I live in the UK, so at first you might think I could relax. Well apart from simply caring about what laws get passed in the US, there is also the fact that we in the UK usually end up in one way or the other with many of the US's laws too.
For example we have the EU implementing their own copycat DMCA, specifically the clause that makes circumventing copy prevention measures illegal. And we also have the UK saying a partial "yes" to software patents. It is quite likely that the UK (or the EU) could end up passing laws like this, even if the US doesn't pass it.
But more important than that, as a user of much free software *and* commerical hardware and software that is made and written in the US it will effect me if passed.
For commerical hardware and software, it means that my "made by a US company" device (be it hardware or software) will most likely have this stuff integrated into it (even if the UK doesn't get the law), so I'm stuck with it.
Even worse, if it was made illegal to write free software (or even just made more difficult) in the US, it would drastically reduce the number of developers contributing to FS/OS projects worldwide. It could kill good distributions like Red Hat based in the US, and stiffle work on any projects with have a significant number of US based developers. Hell even Linus lives in the US (though he'd probably leave).
The proposal almost reads like a joke. You could almost see it on a satirewire.com! But, unfortunately this is serious.
On another point:
I recently started doing a CompSci degree at uni. I have been set an assignment designed to assess our general presentation skills - to do a 5 min presentation on a subject of our choice.
I would like to do a presentation to try to inform my fellow CS students about the minefields they will face as software developers (or even just as consumers) and the wrongs of the draconian "digital age" laws being proposed AND (unfortunately) passed, including proposals like the SSSCA, laws like the DMCA, and the issues and problems surrounding software patents.
What I would like is some help from fellow slashdotters, with (or links to) some information and advice on the facts and good ways to inform others about these issues.
Slashdot Mirror
I live in the UK, so at first you might think I could relax. Well apart from simply caring about what laws get passed in the US, there is also the fact that we in the UK usually end up in one way or the other with many of the US's laws too.
For example we have the EU implementing their own copycat DMCA, specifically the clause that makes circumventing copy prevention measures illegal. And we also have the UK saying a partial "yes" to software patents. It is quite likely that the UK (or the EU) could end up passing laws like this, even if the US doesn't pass it.
But more important than that, as a user of much free software *and* commerical hardware and software that is made and written in the US it will effect me if passed.
For commerical hardware and software, it means that my "made by a US company" device (be it hardware or software) will most likely have this stuff integrated into it (even if the UK doesn't get the law), so I'm stuck with it.
Even worse, if it was made illegal to write free software (or even just made more difficult) in the US, it would drastically reduce the number of developers contributing to FS/OS projects worldwide. It could kill good distributions like Red Hat based in the US, and stiffle work on any projects with have a significant number of US based developers. Hell even Linus lives in the US (though he'd probably leave).
The proposal almost reads like a joke. You could almost see it on a satirewire.com! But, unfortunately this is serious.
On another point:
I recently started doing a CompSci degree at uni. I have been set an assignment designed to assess our general presentation skills - to do a 5 min presentation on a subject of our choice.
I would like to do a presentation to try to inform my fellow CS students about the minefields they will face as software developers (or even just as consumers) and the wrongs of the draconian "digital age" laws being proposed AND (unfortunately) passed, including proposals like the SSSCA, laws like the DMCA, and the issues and problems surrounding software patents.
What I would like is some help from fellow slashdotters, with (or links to) some information and advice on the facts and good ways to inform others about these issues.