what a waste..

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Plans to build security features into personal computers to make unauthorised digital copying more difficult could backfire by strengthening controversial peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, say US researchers.

Peer-to-peer programs such as Kazaa and Morpheus let users scour each other's hard drives for music and other files though a decentralised network. The entertainment industry has targeted the companies behind these programs because many shared files are protected by copyright. But so far, it has proven difficult to eradicate the networks.

Security measures proposed by the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA), a consortium of software and hardware companies, would help tackle the problem by making copying more difficult. The proposed measures include cryptographic signatures embedded in hardware and software which many observers believe will be used to create new audio and video formats and players that will restrict copying. The plans are controversial because some believe it will take control of a computer away from its user.

But Michael Smith and colleagues from Harvard University in the US say the same TCPA technology could, ironically, be used to make file sharing networks more robust. Cryptographic signatures could be used to verify that clients on the network are trusted thereby preventing an outsider from creating a client designed to disrupt network traffic or to spy on users' sharing activities.

Copy control

The researchers say it will always be possible for a small number of people to copy content straight from a computer's output, using a high-quality microphone, for example. They say this makes controlling the distribution of content through peer-to-peer file networks crucial.

"The bar can never be made high enough such that content can't eventually be broken out of the locked box and placed in a free format that can be distributed around," Smith told New Scientist.

Open standard

Microsoft plans to release a version of the Windows operating system that will co-operate with this system but has promised to make this an open standard - one that anyone can use to write TCPA-compliant software.


Smith says, using open TCPA standards, software engineers could write peer-to-peer software that verifies that everyone on a network is trustworthy. "It would avoid scalable attacks where a little bit of work will let you pull down the network," he says.

The entertainment industry has already discussed using such measures, along with legal threats to disrupt peer-to-peer networks. Some companies have taken to uploading corrupted or incorrectly named files to these networks to make it harder for people to find music.

Chris Lightfoot, of the UK computer user lobby group Campaign for Digital Rights, says that providing the security standards are open, they could potentially be used in this way. He says: "Peer-to-peer technology has lots of legitimate applications and building robust networks to enable those applications is welcome."

But Lightfoot adds that TCPA technology could have serious implications for users' ability to use their computers as they wish. He says it could "stifle innovation, suppress open standards and create a serious invasion of privacy".

Will Knight