer be installed with an OP Client which would allow law enforcement ('Good guys.') and copyright holders (RIAA, MPAA) to remotely destroy the computer of any user who has been involved in copyright infringement ('evil-doer'). The client will be completely undetectable and unremovable by even the most skilled hacker. It also must be able to report to the server at any time. 'The OP must be able to communicate through uncooperative firewalls, NATs, and when the computer is disconnected from the Internet.' So if your computer randomly blows up in the next while, you can put the blame on this."

Re:goddamn, this isn't FUNNY, it's STUPID!

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't seem to understand what it means to protect freedom of speech. As soon as you say "well, it's ok that goatse.cx was censored, since it only has a gross picture", you have opened the flood gates. Now you have to ask yourself, what else is it ok to censor?

That's an example of the "slippery slope" fallacy. You have no evidence that the suppression of goatse will lead to a repressive online regime. So you can't use that as an excuse to mourn its passing; it is only legitimate to mourn the passing of goatse if you seriously believe that every form of expression should be protected.

Let's try an analogy - if I raped your daughter, and posted pictures of the crime on the web, would you say it's okay for me to be prosecuted for the rape, but my right to free speech means nobody should have the power to take the pictures down?

They don't need Palladium for that

[SanityInAnarchy]

Actually, all they need to do is send out a "security update" -- which they are allowed to install on your computer without notice from you -- wich accidently-on-purpose destroys it. They can't be held liable -- after all, didn't you read the license agreement which says there's no warrenty? It was a bug, which they are not liable for...

And btw, Palladium is all they need to force the issue, because Palladium prevents you from installing the kind of software that would counteract that -- because it might cause problems with copyright. This includes Linux, afaik -- you honestly can't expect me to ask Microsoft to sign every kernel build I make?

Unless these "features" can be turned off, for the record, I will use this machine until it rusts before I buy something which will not let me run Linux.