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CBDTPA Finds A Champion In the House
pshoemaker writes: "Wired is reporting that House member Adam Schiff of Burbank is seeking a co-sponsor for his House version of Hollings' CBDTPA. His 'Dear Colleagues' letter lays-out the same inspired thinking: that without copy protection there can be no broadband entertainment." Another reader suggests: "Be sure to also check out who's been paying him just so you know who it is he's representing..."
In the past twenty years or so, I've noticed there's been an alarming tendacy by those in charge of the U.S. government to ignore the more and more of the limitations theoretically imposed on them by the U.S. Constitution and the aquiesence of other Western powers to this abuse of power. More and more laws that benefit the elite at the expense of the masses like the DMCA and anti-drug legislation are being approved, and those in charge don't think twice about ignoring their constituents in violating their wishes. Anti-drug legislation that considers personal property to be capable of committing civil offenses in order for that property to be seized from an individual is a flat-out contradiction of the Fourth Amendment against illegal search and seizures. And yet, the U.S. government continually raises its middle finger to those who point out this inconsistency. The DMCA specifically ALLOWS reverse-engineering for the purposes of achieving interoperability, but DeCSS was quashed by the courts, even though a major purpose of this software was to allow DVD's to be played on Linux boxes.
Many Americans do in fact keep their officials' acts in mind when they make their voice heard at the ballot box. Yet, in practice, the ballot box is not a sufficient recourse against the abuses of the government. Federal judges cannot be voted onto or off of the bench, and the current organization of Capitol Hill gives those in a Senator's or House member's district the unenviable choice of keeping the incumbent or replacing him or her with someone who will have virtually no say in Congressional affairs for years, even decades. So if a representative gets voted out of office, his constituents are effectively giving up their right to representation for an unacceptably long time, due to the way seniority works in the House and Senate. And as for the Presidency...well, we all know what happened a year and a half ago. I would have had just as much of a problem if the Supreme Court had installed Gore, since after the first week of November the election was simply a matter of which party could bribe more vote-counters and remove more "pregnant chads" from Floridian ballots before time ran out.
I consider there to be five major stages in a public's response to its government to voice its displeasure over an issue.
I feel that right now the U.S. government is strong enough now so that it would require widespread civil disobedience to significantly change its policies. Simply getting a few hundred or even a few thousand people together peacefully voicing their anger about something just isn't going to cut it any more. The way the media works now, such a demonstration will be ignored by the masses or even worse, attacked in such a way to get those who haven't made up their minds about the issue to turn against you. Already virtually every mainstream media outlet is portraying Linux users as pirates and law-breakers. I'm afraid that now we're at the point where it's going to require a lot of people make a concerted effort at breaking a laws to make those in charge see how silly those laws are. These actions are going to require that lots of economic damage be swiftly inflicted on the establishment to have any chance at success. These actions will have very serious potential consequences, meaning that those in charge will have to take some serious risks including the possibility of jail time and even dying in their struggle.
However, if we are going to have any chance at saving our liberties, the sooner we stand up the better chance we have. If we are not there yet, soon the only way the government can possibly be brought under control will be through violence. This violence would quickly escalate into all out warfare against the government and the governed. Even worse, this time around, there won't be any other governments in the world capable of aiding those in the revolt, since the U.S. has almost every single nation under its thumb and any dissenter can be destroyed. For those who would use the Vietnam war and the so-far fruitless pursuit of Osama bin Laden to try to refute this argument, keep in mind that the U.S. has 6000 tactical nuclear weapons on hand capable of killing every human on this planet and in a struggle for its survival, the government won't think twice about using them.
If this world order can ever get itself completely established, those outside of the elite will have no hope but to live in a world that makes Orwell's 1984 look like paradise. I urge you to make everyone you know aware of how bad this situation has become and that even if we Americans wait two or three years to stand up to our government, we may soon find out what Hell is like long before we die.