Re: LCC and blobs

[Brian Thomas Sniffen <bts@alum.mit.edu>]

Måns Rullgård <mru@inprovide.com> writes:

> Brian Thomas Sniffen <bts@alum.mit.edu> writes:
>
>>> Can a company release an encrypted CD, so that it's as difficult to
>>> modify the firmware on CD as it is in a chip, and then have it
>>> count as part of the hardware?
>>
>> No, that's not hardware.  That's an encrypted CD.  That, and the DRM
>> approach below, are just various forms of non-free software.  The
>> difference with a chip on a card is not that it's difficult to modify,
>> but that it's not treatable as software!  I can't open it in Emacs, so
>> it isn't software.
>
> You can pull the chip from the socket, copy the contents to disk,
> and

I probably can't.  No good with that sort of thing.  Software on disk
is software.  Also, I could pull  the Pentium off my motherboard, scan
its contents to disk, and open that in any editor I like -- right?

> open it with any editor you like.  The chip can also be rewritten.
> Where is the fundamental difference from a device where the firmware
> is written with the chip in its socket?

Before I believe your definition or put too much thought into
considering it, please explain why it isn't a complete destruction of
the line between software and hardware.

-Brian

-- 
Brian Sniffen                                       bts@alum.mit.edu