HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from Trusted Computing? Yes or No Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Trusted Computing? Yes or No

Robin Good
Explainers
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this explainer1 month2014–2023 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited as an easy-to-understand framing of trusted computing and TPMs as tools that can treat users as threats.

A four-minute 2006 explainer on trusted computing, describing what it is and whether users should support it, with a skeptical DRM angle.

“Here it's put in easy to understand terms” (HN, 2014)

1 recommendations · 2 citations · 1 critical · Explainers · intro · partly dated

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@shmerl Jun 2014 Recommends
on HN thread Netflix Could Be Classified As a 'Cybersecurity Threat' Under New CISPA Rules
Read more
It's really simple. Trust is a mutual relation. I.e. since DRM always views users as potential criminals, it's natural always to view DRM as potential malware (and thus a security threat). Here it's put in easy to understand terms: [this video] Practice proves that point spectacularly, because DRM always has an overreaching unethical nature (since it's an overreaching preemptive policing which uses the logic of presumption of guilt). As the Sony exec voiced the core idea behind DRM: > We will develop technology that transcends the individual user. We will firewall Napster at source - we will block it at your cable company. We will block it at your phone company. We will block it at your ISP. We will firewall it at your PC... These strategies are being aggressively pursued because there is simply too much at stake. (See [link] ). I.e. overreaching nature of DRM straight from the DRM proponents mouth. And it applies to all DRM by its very definition.
Explains why DRM and trusted computing treat users as threats.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@shmerl Jul 2014 Cites it
on HN thread How to prevent screenshots in a web browser
Read more
> "Digital Rights Management" -- you know, words mean something. They mean what they were designed for. And that is excessive preemptive policing. About "trusted execution" you are wrong. Original meaning of trusted execution is exactly about security, not about DRM. Actual usage of that term is more than often happens to be about DRM (which is conflicting with security actually, because DRM can be viewed as a security risk). See [this video] If you constantly mix up security, authentication, trusted execution with DRM, I think you should consider your own level of knowing what you are talking about. I explained everything above.
Trusted computing is often about DRM, conflicting with security.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close