Xref: utzoo comp.arch:7914 comp.edu:1901 comp.misc:4742 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!ncar!mailrus!chablis!shane From: shane@chablis.cc.umich.edu (Shane Looker) Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.edu,comp.misc Subject: Re: built-in security features Keywords: computer security, network security Message-ID: <872@mailrus.cc.umich.edu> Date: 18 Jan 89 16:27:53 GMT References: <8846@nsc.nsc.com> <5995@polya.Stanford.EDU> <1804@maccs.McMaster.CA> Sender: usenet@mailrus.cc.umich.edu Reply-To: shane@chablis.cc.umich.edu (Shane Looker) Organization: University of Michigan Computing Center, Ann Arbor Lines: 30 In article <1804@maccs.McMaster.CA> nusip@maccs.UUCP (Mike Borza) writes: :In article <5995@polya.Stanford.EDU> andy@Gang-of-Four.Stanford.EDU (Andy Freeman) writes: :>In article <8846@nsc.nsc.com> roger@nsc.nsc.com (Roger Thompson) writes: :> :>The world does change. Some time before the IBM-PC was introduced, :>"someone" suggested anti- software piracy features to Intel. The :>basic idea was to have dealers trap-door encrypt code, using a : :While the details are somewhat hazy now, I believe that HP did sell :some systems with a similar scheme, whereby a system call or dedicated :read-only memory location was available to software to verify that the :software was running on a CPU for which it was licensed. As I recall, :the scheme was quickly abandoned for a variety of reasons, not least :of which was the potential liability if a legally-licensed user had to :replace the CPU. : :mike borza If I remember correctly, the Apple Lisa used a scheme where, when software was originally run on a machine, it registered the CPU number. You then could not use the software on any other Lisa. Needless to say, software was forever getting corrupted or breaking in some way, and a new version couldn't be installed for a while. (This was in a semi-public lab.) No wonder those machines never flew... Shane Looker | Looker@um.cc.umich.edu America works less, when you say "Union Yes!"