Fritz's Hit List

wwwssabbsdotcom was one of several to submit news stories about Ed Felten's latest venture: Fritz's Hit List, a list of electronic devices with some sort of digital storage and processing capabilities sufficient to qualify them "digital media devices" under Sen. Hollings' CBDTPA bill.

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Contribution List for Fritz Hollings

[DaytonCIM]

Reported contributions list
Top 3 Industries (PACs and Individuals):
1 Lawyers/Law Firms $1,463,550
2 Communications & Electronics $698,958
PAC Contributors:
Walt Disney Co $6,000
AOL Time Warner $5,083
National Assn of Broadcasters $5,000
Comcast Corp $2,500
Motion Picture Assn of America $3,000
ASCAP $1,000
Cablevision Systems $1,000
Charter Communications $1,000
Sony Pictures Entertainment $1,000
Universal Studios $1,000
Viacom Inc $2,000
3 Financial & Investment $404,349

Additional PAC contributions here.

Personal Finances are here.

Others who sit on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

If you think he's bad, check out Boxer.

The Offending Parts of the bill, re: Fritz

[Vancouverite]

The actual part of the bill that is being attacked here is down in the definitions:

(3) DIGITAL MEDIA DEVICE. -- The term "digital media device" means any hardware or software that --

(A) reproduces copyrighted works in digital form;

(B) converts copyrighted works in digital form into a form whereby the images and sounds are visible or audible; or

(C) retrieves or accesses copyrighted works in digital form and transfers or makes available for transfer such works to hardware or software described in subparagraph (B).

As I highlighted, B is the offending line. Consider - those buttons that are sewn into stuffed animals that play music when pressed? Those match the definition in (B).

But this is not the only technical offender. A digital camera can easily be in violation (see part (A) of the definition, then take a picture of a billboard). More significantly, the Internet itself is probably a definition (C) product - certainly, a modem, LAN card, or disk drive is (load a document, or display a web site).

Unfortunately, this definition is, at heart, flawed - way too broad, and way too inclusive.