[Zope] Zope killed by TCPA?

[Philip Kilner]

Hi Rob,

In article <3E189883.8060900@yahoo.co.uk>, Rra42 wrote:
> As someone who makes a living from coding zope/python, I don't think it 
> is wrong for me to solicit the views of the zope community on how 
> something like TCPA will impact zope.
> 

I agree!

> Following your comment:
> 
>  > But as I said before, the TCPA sais that this description of how it's
>  > supposed to work is incorrect.
> 
> I have tried to find resources on the web to show how TCPA and open 
> source tools like zope/python will co-exist. The best I could find was 
> from www.trustedpc.org (item 24 in the TPM FAQ pdf document) which 
> didn't give much detail.
> 

I think the status of this info has a lot to do with how far away in 
philosophy these two initaitives are from each other. It's almost like 
wondering why there are no good Vegan black-pudding recipes (For those not 
fortunate enough to live in the North of England, Black Pudding = a blood 
pudding). I doubt that proponents of TP inititives want to complicate their 
propositions by addressing OS s/w, or that proponents of OS s/w theirs by 
addressing TP.

> If you have a web reference you could share that counters the alarming 
> descriptions of the likely effect of TCPA/Palladium on open source tools 
> such as Zope/Python I and I am sure others would take great comfort from 
> it as Zope/Python are terrific tools and we would like to be able to 
> speak to clients with confidence about the future of these great products.
>

Of course, there is no reason why code cannot be signed or unsigned code 
cannot be sand-boxed in some way.

*HOWEVER*, I have to take the view that - specifically in the context of 
clients choosing an application for use in the forseebale future - TP in all 
it's forms is wholly fictional!

It doesn't exist right now, and the needs of TP are such that it challenges 
just about every platform and protocol in common use. On the platform side I 
would think that script engine based platforms are under threat because of 
the "promiscuous" way in which script engines run scripts (!), technologies 
such as .NET and Java because TP must be engineered in from day one and 
there is no route from what we have today to a TP-compliant implementation 
of these technologies. I would imagine you could kiss goodbye to C & C++ for 
the same reasons - wouldn't we be looking for something more like ADA? On 
the protocol side, the protocols in use today allow expoits that challenge 
TP, and many of these protocols might be incompatible with any sort of 
"pure" TP concepts.

I feel very strongly that there are more immediate things to worry about 
before this is a commercial issue. May I ask, are you thinking ahead here, 
of is your concern based on feedback from clients or prospects?

Regards,

PhilK

Sun, 05 Jan 2003 23:22 GMT  @ Vaio

Email: phil@xfr.co.uk / Voicemail & Facsimile: 07092 070518

Tell me and I forget.
Show me and I remember.
Involve me and I understand.
 - Chinese saying