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[atlarge-discuss] FW: Reject Senate Bill 655
Below is a copy of a message sent to my state senator regarding a law being
pushed in our state senate. The Motion Picture Association of America has
been pushing similar laws in all 50 states, trying to make an end-run around
the US Congress. US members, please get smart on this isssue and fight your
own battles against similar attempts in your state.
Bruce Young
Portland, Oregon USA
bruce@barelyadequate.info
http://www.barelyadequate.info
--------------------------------------------
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| -----Original Message-----
| From: bruce@barelyadequate.info [mailto:bruce@barelyadequate.info]
| Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 11:02 PM
| To: 'sen.margaretcarter@state.or.us'
| Subject: Reject Senate Bill 655
|
|
| I am writing you today to communicate my objection, in the
| strongest of terms, to Senate Bill 655, sponsored by Senator
| Charles Starr
| (http://www.leg.state.or.us/03reg/measures/sb0600.dir/sb0655.intr
| o.html). This bill, one of the many so-called "Super DMCA"
| bills being lobbied for in state legislatures all over the
| country by the Motion Picture Association of America, is being
| promoted as an attempt to prevent piracy of digital media. At
| this time I won't address the curtailment of digital
| intellectual property rights this legislation would impose on
| Oregon consumers in the name of protecting Big Media profits (if
| you are interested in examining *this* aspect of this bill,
| please check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation's page on
| the subject at
| http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/states/200304_sdmca_eff_analysis.php).
| Instead, I will concentrate on the aspect of this bill that is
| most troubling to me as a computer professional: it would make
| illegal my ability to protect my Internet-connected home
| computer from hackers looking for it, by making routers using
| Network Address Translation (NAT) illegal.
|
| Please understand the scope of this proposed law: virtually
| every home or small office connected to the Internet using cable
| or DSL broadband has or will eventually have a device called a
| router that is used to connect more than one computer to their
| single broadband Internet connection. Perhaps you have one at
| home yourself. NAT is a feature built into most of the routers
| sold for home and small-office use. It works by using a
| different set of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to manage the
| computers you hook to it, and "translates" the various IP
| Addresses on your home network to the single IP address going
| out to your ISP, therefore masking the true IP address of the
| PC. Since the address spaces these routers typically use reside
| in "non-routable" address spaces reserved for local network use
| only (i.e., the big routers out on the Internet are hard-wired
| to ignore the addresses they use!), NAT provides added security
| for computers hooked to routers that use it. Thus a hacker on
| the other side of your router is not easily able to "touch" your
| PC because they can't even see it.
|
| SB 655 would change this, by making it illegal for a person to
| hide the true IP address of his or her PC. Not only would this
| make the Internet less secure for Oregon's broadband users, it
| would also force us to abandon millions of dollars worth of
| existing networking equipment. This would not be a trivial
| expense for many of us, particularly in this time of economic
| challenge for many Oregon families.
|
| Just so you needn't think I'm the only one concerned about this
| issue, I offer for your review links to four of numerous recent
| articles on the subject, by respected voices in technology and the law:
|
| Use a Firewall, Go to Jail
| Prof. Edward Felten
| http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000336.html
|
|
| Lawmakers Outlaw Firewalls
| Dan Gillmor, ComputerWorld
|
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,8
0245,00.html?nas=MGT-80245
|
|
| New Law Putting Net-and You-at Risk
| Jim Rapoza, eWeek
| http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1032977,00.asp
|
|
| 'Super-DMCA' fears suppress security research
| Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus
| http://www.securityfocus.com/news/3912
|
|
| I urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to reject Senate Bill 655,
and to enlighten your fellow senators as to the the most-troubling |
aspects of this flawed bill.
|
| Thank you for your time and attention.
|
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