Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’
These Boots Aren’t Made for Walkin’
“When done correctly, “Secure Boot” is designed to protect against malware by preventing computers from loading unauthorized binary programs when booting. In practice, this means that computers implementing it won’t boot unauthorized operating systems — including initially authorized systems that have been modified without being re-approved.
“This could be a feature deserving of the name, as long as the user is able to authorize the programs she wants to use, so she can run free software written and modified by herself or people she trusts. However, we are concerned that Microsoft and hardware manufacturers will implement these boot restrictions in a way that will prevent users from booting anything other than Windows. “
Although Microsoft’s “Secure Boot” purports to provide consumer security, it also imposes serious Digital Rights Restrictions (DRM). The Free Software Foundation has been running a campaign to oppose the Windows 8 Secure Boot which would impede or prevent users from choosing to load free software on computers that come loaded with Windows 8. Erik Steinman’s web comic (below) won the contest FSF ran to raise awareness of this very serious issue.
Ordinarily I try to confine articles I write about technology to either my TechDitz or interweb freedom blogs. But this issue is particularly important from a copyright standpoint.
free software
In Canada you can’t simply walk into Tiger Direct, Future Shop, Staples or even Canada Computers and buy a GNU/Linux computer system off the shelf. You’ll only find new computers preloaded with an Apple or Microsoft OS.
Canada Computers will sell you the components so you can build your own; and, like Tiger Direct or System 76, will sell you a customized computer with your choice of GNU/Linux software installed. It will necessarily cost more — after all, the empty device costs them more.
Apple manufactures its own devices, so it isn’t surprising Apple devices come loaded with Apple software. In Canada, Microsoft Windows is routinely preloaded on new computers built by the other manufacturers. Through Byzantine machinations that are far beyond my own rudimentary understanding of economics, a computer with no operating system at all costs more than than a computer pre-loaded with Windows. That’s just the way it is.
The last time we went shopping for a computer for my high school aged child, we brought along the free software of choice on a thumb drive, so we could test drive the computer with the intended OS. This would not be possible on a secure boot computer.
Presumably you could pay more to buy an empty box, but traditionally people simply buy computers encumbered with Microsoft’s OS and then either replace it with a GNU/Linux free software OS, or add it as a second OS. That’s how things stand on the netbook I’m writing this on. When I turn it on I get to decide if I want to boot with the pre-installed Windows 7 Light or the version of Ubuntu I’ve installed. I think I’ve opened Windows all of three or four times to let it update (and update, and update).
C-11 ~ Canada’s special circumstances
So what’s the big deal about the Microsoft “Secure Boot” ? Well, besides Apple computers, the only new computers Canadians will find on the retail shelves will be loaded with Windows 8.
DRM (Digital Restrictions Managemnt) — what they called TPMs (Technological Protection Measures) in Canada’s shiny new Copyright Act — is what makes it “Secure Boot” or “Restricted Boot” software.
Once Canada’s “modernized” Copyright Act goes into force, it will become illegal for Canadians to circumvent TPMs (DRM). Canadians who circumvent Microsoft’s Secure Boot TPMs by loading a free software Operating System on our own computers will be breaking the law.
This work by Erik Steinmann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Although most people reading this are likely to be old enough to remember it, the title of this article is a play on the title of Nancy Sinatra‘s “These Boots Are Made For Walking“
Legal Today, Not Tomorrow? ~ Bill C-11
Bill C-11, Canada’s so-called “Copyright Modernization Act” has passed second reading in the House of Commons and is now before the parliamentary committee.
Since I am preparing my debut novel for eBook release, I’m trying not to pay attention, yet I find myself reading Russell McOrmond’s Bill C-11 Legisative Committee coverage. Russell is both Live tweeting and blogging about each meeting day. This legislation is simply too important to ignore, not just for me, as a self publishing writer, but for Canada, and the heritage and culture that is so much a part of who we are.
I can’t actually watch the proceedings myself, even though they are being broadcast online by CPAC. Beginning with cable TV coverage, CPAC has provided Canadians with a ringside seat to Canadian parliamentary proceedure since 1992. The problem is that this video is provided onsite in Windows Media Player format.
Problem: In order to watch video in the proprietary Windows Media Player, you need to have Windows, and I don’t.
It seems I can’t watch the livestream of the actual parliamentary committee meetings because I have chosen to use free software. I don’t use Windows anymore, nor do I use any of the various Apple computers. My operating system on *this* computer is Ubuntu, and the one on my desktop computer is Trisquel.
But of course, that’s the point. Proprietary digital devices and content try to force the user to use the software or device specified by the manufacturer. Once you buy into any proprietary system, it is difficult to switch to another. In this case it’s Microsoft, although it could as easily be Apple, or Sony, or any one of a plethora of rich and powerful companies that make proprietary software and hardware.
And why not? Microsoft built the Windows Media Player, and they want people to use it in their operating system.
In the past, circumventing proprietary formats might have resulted in a voided warranty. But it seems to me that Bill C-11 will make it illegal.
I expect CPAC paid rather a lot to be able to license the Windows media player. But since Windows is still the dominant OS, it seems like a reasonable choice to reach the most people. And CPAC wants all Canadians to have access to the video they create. That’s what they do.
And CPAC understands, because it attempts to circumvent the problem by advising us to copy the link below the video into our own video player if we are having problems.
I tried that, but it didn’t work on either the Ubuntu Movie Player or Banshee Media Player. Even so, I wasn’t positive it was a proprietary issue the problem was until a friend tried to resolve it.
Apparently Flip4Mac WMV program converted the proprietary Windows video format to a proprietary Mac video format.
The other solution that CPAC offers is to use a program called VLC. Ironically I used that free software video player back when I still used Windows, but haven’t managed to get it to work in either of my gnu/linux machines.
The long and the short of it is that, because I am not able to run the proprietary Windows Media Player, I am effectively locked out of the digital government video CPAC routinely shares with Canadians.
An Illustration of Bill C-11
In a strange way this demonstrates why legal protection of TPMs — regardless of legality — is the central point of Bill C-11 that has Canadians concerned. As written, Bill C-11 would criminalize Canadians who circumvent TPMs (technical protection measures) even if we are legally entitled to access the content that is locked by these “digital locks”.
Although I’m neither a technical person or a lawyer, I think Bill C-11 would make software like the VLC player illegal in Canada because it circumvents proprietary TPMs.
And Bill C-11 will make both tools to circumvent and the act of circumvention of TPMs illegal.
It wouldn’t matter that CPAC wants to share their content with me, Microsoft would have to grant permission to convert proprietary formats into free formats, or else it would be illegal. Microsoft’s current policies indicate any such permission would be unlikely, but even if it did, the tools to circumvent the proprietary TPMs – like VLC – would be illegal, so I wouldn’t be able to do it anyway.
Lawyers like Michael Geist and Howard Knopf and tech folks like Russell McOrmond, Wayne Borean, Bob Jonkman and Cory Doctorow have said Bill C-11 would not be such a problem if TPM circumvention was only illegal if tied to copyright infringement.
the shape of things to come
But if they pass Bill C-11 as written, it will become illegal for Canadians to circumvent TPMs so we can watch our government in action. Or to back up our software, Or format shift so we can watch DVDs on MP3 players.
Depending on what TPMs manufacturers employ, it may become illegal to read public domain eBooks on our e-readers, or play DVDs that aren’t region encoded. Which would mean that independent film makers wouldn’t be able to put their original movies on DVDs. Independent musicians might be prevented from distributing their original work digitally. The range of consequences are appalling.
How long until it becomes illegal to load free software on our computers?
If Bill C-11 passes, not long at all.
[Edited for readability (replacing a bit of awkward phrasing) but content remains the same.]
Image credits
Screencap cc-by 1111aether
Against DRM cc-by Nina Paley
