Mac OS/Mac Hardware and TCPA

[Duane Attaway]

On Sun, 1 Sep 2002, Aldis A. Tuck wrote:

> I was just curious, doesn't Mac basically build their
> own hardware/software.  I beleive They use some sort
> of Motarolla CPU?  How will the TCPA effect them since
> they've always been set apart from Microsoft and
> Intel?
> What other entities have their own setups seperate
> from Microsoft and how will the TCPA effect them.

The TCPA is such a silly concept, it would be a comedy to see it become 
reality.

Consider the wide variety of PDA's, industrial computers, embedded
computers, and other strange configurations of "personal computers."  
There is so much diversity in the microprocessor and peripheral market,
such a law would be impossible to impliment.  

Its technically unfeasable to enforce digital rights management on such
devices as a FGPA, DSP, PIC, or other programmable processing devices.  
It would be like making a law that we could not talk to each other without
government approval as we might be spreading terrorist information.

To actually pull this off would be silly.  It would be an engineering
nightmare and close the market to those who have the patentable technology
to pull this off.  Read this as the companies who own the patents will be
the ones making ALL of your electronic devices.  Yes, those chips inside
the microwave oven can be reprogrammed to make your basic computer...