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Congress Plans DMCA Sequel: The SSSCA
Declan McCullagh writes: "If you thought the DMCA was a nightmare, wait 'til you find out what Congress is planning this fall. The sequel is called the "Security Systems Standards and Certification Act," and it requires PCs and consumer electronic devices to support "certified security technologies" to be approved by the Commerce Department. Backers of the SSSCA include Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), who heads the powerful Senate Commerce committee, and, reportedly, Disney. Wired News has a report, and I've placed the SSSCA draft text (new! more criminal penalties!) online here. D'ya think that maybe Congress doesn't like OSS very much?" This is only a draft, not even introduced as a bill yet, but it sends chills down my spine - this is the big one. If passed, it would require all personal computers to have digital rights management built in, under penalty of law.
Think abut it for a second. Why wouldn't you want digital rights management built into your computer equipment? What? Oh - you want to play your DVD's one Linux. Get a decent operating system, one where you have to PAY for your right to use the stuff you buy.
What? You think, you should be allowed to do what you want, with the stuff that you own? Get real - this is the 21st century - you can't just do stuff, because you want to. What's next? You don't want to pay for using your computer? What are you? Some kind of communist?
(Yes - that was sarcasm)
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
...when Linux is outlawed, only outlaws will run Linux.
"As far as I know there have been very few complaints from intellectual property holders," [Rep. Howard] Coble, the chief sponsor of the DMCA, said in an interview Tuesday.
That's like saying there were very few complaints from whites in the south about Jim Crow laws...
"Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs" -- author unknown
Just what everyone wants, I'm sure: Demand remains high, supply is cut dramatically, prices soar, youths mug people or hold up liquor stores to raise the cash, all the jackals move in to the black-market cash-opportunity they see gathering, and pretty soon gangs are slaughtering each other on the streets over non-Compliant hard drives. Customs officials sieze 400 gigs of Class A disk space (est. street value: $500,000).
The Government then runs Public Service announcements: "PIRACY KILLS" "MP3: JUST SAY NO" "WINNERS DON'T USE NONCOMPLIANT HARDWARE DEVICES" "FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS COPY MOVIES". They also offer tax rebates and other cash benefits to television shows and movies who include significantly pro-Digital Rights Management plotlines in their work.
In the summer movie, "Gone at 60kb/s", Nick Cage has to pirate an unprecedented number of other summer movies in one night in order to save his brother's life; in the more thoughtful "TCP/IP Traffic", Michael Douglas finds himself sucked into the seedy world of P2P after his teenage daughter is involved in a DVD-related incident, the story expertly interwoven with that of Open Source programmers working across the border, trying to stay true to their goals despite their lack of Compliance, trying to maintain their idealism in the face of a lead programmer who secretly is working for a reverse-engineering cartel.
New search-and-seizure laws are drafted to fight the War On Piracy, in order to Clean Up Our Streets And Save Our Children From Evil. All laptop computers are spot-checked at airports and potential employees are asked to undergo a hard-drive scan to ensure they are not "using".
Caffiene mints, copyleft t-shirts, and any item bearing a penguin logo are banned from COMDEX and any other gathering of software developers under Cracking House laws. These things are sure signs of illegal activity.
Far-fetched? Facetious? A little of both. But the general principles have been shown to hold true in the past, repeatedly.
Whee!
Write Disnay and say you will boycott all their products. Also write them and say that if this law passes, you will dedicate your time to undermine Disney profits.
You will set up picket lines at the local movie theatre.
You will call your cable provider and unsubscribe to all Disney channels.
You will submit reader letters and articles to the print press.
You will call the IRS as a whistleblower, claiming that Disney is committing tax fraud.
You will harrass Disney executuves by starting fake rumors about sex scandals, tax fraud, securities fraud.
Keep it up, and they may admit that the constitution has some merits after all.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
I am very very frightened about the fact that whatever that group of software giants is called (the one w/MS and Adobe, etc) has such influence over government.
We elected these idiots to protect *us* not them!
I beg to diff. That group of software giants paid millions of perfectly good dollars to buy legislation to protect them!
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Where have you been? What the hell do you think /. is for? I'm sick of people like you complaining about complainers complaining on a website designed for complaining. Quit complaining and start complaining!
Personal Copyright Enhancement is doubleplusgood :)
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
> And while it may make you sick to vote for a republican (or a
> democrat) they're your best bet for getting the current guys
> kicked out. Better that then wasting your vote on some guy from
> the nipplebiter party who will only get 3 votes in the election.
> -- Greyfox
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No", said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. "Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd", said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did", said Ford. "It is."
"So", said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them", said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes", said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But", said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
- Douglas Adams, So long, and thanks for all the fish
"It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it." - Eugene Debs
CowboyNeal for president!
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