Locking down the edge of the network

[acb]

How about that? Howard Dean, the digerati's favourite US Presidential candidate, comes out in favour of "trusted computing", i.e., replacing these evil, pirate-friendly general-purpose computers we have today with closed, tamper-proof boxes that let you do only what the copyright industry agrees to. As if to prove that the main difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is that, where the former favour oil companies and military contractors, the latter favour Hollywood and the big 5 record labels.
(via Charlie Stross, who also has this essay about the looming potential of technologically-enabled totalitarianism.