SSSCA Hearing

larsoncc writes: "According to this article on CNET, a Senate Bill will likely force the issue of adding copy protection to hardware. They are giving the industry 12 to 18 months to come up with a voluntary solution to the "problem" of copies, and if not... Well, you just have to read the article. Insane." Wired also has a story. The IP list published two interesting documents: an account of the hearing by an attendee, and a letter from Intel published immediately after the hearing. Read the letter carefully - note that the disagreement between the tech industry and Hollywood is not over whether or not copy protection will be implemented into every electronic device, but only whether or not this should be written into law. If the SSSCA isn't passed, Intel (and others) get a lot of leverage over Hollywood. If it is, Intel's leverage disappears. But since both sides want to build copy protection into everything, they only differ over the process, we're in trouble either way.

Comments

Punishing everybody

[cje]

You know, how hard would it be for the MPAA to make an example out of somebody who really is offering pirated copies of the latest movies? How difficult would it be to get on Morpheus or Gnutella, look up something like "The Fast and the Furious (DivX)", and trace the offender through his or her IP address? Has anybody heard of the MPAA actually doing anything like this? Aren't these the people that the MPAA should really go after? How many questions can I squeeze into one paragraph?

With legislation like the SSSCA, the movie and music industries are seeking to impose draconian (some might say dictatorial) on everybody as a result of the actions of a small percentage of the users. If these people had any interest in protecting their profits, they would actually go after the pirates who are swapping ripped movies on the Internet and selling bootleg copies on street corners. The fact that they are (apparently) unwilling to do so speaks volumes about their true intentions.

Brave men have died to protect the fundamental freedoms that the MPAA/RIAA and their corporate thugs are now bribing Congress to take away. What's most sad is that (apparently) nobody in Congress recognizes or cares about this, as long as their "charitable funds" are being properly supplied by the movie industry. Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao, and Jack Valenti. In future history books, all of these names will appear in the same paragraph.