Tech-Conscious Congressmen?

Political Geek asks: "Many times we have seen clueless U.S. Senators and Congressmen supporting technology related bills that hurt consumers and developers when they are passed (for example, the 1998 DMCA, and Senator Hollings SSSCA/CBDTPA) However, there may be some hope for a few of our elected leaders. I have been asked by a staff member of a US Congressman to submit a list of issues that are the most important to individuals active in the tech sector. Therefore, instead of screwing-up this opportunity by replying to this request on my own, I am passing this request on to the Slashdot community: What issues/problems are most important to you and what is necessary to resolve them?" I'm going to keep posting questions like this in the hopes that, when a reader can bend the ear of their representative, that these issues can be heard.

Comments

Wireless

[ekent82]

My personal pet is wireless. Free the waves!

Several come to mind

[robkill]

Speaking very generally:

1. Hiring practices in the IT industry (age discrimination, H1B, etc.) Here is a good place to read more.

2. Software licensing practices, UCITA etc.

3. Copyright and Patent issues, especially related to the corporate "land grab" mentality towards ideas and code. This has the most drastic long term effects, while the previous two are easier (I think) issues for Congress to address.

International Implications

[CompVisGuy]

As a non-US citizen, it both amazes and shocks me how much US law and Microsoft dictate the rights of those outside the US. Examples include:

1) Finding it very difficult to watch encrypted DVDs on non-proprietary operating systems such as Linux due to laws such as the DMCA. Although there are projects that exist outside the US that let me do this (for example the excellent VLC project), many Linux distributions do not come readily set up to be able to play encrypted DVDs.

2) Attempts to apply laws such as the DMCA outside the US (such as the case of Dmitry Sklyarov).

3) Proposals to pass laws requiring computer equipment to include DRM (digital rights management) hardware, such as that used in Microsoft's Palladium project. This has severe implications for both freedom of information, privacy, and free/open source operating systems and software. If the US were to pass such a law the rest of the world would be very likely to end up using the same technology, even though no such law may exist elsewhere in the world.

Essentially, the main problems I see are about freedom -- the rights of the individual, to use their computer hardware and software in ways they want to, must be protected as a form of free speech.

Yes, copyright theft is illegal, but just because I can break the law doesn't mean I will break the law. By electronically limiting the things people can do, huge power could be handed over to large corporations who themselves have very poor legal records (such as Microsoft).

In my opinion, if freedom is taken away from computer users we will be limited to viewing BigCorporation's approved content. Technological innovation in the US will be stunted and the US will slip behind other countries with more liberal technology laws. This will affect not only the US economy, but those of other developed countries.

spam tops my list

[ke4roh]

Spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail) is one of the biggest problems I face on the net. It consumes a few minutes of my time every day just so some sleazeball can advertise his junk to millions of people at a time. Man-years of productivity are lost for every spam sent to a few million people.

Here's a Spam Primer. The Coalition Against Unsolicited E-mail offers plenty of information as well.