[governance] Verisign to control what operating systems you can run on your computer

[parminder]

On Thursday 07 June 2012 06:47 PM, Kerry Brown wrote:
>
> The "feature" is called SecureBoot. SecureBoot is part of the UEFI 
> standards. Any OS can take advantage of it or not. It is up to the 
> manufacturer how they implement it. Both Dell and HP have said they 
> will have a BIOS setting to turn it on/off. AMI has indicated they 
> will recommend this to OEMs using the AMI BIOS. PC's shipped with 
> Windows 8 will default to on. If you want to install Linux you will 
> have to turn it off. The reason for it existing is to prevent root 
> kits. It appears that with Windows 8 tablets you may not be able to 
> disable this. That is unfortunate but it is the norm for tablets where 
> you usually have to install new firmware to install a different OS.
>
> I don't know what the fuss is.
>

The fuss is about the incremental but unmistakable manner in which the 
digital space/ opportunity is getting centralised, and tied to the 
control of a few global monopolies. This goes against the early 
egalitarian promise of a decentralised and bottom up architecture of the 
digital space/ opportunity. One can always argue that separately any of 
the individual steps in this direction is not by itself of such 
monumental significance, as you try to do, but their collective impact 
on our digital ecology is what should concern us all, that is we are 
indeed inclined to be so concerned. It is the separation of software 
from the hardware which is credited with starting the IT revolution. 
Shouldnt a process of reversal of such separation concern us.


parminder

> There is a lot of FUD about this.
>
> http://www.uefi.org/learning_center/UPFS11_P2_SecureBoot_Insyde.pdf
>
> Kerry Brown
>
> *From:* governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org 
> [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] *On Behalf Of *Jeremy 
> Malcolm
> *Sent:* June-06-12 11:32 PM
> *To:* governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> *Subject:* [governance] Verisign to control what operating systems you 
> can run on your computer
>
> There's been much disquiet on this list about the power that Verisign 
> has to delete domains from the Internet at the whim of US authorities.
>
> Potentially even more frightening, they will soon be able to decide 
> what operating system you may run on your computer.  PCs that are 
> certified for use with Windows 8 will, by default, refuse to run any 
> operating system that is not digitally signed by a Verisign-issued 
> certificate.  Even worse, the only certificates that hardware and 
> device manufacturers will recognise by default are Microsoft's.
>
> This leads to the absurd situation that even commercial vendors of 
> Linux, such as Red Hat, will be paying Verisign to attach a digital 
> signature from Microsoft's key-signing root to their versions of Linux 
> - otherwise they simply won't run at all.
>
> If that wasn't outrageous enough, consider the geopolitical 
> implications of this.  By virtue of US sanctions, Verisign will not 
> permit anyone from Cuba, Iran, Syria etc. to develop an operating 
> system (or even to distribute a version of Linux that they compile 
> from source) for users of Windows 8 certified computers.
>
> Why should it stop there?  A US court order might be obtained against 
> Verisign to prevent it from certifying China's Red Flag Linux, or 
> Russia's ALT Linux.  Billions of consumers could be forced into using 
> older or second-rate computers, or buying Microsoft's operating 
> system, because home-grown operating systems won't run.
>
> Will the IGC take a stand against this?
>
> -- 
>
> *Dr Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Policy Officer*
> Consumers International
> Kuala Lumpur Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
> Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, 
> Malaysia
> Tel: +60 3 7726 1599
>
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