Slashdot Mirror
Senator Hollings and the SSSCA
An Anonymous Coward writes: "You probably suspected some sort of "follow the money" thing was behind Sen. Fritz Hollings' support of SSSCA, the draft bill that would make using 'any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies' illegal in the U.S. This proposed law could effectively outlaw Linux and most Open Source software, depending on how judges interpret it. A NewsForge story details where Sen. Hollings' money comes from. Guess what? His biggest contributors are entertainment industry companies, their lawyers, and their lobbyists. The story also says Hollings and his staff refused to comment on the bill, and staffers the reporter talked to refused to even give their names." Newsforge and Slashdot are both part of VA Linux.
Let his identity be stolen, he might change his tune about personal privacy.
-
Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it. - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
We can't let the same thing that happened with the DMCA happen with this law: the geeks of the world need to, just for a moment, crawl out of their holes and write to the folks in congress. Yes, we're not a megacorporation unto ourselves -- but we do have money, and we vote.
With the DMCA, most senators didn't even realize that anybody was even opposed to this law. That can't happen again.
You can find your representatives online.
_________________________
Should the US fight terrorism with terrorism?
againstrevenge.org
First of all, Linux/FreeBSD/GPL software is so prevelant in todays society that this bill will be entirely inneffective. The amount of money spent to enforce it will seriously compromise its legitimacy.
secondly, if this bill *does* pass, technology that is affected will not only go over the border to Europe and Canada, but law enforcement officials in the USA will have to deal with it much the same way as Canadian officials deal with marijuana. No prosecution for possession. The cost to prosecute will be enormous. They will try to make examples of ppl trying to distribute it, but since most distribution will be done outside of the US, the bill will be as impotent as a 3 Mile Island employee........
Just a few rambling thoughts.....
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
I have to admit I have never heard about this SSSCA thing before.
you must have missed this story on slashdot then.
-sam
The REAL sam_at_caveman_dot_org is user ID 13833.
It sounds like a "Only in America" story - what do you americans think, does something like this have a realistic change of going through? And if something like that goes through, is there any reason to stay in that country any more.
A lot of people said that about the DMCA, and a lot of those people are still living in America.
This isn't like boycotting a certain piece of software because you don't like the EULA (as discussed earlier today in the frontpage story)- moving to a different country is a bit more difficult.
I could imagine something like this passing - afterall, this is a nation that wants to fight terrorists with counter-terrorism!
___
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
Let's not jump to conclusions. The poster is comitting the logical intent fallacy, because we can never truely know the intent of the senator. Humans often act contrary to how their enviornment around them would make you believe they would.
Additionally, we should have a little more faith in our system. I have no problem with the congressman presenting this bill, because I have good faith that one of two things will happen: 1) a majority of other congressmen(and women) will see this type of legislation as being a violation of indiviudal liberties and vote aginst it, or 2) this would get struct down by the Supreme Court.
Now, it is possible that out system will fail. And I'm ready to move to a little island somewhere in the Bahamas. But let's not freak out yet. What we can do is:
1) Public protests in large numbers - the media loves to cover stuff like that
2) Mail, not email - most congressmen don't have time to read the millions of emails/spam they recieve. A letter seeems like you put more effort into your comment anyway.
3) Run for office. Elections are right around the door. There are plenty of geeky people in the US who have enough knowledge of political science and related fields to make a run for it. Competent legislaturers are a must.
4) Move to Canada. We'll c how good the US economy does after the whole tech sector moves out.
F-bacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
In addition to my office in Washington, D.C., I have three offices in South Carolina: Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville. The addresses and phone numbers for these offices are below. South Carolina residents may call, toll free, 1-800-922-8503.
If you would like to send me an e-mail, please enclose a postal address to ensure a prompt response.
Washington, D.C.
125 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202)224-6121
Web Mail
Charleston, S.C.
112 Custom House
200 East Bay Street
Charleston, SC 29401
(843) 727-4525
Lowcountry Assistant: Joe Maupin
Columbia, S.C.
1835 Assembly Street
Suite 1551
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 765-5731
State Director: Trip King
Greenville, S.C.
126 Federal Building
Greenville, SC 29603
(864) 233-5366
Upstate Assistant: John Funderburk
Don't you notice that it is strange that representatives for an area accept donations from large corporations far removed from their district.
Fight Spammers!
How can it not? Especially when the government uses many of the technologies it hopes to alienate and regulate. Before long, there will be so much crappy legislation in place that it will be impossible to move an inch without breaking some law or another. But, that will not stop people from moving. We'll definitely find that law enforcement will be spending so much effort trying to enforce dozens of laws with millions of Americans.
This is why that the best ways we can respond are A) write a litter to your representatives, telling them to NOT pass this foolishness, and if that fails, B) everyone do everything they can to break these laws to the highest extent. What better way to stop a machine than to throw objects into its gears? In this situation where such important fundamental freedoms are in jeopardy, our only choices may be to throw ourselves in between the cogs.
How long before courts are so utterly bogged down with millions of open software and encryption users (individuals and businsess alike) that they are using up all their time? Eventually, practicallity will get in the way of these old fruits. The scale of this is analagous to making blue jeans illegal. Sure, the gov. could make it a crime to wear certain pants, but what's going to happen when every court room in the nation has a mile-long line of people waiting to be arraigned (on top of the line that's already there no less!)
Why bother.
Sons of Technology, I am Steve Wozniak.
[Steve Wozniak is seven feet tall!]
Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds, and if he were here he'd consume the SSSCA with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse.
I AM Steve Wozniak! And I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men...and free men you are. What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?
[Fight? Against that? NO! We will run...and we will live.]
Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live...at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that...for one chance, JUST ONE CHANCE, TO COME BACK HERE AND TELL OUR ENEMIES THAT THEY MAY TAKE OUR LIVES...BUT THEY'LL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!!!
F-bacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
The teamsters controlled the movement of goods across the continent. We need to take control of the movement of the information. If we have to, we should all be willing to stop working and suspend all support. "Oh you want e-mail? Well we have this little problem. We don't like your proposed legislation. What, your database is offline and you can't fill your orders? This is the name of the representative you need to speak to..." You get the picture. I know it wouldn't be easy, there will be "scabs" willing to undermine our position and they would have to be dealt with. But is freedom to do whatever you want with your information without the Government interfering worth fighting for?
You're using her as bait, Master!
I don't find this very comforting. Right now IBM and Sun are behind Linux because it is the lesser of three evils, at least as I understand it.
Evil #1 maintaining and supporting an ancient proprietary UNIX distribution that small companies can't afford and big companies would replace if they could.
Evil #2 go crawling back to Microsoft to apologize and sign on as an official NT solution provider, adding your valuable bits to the great big gogglymuck of code that will run on everything from toasters to the NSA supercomputers.
Evil #3 toss everything out there and hope for a repeat of the early 80s when opening the BIOS and hardware caused the creation of a huge goods and services market.
Right now IBM is investing heavily into Linux because it's the best option. If Linux gains a majority marketshare, then IBM as an early adoptor will be in a comfy position. Having a smaller piece is okay if the pie is enormous.
BUT
If SSSCA passes and the cost of compliance with Linux/OpenSource becomes prohibitive, it's no longer the best option. In which case IBM will either SSSCA patch AIX and move on with that, or decide to port DB2 and everything else to 2000 Datacenter and push that.
IBM/Sun are happy to be fair weather friends to Linux but I SERIOUSLY doubt they are willing to throw money at Congressmen on its behalf.
- JoeShmoe
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
--------------
Dear Senator/Representative:
It has come to my attention that Rep. Fritz Hollings is introducing a bill titled the The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). This bill will make it illegal to possess any computer device that allows unrestricted copying of digital data.
I have previously written to you about the Digital Millenium Copywright Act, which is a similar law that I believe is unconstitutional. The DMCA makes it legal for corporations to develop technology that can limit or remove my fair use rights under copywright law, but makes it illegal for me to use other technology to restore these rights.
The SSSCA takes this unfair practice even further. The SSSCA makes it illegal to own a computer that does not have "security controls". If I purchase a computer, all of the hardware and software in that computer must comply with whatever access controls the media industry has created. Undoubtably, the restrictions that these access controls impose will not be open for debate by the American public. The corporations will have total control.
The problem with the SSSCA is that it effectively makes Linux and all other Open Source software (software for which the source code is available for free) illegal. There is no point in implementing these security controls in Open Source software, because anyone could easily remove them (that's the benefit of having the source code - you can modify the program as much as you want). Did you know that more than half the Internet runs on Open Source software? What is the government going to do - shut down the Internet because suddenly it's 50% illegal?
I would like to direct your attention to an online news article about Rep. Hollings and the SSSCA. If you can, please pull up your web browser and visit
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/09/20/2 047211
On this page, you can read how a reporter attempted to get some basic questions about the SSSCA answered from Rep. Hollings, but was instead met with extreme resistance. Not only that, but investigations into the financial supporters of Rep. Hollings show that five of the top twenty soft-money donations come from media companies. These are the same companies that promoted the DMCA and would like nothing more than to completely eliminate the concept of fair use from copyright law.
These draconian laws are getting out of hand. To me, they are proof positive that our so-called elected officials have really been purchased by giant corporations. I am opposed to any law that restricts my constitutional rights. I am opposed to extending the duration of patents and copyrights (such as the Sonny Bono copyright extension law that was passed just for Disney). Your track record in such matters has been unacceptable to me, and I will be voting against you in the next election if that doesn't change. Issues such as the budget, Social Security, the military, taxation, and abortion mean little to me. As an engineer, I feel that my rights are being slowly erased by politicians who don't understand technology.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Linux would be forced to use propriatary software (from the federal gov't) to be legal, which is the antithesis of the open source movement. There should be no forceably entered closed source applications integrated into Linux. And it might be illegal to actually remove the digital protecttion software, which an open source model would obviously allow you to do no matter what. Linux as we know it would be dead, and we could bet that more gov't interventions into software woould be soon to follow.
F-bacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
Free speech is dead.
The fences are going up.
Dogs that bite will be killed.
Dogs that bark will have collars put on them.
Al Qaeda, are coming for you, we are going to eradicate you and your twisted fundamentalism beliefs. United States, when we finish with them, we're gonna have to have a serious talk about some things that went on while we were away.
Hammer of Truth
Is demo some large unit of currency or something?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Sec. 101: Prohibition of Worm Sedition
(a) In General -- It is unlawful to be the victim of an electronic mail worm that encrypts your communications.
(b) Exception -- Subsection (a) does not apply to people with enough money for a legal staff or with blood relatives who are attorneys. Ignorance of worm infestation does not provide exemption from this statute.
Room 101: Penalty
(a) In General -- Any male who violates Section 101 shall be subjected to no less than a 20 percent chance of being raped by an HIV and/or Hepatitis C infected gang, with males under the age of 25 being subject to no less than a 40 percent chance of such punishment.
Seastead this.
supreme court here I come.. if I can't use Linux then I'll sue the feds....
Only 'flamers' flame!
Senator Hollings official bio says, " Hollings uses his seniority, experience and know-how to fight for South Carolina. The state now receives $1.16 from the federal government for every $1 it sends to Washington."
Hollings introduced a bill to tax the Internet: 1999: New 5 percent Web sales tax proposed.
The CIA trained Osama bin Laden: What Should be the Response to Violence?
Bush's education improvements were
With the DMCA, most senators didn't even realize that anybody was even opposed to this law. That can't happen again.
They knew exactly what they were getting into and purposely chose a voice vote so we can't pick on those who said Aye.
The DMCA did not necessarily pass unanimously. It passed on a voice vote, meaning the "Ayes" were louder than the "Nays" and no record exists of who voted for or against. Of all the things I'd change about the way the houses of Congress do business, the single most important thing is the elimination of the voice vote -- on every matter, no matter how trivial, there should be a full and complete accounting by name and district/state of the fors, the againsts, the abstentions, and the absents.
Sure, it'd slow things down a lot, but what's more important: that Congress do a lot of stuff, or that the public be able to determine how any given representative voted?
Learn to spell: nickel, missile, lose, solely, amendment, speech, kernel, probably, ridiculous, deity, hierarchy, versus
Maybe it should say something about the SSCA and how future accesses to this site may be illegal (or the site will need to be taken down) because running a particular operating system is against the law. This same Operating System that has been faithfully delivering this site to you for a long time. If you agree that this is wrong then follow the link to enter and take a moment to fill out the form on the next page. It will be emailed to the Senators/Congressmen/Media Outlets of your choice (use checkboxes and send then into the site when they click the submit button). If you think this is OK and we should be taken down for not complying, click the Leave link and you will be randomly sent to a supporter of this evil legislation (please note how bland the resulting Internet will be).
There are probably others, but I think some sort of BlackOut is in order. It worked before. Maybe we could use netcraft to get statistics on how many sites that would mean if every OSS site was brought down and perhaps we can highlight some particularly good examples like /. (of course) but also famous sites that run OSS that Joe Sixpack would know about. Think about how many people would be pissed if they knew that this would put the crapper on Google.com and Yahoo.com.
Just a thought.
..So, Slashdot wants you to think the SSSCA would make "any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies" illegal in the U.S.
Looks like i'm going to have to buy a new alarm clock.
It's this sort of flame that causes 500-response posts.
Cheers,
Bowie J. Poag
It's been awhile since I've delved into parliamentary procedure as used in the Senate, but I believe that any single Senator can call for an exact tally when there's a voice vote. A voice vote is pretty much like asking for unanimous consent on a motion.
I am all for writing your representative, but we should all telephone our senators and tell their staffers personally why we oppose the law in temrs of its impact to each of our businesses.
Personally, title 2 of the SSSCA has some real potential, but title 1 is pretty bad (title 2 strengthens the government infrastructure for securing data by promoting education, scholarships, etc.) I would vocalize this aspect to my representative as well. Title 2 is what we should be doing anyway (increasing the number of trained security personnel) but section 1 will be enormously counterproductive... Especially when paired with the DMCA.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I keep thinking, who wants to listen to the shit pumped out by the big media companies anyway? My own little protest is this, I don't buy any recording on the cd format, only vinyl (I know it's a preference, but it is a material good w/ collectable value, a cd is just a cd), I don't go to movies cos they all suck pretty much.. support indie directors and indie music artists, leave the sony/atlantic/etc releases to the the wee ones and the mindless masses. The DMCA/RIAA are fighting a losing battle simply because the people they represent produce shit and even Joe Public is starting to wise up.. I hope.
(cross posted to newsforge)
I am a Libertarian. This is the #1 reason to vote Libertarian and ONLY Libertarian in each and every election -- our primary concern is making the Federal government as Constitutional as powerful.
What does this mean? It means we won't set limits on campaign finances or soft money donations. Hell, none of us even care where the money comes from, because we know its used for no good.
I know that sounds contradictory, if you let people donate as much as they want, they'll always get what they want, right?
Wrong. Our goal is to limit Congress' power entirely, taking them out of the corporate subsidizing that they've illegally done for so long.
Once Congress is limited to only making laws that are Constitutional, no corporation will WANT to give them money because, guess what?, that money will not do them anything.
Congress won't have the power to pass stupid laws.
Free enterprise and trade will reign supreme.
No matter what the Democrats or Republicans offer the tech crowd, NEITHER side can promise to stay out entirely. Neither side is a free speech advocate. Many libertarians even want copyright to be as it was in the Constitutions - 7+7 years, and then public domain.
Power to the people, the only way.
Sincerely,
dada
Your Friendly Lake County, IL Libertarian
http://dng.nu/dada
Campaign Finance IS NOT THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.
Making campaign finance limits will only prevent third parties from having any chance of getting elected. This has been proven again and again.
The only thing to do to prevent problems like this is to hold our federal government to its Constitutional limits. There is only ONE political party that believes in a limited federal system, and that is the Libertarian party.
Remember: If we have new campaign finance laws, the two party system will reign supreme, and incumbents will pass the baton on to the person they like the best. No good for us, real good for those in office.
Every campaign finance law that has taken effect to limit donations has increased donations because back doors are always placed in the legislation.
GREAT Site. Please mod parent post UP!
----------
It has come to my attention that Rep. Fritz Hollings is introducing a bill titled the The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). This bill will make it illegal to possess any computer device that allows unrestricted copying of digital data.
I have previously written to you about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a similar law which I believe to be unconstitutional. The DMCA makes it legal for corporations to develop technology that can limit or remove my fair-use rights under copyright law, but makes it illegal for me to use other technology to restore these rights.
The SSSCA takes this unconstitutional practice even further. The SSSCA makes it illegal to own a computer that does not have "security controls". If I purchase a computer, all of the hardware and software in that computer must comply with whatever access controls the media industry has created. Undoubtedly, the restrictions that these access controls impose will not be open for debate by the American public. The corporations will have total control.
The SSSCA effectively criminalizes the development and use of a type of software known as "Open Source." Briefly, programs classified as Open Source are written in such a way as to allow users to examine and, if they wish, modify the inner workings of the programs to suit their purposes. Security controls such as these could not be implemented in Open Source software because any programmer could easily remove them . You may be surprised to learn that a significant portion of the entire Internet runs on Open Source software.
Like the DMCA, the SSSCA does not guarantee that I will be able to exercise all of my fair-use rights with this new "approved" technology. Fair-use is about intent. I can duplicate any copyrighted work I want, provided my intent falls under the guidelines of fair-use. However, it is impossible for any technology to determine what my intent is.
The DMCA and the SSSCA are unnecessary, because the original copyright laws are sufficient for the digital age. They allow individuals to make personal copies of copyrighted works that they've legally obtained, but disallow mass distribution of those works. Unfortunately, the media companies are not interested in targeting only those people who violate copyright law. Instead, it's much easier for them to buy legislation that strips honest consumers of their rights.
I would like to direct your attention to an online news article about Rep. Hollings and the SSSCA. If you can, please pull up your web browser and visit
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/09/20/2 047211
On this page, you can read how a reporter attempted to get some basic questions about the SSSCA answered from Rep. Hollings, but was instead met with resistance. Not only that, but investigations into the financial supporters of Rep. Hollings show that five of the top twenty soft-money donations come from media companies. These are the same companies that promoted the DMCA and would like nothing more than to completely eliminate the concept of fair-use from copyright law.
Draconian laws such as the DMCA and the SSSCA are getting out of hand. They prove to me that many of our so-called elected officials really answer only to commercial interests. I am opposed to any law that restricts my constitutional rights, and the SSSCA is definitely one of these laws. As an engineer, I feel that my rights are being slowly erased by politicians who don't understand technology. I am confident that you will take the right side on this issue. Don't let commercial media interests defile the constitution.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
'any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies' illegal in the U.S.
Just think of the massive boom that this would cause in the economy as everyone who owns any digital device will need to throw it out and buy a new one. This would cure the current economic climate and the NASDAQ would hit 8,000 within a week.
Of course, you'd be pretty screwed after about six months as anyone with a brain in his head would have flown the country.
I bet that when this bill is voted on it will also be mentioned that it could also be a great tool against terrorists.
When will they pass the bill that says, "You are guilty of a fedaral crime, punishable by a $2,000,000 fine and 25 years in prison, if the RIAA/MPAA or other contributors to Congressional funds do not make at least $5,000 from you per year." I can imagine Dianne
Feinstein (D-CA^H^HMPAA) saying, "Obviouisly, anyone who isn't willing to fork over cash to the entertainment industry is a communist or a terrorist sympathiser," in her press releases.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
He's got a perfectly formed opinion of /.- from what I can see, he's had it for a while. Why muddle up opinions with some silly things like facts.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
It saddens me that when people asked me who I was voting for last year, they responded with "Who's Harry Browne!!!?" and "The WHAT Party!!?" The media whores have done a really good job in lying to the American public that only a Republican or a Democrat have a chance for the White House (or any other elected office).
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
I sent this to both of my sentors in my district and my one representative, I thought it might give other people an idea about what to write. I tried not to make it too harsh, nor too soft - while also not putting a lot of technilogcial mumbo jumbo in it:
0 /2 047211
/////////////////
Senator Bond,
Being one of your constituents (I live in Sometown, MO) - I felt it my duty to inform you that we are not happy about the new Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) that is currently in draft form and is being spearheaded by Senator Fritz Hollings from South Carolina.
I know that in the wake of last week's tragedy - a more secure computing model sounds like a good idea. But let me assure you that this bill is not the way to go about implementing it. This bill has the potential to ruin computing as we know it. It will squash innovation and many freedoms.
You can check this address for one of the many news stories about this bill:
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/09/2
Please do not endorse this bill - as someone who is in your voting district I will be watching very carefully to see who is supporting this bill, and let me assure you that my next vote will be influenced by what I see.
Sincerely,
My Name
///////////////
You can e-mail the senators and reps straight off of this site.
I suggest that all of you do - they can't ignore all of us!
Fried
Without some sort of reforms, the Libertarians will too succumb to the PACs' influence- many have a price, some just higher than others.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
why is it that everytime a news source, such as slashdot, reports negativly on a politician, that if the political views of the politician coincide with that of the news source, that they fail to mention the politicians political party???
Because as a rule, both Democrats and Republicans are equally stupid when it comes to technology. So really, what's the point in them telling us what we already know? "The Democrats are pushing for a general ban on n-type transistors in the hopes of making buttered bread land on the dry side? No real surprise there, the Republicans are trying to get rid of the p-types for the same reason."
Actually, I agree with you. I'd like to know which party in general and which chumps in particular are pissing away the Bill of Rights in the name of ineffective measures. And for the love of god, get rid of the voice votes!
Dyolf Knip
If you're not a US citizen, write to Senator Hollings and thank him for crippling the US computer industry in order to give the rest of the world a chance.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
very high if people get off their butts and do something. Spend your weekend teaching 5 people how evil this bill is (print it out) write 3 letters to congresspeople and 1 to the president and 1 to your governor wont hurt either. mail them to their offices. get others to write letters also (near impossible to do today as we americans are lazy bastards) write a letter to your local newspaper letters to the editor column. Email EVERY member of congress and the house, email your local govt, email everyone you can think of asking for them to write a paper letter (give them addresses to send it to)
Become an advocate and fight.
But then everyone here will say "YEAH!" as they do nothing... and then get pissed when it becomes law.
A chance? Yes, only if you do most of the work. and every one of you have to do most of the work, dont expect anyone else to do anything unless you pester them.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
...now all they need to get rid of is that "democracy" part.
I find it continually amusing that we were the ones who decided corporations should be considered people, and now the corporations are deciding that we are not people. Deliciously circular.
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
Someone who is so influenced by big money can only be a scum. Such a bill would be unconstitutional - and would never pass...but he is a scum even for suggesting it. Mad props to all the politicians who are trying to remove the influence of big business...McCain, Feingold, etc(and, ugh, Nader). Remember the New Hampshire state motto: ``Live free or die!'' If the bill passes(probability 1:1e99), millions would have to be jailed and fined. FUCK HIM! This bill is an abomination-and it goes against everything this country is supposed to stand for. Every researcher, etc, who uses non-certified OSS would have to leave the country or not be able to upgrade their kernel version. Entire commercial OSes would have to be re-written. FUCK HIM! Call your representatives and tell them to vote no on this bill--or you will not re-elect them. I wanted Dubya to win(lesser of two evils) but if he signs this into law...our country has been crippled. FUCK those authoritarians who want to regulate every aspect of our lives.
Excuse my swearing. I am just really ticked off.
"Linux/FreeBSD/GPL software is so prevelant in todays society that this bill will be entirely inneffective"
Good point, but all these copies would be illegal. There is nothing morally/ethically wrong having it on a computer but if the bill passes then you could be charged. Regardless if its expensive to catch all of them, if they prosecute just one, that would be wrong.
Hell, I can see you being denied and ISP account if it detects an illegal OS trying to hook up to it. ISP need to follow the law.
Not having a program/feature on a computer should never be illegal. Thats what is wrong about this.
"technology that is affected will not only go over the border to Europe and Canada, "
In Canada and Europe there are already copies of the DMCA being considered for bills/future laws. I'm sure that the companies behind this bill realize that it only covers US and will push for it in Canada and Europe.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
A friend of mine, Ben Tilly, has made the following annotated anlysis of the SSSCA, working on notes of mine. The original analyses were done before the recent announcement that Microsoft plans to "open" the .NET / Passport. It would seem that this drive for standards status plays straight into the company's long-term goals.
We believe that the SSSCA is Microsoft's game plan. This is how they intend to achieve World (or at least US) Domination. If others read and agree with our analysis, then I think our natural allies are companies like Sun, IBM, AOL, and Sony. They just need to have the true implications explained in clear terms to them to realize what is going on.
The analysis is long (it's an annotation of the full text of the draft bill). Some key points:
The SSSCA, as drafted:
The SSSCA could not be better designed to take the Microsoft monopoly into the new millenium if it were written by Bill Gates. And we can't rule out that it was written by Bill Gates. The SSSCA is completely incompatible with Unix. It makes continued development on all software competing with the standard illegal.
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
The practice was overwhelmed in early 80-s because of the sheer number of jeans on the street.
Exactly my point! At some point, all this will be too much for even our over-priced government to handle. When that happens, we'll see these things fall apart at the seams.
We as a community must only focus on stead-fast rebelion of the laws we find to be unjust. Sacrifices will be made... but when has freedom been earned (or recovered) without sacrifice?
Why bother.
The DMCA did not necessarily pass unanimously. It passed on a voice vote, meaning the "Ayes" were louder than the "Nays" and no record exists of who voted for or against. Of all the things I'd change about the way the houses of Congress do business, the single most important thing is the elimination of the voice vote -- on every matter, no matter how trivial, there should be a full and complete accounting by name and district/state of the fors, the againsts, the abstentions, and the absents.
YOu should eliminate voice votes for the simple reason that they can result in the wrong result being declared.
Or do they all wear masks to ensure their voices are the same volume?
What is his office address and phone number?
Rember to remind him that once this passes he won't have a phone number (at least for a while, possibly ever)...
Every Linux & "open source" company will be out of business in a few months anyway.
Pass this and every telephone company, internet company in the US as well as the US postal service will be out of business anyway.
But don't worry about their share value since Wall Street would be closed for months anyway.
"Open Source" is the backbone of all modern communication systems. Anyway even most closed source wouldn't comply either.
.. and especially my business. I have 2 years of infrastructure and software built into OSS. RedHat would be sunk and illegal if they where not 'certified'.
Basically I don't believe that such a thing -could- be pulled off. It would be a political disaster for whoever tried.
I am sure that the recording industry and MS/Apple and probably Sun would love nothing more than this. *sigh*
Maybe OSS will be the 'Gun Control' debate of the 21'st century.
The only thing to do to prevent problems like this is to hold our federal government to its Constitutional limits. There is only ONE political party that believes in a limited federal system, and that is the Libertarian party.
So? I like an expanded federal government. Keeps the states honest.
The only way to make sure that the government will be held to its Constitutional limits is by making the Constitution completely immutable, otherwise lobbyists can make legislation possible to extend government power again, to the point of Constitutional amendments even.
The Constitution was never meant to be immutable; the founders recognized they couldn't foresee every legal, social, or historical problem that would ever come along. If you make it so you can't change it, you'll be changing it.
It's like putting a cop inside each car, because one day, somebody intentionally killed someone by running him over.
If the legislation passes, it may not eliminate all MP3 swapping, but it will (a) legally mandate copy-control mechanisms in all PCs (such as CPRM and the Intel/Compaq/Microsoft "Trusted PC" standard), and (b) exempt the manufacturers of security standards from antitrust laws, essentially establishing a government-guaranteed Microsoft monopoly on operating systems for the good of the content industry. So the next PC you buy will not run Linux, or if it does, it will only work in a crippled mode, unable to do many of the things it can do under Windows.
This bill needs to be stopped. And you know
what to do.