Red Hat puts out Legislation Alert on the SSSCA

the_2nd_coming writes "Red Hat has announced a legislation alert for the SSSCA. They are collecting comments to hand to lawmakers. Get those comments in while you can, but make sure you give them some thought."

Comments

Get behind this!

[Sturm]

We, as a community, really need to get behind this effort. Say what you want about Redhat, but a company is probably going to have louder voice than a few disorganized individuals. Way to go Redhat!

U.S. legislation would outlaw open source software

[Spootnik]

But there is absolutely no way the "industry committee" will approve as "secure" any operating system where you could just reconfigure the kernel to remove the DRM feature. They would never, ever do such a thing--because they're the "industry committee."

The amazing thing to me is that Senate will be openly considering legislation to put a committee of corporations in charge of deciding which hardware and OS configurations will be legal and illegal. Even if the committee somehow miraculously doesn't ban Open Source operating systems, the thought that they might be handed the power of life and death over operating systems is startling.

I think it's wildly unrealistic to assume SSSCA won't pass just because it's obviously crazy legislation. There are a lot of crazy laws on the books, and most geeks didn't take DMCA very seriously either until Dmitry got busted. Don't be complacent.

I wasn't going to comment but...

[Outlyer]

I wasn't going to comment, but I just loved this one line:

• 
  The bill is being motivated by motion picture and television studios that seek to end piracy of their movies and other forms of entertainment. Curiously, these studios also happen to be among Hollings' top campaign contributors, as noted by Newsforge reporter Dan Berkes.
  

(Emphasis mine)

"Curiously" is an understatement. Apparently in America you can buy anything.

On a related note, does anyone find it strange the commiting a crime against a corporation is worse that a crime against another individual?

Violate the DMCA - 25 Years w/o parole

Kill someone - 20 Years, parole after 6-8

Why would anyone think this is a good idea?

[mttlg]

Okay, so the idea here is to make every possible data storage device and the associated software play nice with copyright. The benefits are:

• Copyright infringement in the original digital form is theoretically impossible.
• Content providers, software manufacturers, etc. can sleep well knowing that their profits are secure, as long as people keep buying their products.

And some of the problems are:

• Copyright "theoretically" expires, but protection methods don't.
• Fair Use will be outlawed through technology.
• Infringement will just require an analog capture method or good old reverse engineering (which of course is already illegal in some cases, even though it isn't...).
• Hardware and software will be more expensive/less useful and there will be less to choose from, resulting in slower sales of new products and a surge in the used equipment market.
• Content will be less useful, and therefore will have less value, meaning lower sales if prices do not fall considerably to compensate (take a look at the sales of e-books).
• Updates must be made mandatory to prevent vulnerabilities from being exploited once they are discovered, meaning that the government must have access to your computer for this to work.
• The feeling of the government trying to regulate or control every aspect of our lives will increase dramatically, adding fuel to the anti-government sentiment that has temporarily faded in the past month.
• The acronym "SSSCA" doesn't even have the warm and fuzzy feel to it that "DMCA" does.

So why would someone support this?

• Ignorance
• Stupidity
• Bribes
• Greed
• Totalitarianism
• A general desire to screw people over

Am I missing something here, or could this show us what our lawmakers really think of the people they represent (assuming that they actually record the votes this time...)? We've seen much of this before, but this time they aren't even trying to make it look good.

Excellent.

[A_Non_Moose]

Say what you will, but to echo the statement:
"Thank you, RedHat".

Think back to a not so far era with MS wielding the DMCA over /.'s posters with the Kerbos fiasco.

Some of the trade rags were quoted as saying "Slashdot is the only (institution) one so far to have the cajones to say 'Go ahead, sue, we'll defend that suit'".

Well, RedHat is stepping up to the plate...hot damn. "We the people" need this because the lawmakers and representatives of the people are not listening to us, but to corporations.

If I am not mistaken, RedHat is a corporation, and can probably use the "We are the voice of reason" in an insane world (or something like that).

Really, I'm not joking... Think about all the "innovators, heretics, and *individual* the quintessential Great Minds" of our time.

The ones that went against the grain, conventions, accepted beliefs, morals of thier peers (and monarchs/rulers)...as a corporation...this is what RedHat is doing.

Freakin' A.

Moose.