Microsoft only announced Palladium -- its initiative to build anti-copying technology into the hardware and operating system of a PC -- a few months ago. It's already causing a great deal of consternation within the cypherpunk and hacker communities.

But a comment by Peter Biddle, Microsoft's Product Manager for Palladium at the 11th USENIX Security Symposium this past August revealed that software companies might not be able to use Palladium to fight piracy or enforce the terms of software licenses.

Eager to allay fears about the scope of Palladium, Biddle insisted that the impetus behind Palladium was solely to secure digital entertainment content and that he knew of no way that it could be used for the enforcement of software licensing. This assurance was made while he spoke on a panel at the USENIX Symposium.

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