A ReactOS developer and first year student of bachelor's degree in software engineering Alex Ionescu [1] from Canada has blogged about a way to bypass the PMP (Protected Media Path), a DRM technique used in Windows Vista. Read the blog here [2]
I'm not convinced that putting Winduhs down is the right way to go about promoting freedom and/or free software. What does the list think?
i agree.
Instead of harping on Winduhs' weaknesses, maybe we should be talking
about how it takes freedom away and entraps users.
agreed.
In fact i did some reading on the guy Alex Ionescu, he started out with DOS 4.0(majored in Hex editing) later adopted the windoze family and saw *nix's in between. Based on his history, he was and is majorly into win32 kernel stuff.
Another angle on the same is that reverse engineering windoze is against the law(as one has signed the EULA during the install) and could probably land the person concerned up in jail. Should we be breaking the law even if it is for exposing cracks in an already broken system? Probably not, to quote RMS on the same ``breaking an agreement even for preventing a bad thing is NOT good".
Anyway there are enough high priority GNU and other Free Software projects out there. Personally i would NEVER want to go on a windoze box EVER. Even if it were just for idle curiosities.
Regards,
- vihan
2007/2/1, Vihan Pandey vihanpandey@gmail.com:
I'm not convinced that putting Winduhs down is the right way to go about promoting freedom and/or free software. What does the list think?
Embedding DRM into Vista is a defect by design and I think we need to educate users about the bad effects in vista.
Hacker = concerned & technology-aware Hackers have the responsibility to learn, evaluate and eventually report https://foss.in/2006/cfp/slides/2006-11-26-creative_chaos-tim_pritlove-foss....
It is our responsibility to evaluate Windows Vista and report to the public about the malicious features and make them aware of it.
Instead of harping on Winduhs' weaknesses, maybe we should be talking
about how it takes freedom away and entraps users.
Hackers have a social responsibility to evaluate technology and report.
Another angle on the same is that reverse engineering windoze is against the law
Reverse engineering is legal
http://www.chillingeffects.org/reverse/faq.cgi#QID195 (US law)
And if I remember correctly Sunil Abraham said Reverse engineering is legal as per Indian Copyright law in his foss.in talk http://foss.in/2005/schedules/talkdetails.php?talkcode=G1530043
(as one has signed the EULA during the install) and could probably land
the person concerned up in jail. Should we be breaking the law even if it is for exposing cracks in an already broken system?
http://www.chillingeffects.org/reverse/faq.cgi#QID208 It depends
Probably not, to quote RMS
on the same ``breaking an agreement even for preventing a bad thing is NOT good".
"If the court determines that the contract provisions contain an "extra element" that require analysis of the contract to be preempted by copyright law, the courts generally proceed to an analysis of the possible infringement or exemption under fair use of the activities of the reverse engineer."
http://www.chillingeffects.org/reverse/faq.cgi#QID208
Anyway there are enough high priority GNU and other Free Software projects out there.
Everyone has their own priorities, as long as it is ethical and respecting the users freedom we shouldn't have anything against it.
Cheers Praveen
-
Vihan Pandey -
പ്രവീ ണ്| Praveen എ|A