Fahrenheit 451
April 26, 2004
In recent days I had written a page about the "Brain-Debaser" machine, otherwise known as television. I thought the third world war had already begun—the war over information and disinformation.
In fact, speaking for myself, the period 2002–2003–2004 was a kind of turning point. I first realized that justice was not justice, but that this institution could serve liars and help them condemn their own victims. This has been confirmed in other cases discussed on my website. I believe it's a meaningless cliché to say that the political class, across all spectrums, has completely lost credibility. The Socialists were in power when the genocide in Rwanda occurred, and we are only now learning, eight years later, that the Mitterrand government was deeply involved.
We no longer entertain illusions—neither about the "left," nor about the "right" or the "center." I recall a joke made by my old friend Vladimir Golubev, a pioneer of MHD, at a time when we were still in the middle of the Cold War:
In your country, it's man exploiting man. Well, in ours, it's the opposite.
Another moment of awakening came with the fantastic Arte program "Thema" broadcast on April 13, 2004, presenting the dossier titled "September 11 Never Happened": our trust in the media is dead—completely and irreversibly.
For me, it died that day. Readers sent me a copy of this film. I would need someone skilled in digitizing this document, so we could cut it into short segments. We could then produce a special edition equivalent to a "hors série" of the program "Arrêt sur Image," where a journalist is supposed to critically analyze television. But we now know this program-alibi is as fake as all the others. Proof: don't expect the journalist to dissect the Arte broadcast—no one can saw off the branch they're sitting on.
In our previous dossier, we had asked whether, in the near future, we might have to manage information in a "wild" way, bypassing journalists altogether, since they have become incapable of doing their job. All journalists sit on ejectable seats, leashed by their editors, who themselves are controlled by other political or financial powers. Some (for example, on Arte) are allowed to pretend to produce "hot news" to give us the illusion of a free press. But we've seen that this is merely a way to better conceal other topics. So how can information ever circulate freely? Not through the Internet. See the dossier discussing the first ADSL wiretaps carried out in Belgium in April 2004. It was on that day I decided to gather under one single dossier the various topics related to "Big Brother."
I thought the CD-ROM might be an effective communication tool, given the available storage capacity (700 megabytes). With a computer, a burner, and a few software programs, it would be possible to distribute information endlessly reproducible. But reader Hervé Desrue reminded me of reality. Things are actually far worse than we can imagine. For this, readers may consult the following documents, which I recommend:
http://www.lebars.org/sec/tcpa-faq.fr.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.fr.html
Please consult these documents, educate yourselves. You will return utterly stunned. I will now try to provide a brief summary of the key ideas.
All the technologies already exist that could enable the establishment of a vast digital-repressive arsenal. Take, for example, hacking. A few years ago, a company imagined the following: if software or a file were hacked, the document or medium in question would contain the ability to... erase your hard drive. There was a lawsuit. This measure was banned because "it was considered that individuals or societies should not take justice into their own hands." That said, hacking has grown to fantastic proportions since the advent of burners. Targets: software, music, anything...
How, in today's world, can laws be enforced when everyone breaks them? The only thing that has been done so far is to crack down, as an example, on those who trade in hacking. But the truly effective method is the "Fritz" chip. This is a "surveillance and alert component" soldered onto the motherboard, which computer giants wish to implant in future PCs. Fritz activates when your machine starts up. It checks the state of your operating system and runs it. Then it verifies that your computer does not contain pirated software, that your serial numbers are valid, and that your subscriptions are up to date. If not, an order to erase such software is issued. This is... legal. You are a... lawbreaker.
Fritz is part of a project developed by Intel called TCPA: "Trusted Computing Platform Alliance." The document translates this as "Alliance for Trusted Computing." I believe this translation is inaccurate. Readers more fluent in English may suggest better alternatives. Personally, I would translate it as:
A system designed to verify that the way you use your computer complies with existing laws and rules.
This falls within the framework of digital rights management: "digital rights management." But in this world, who isn't breaking the rules? Palladium is the version developed by Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, who "dreams of making the Chinese pay." Indeed, if everyone were to actually pay for what they use, software providers would become fabulously wealthy. They dream of earning even greater profits. And yet, they are already feasting.
The TCPA systems, Palladium, and the Fritz chip have unlimited power. The only thing restraining them are current laws. But these laws could easily be changed under pretexts such as fighting child pornography, terrorism, or piracy. If we open this door even slightly, Big Brother enters your home. He has multiple entry points. One of them is the structure of the Windows operating system. Have you noticed how, from time to time, Windows announces:
"Downloading updates."
A seemingly harmless message. The same goes for Norton messages that download new viruses. For now, your computers remain relatively free. But Windows is threatened by "free software" like Linux. Files in .doc format can be read by pirated versions of word processors, but also by free, open-source word processors. Technically, Microsoft has the means to lock its customers into a galaxy from which nothing can enter or exit. For example, documents created with Microsoft's word processor could no longer be read by a "free" word processor. Things go even further. Please consult the documents cited. Everything is conceivable. Text documents can be marked in ways that would render...