TCPA: "Trusted" Computing Platform Alliance. Also known as Palladium, DRM, or "Fritz Chip" for Fritz Hollings.
Basically it's a way for the giant megakorporations to forcibly strip you of your right to use your own damn computer however you damn well please. This technology from Hell will become required in all computers under penalty of a giant fine ($500,000) or a long jail term (5 years) by a similarly diabolical bill called the CBDTPA, formerly the SSSCA bill.
In a nutshell, taken from the Against TCPA website.
As you can see, this shit is comparable to the Death Star from the viewpoint of the Rebels. Anyone who uses freeware, in fact, ANYONE who has any contact with computers at all will be detrimentally affected. The bill cannot pass. If it does, it is The End....# The informational self-determination isn't existing anymore, it's not possible to save, copy, create, program, ..., the data like you want. This applies for privates as for companies
# The free access to the IT/Software market is completely prevented for anyone except the big companies, the market as we know it today will get completely destroyed
# Restrictions in the usage of owned hardware would apply
# The liberty of opinion and the free speech on the internet would finally be eliminated
# The own rights while using IT-technologies are history.
# The national self-determination of the der particular countries would be fully in the hands of the USA
# Probably the world would break into two digital parts (Countries that express against TCPA)
