[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Forget MP3 players: Hollings' CBDTPA regulates software too
- To: debate@lists.fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] (Fwd) FC: Forget MP3 players: Hollings' CBDTPA regulates software too
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 22:48:14 +0100
- Delivered-To: mailing list debate@lists.fitug.de
- List-Help: <mailto:debate-help@lists.fitug.de>
- List-Id: <debate.lists.fitug.de>
- List-Post: <mailto:debate@lists.fitug.de>
- List-Subscribe: <mailto:debate-subscribe@lists.fitug.de>
- List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:debate-unsubscribe@lists.fitug.de>
- Mailing-List: contact debate-help@lists.fitug.de; run by ezmlm
- Organization: NONE
- Priority: normal
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 18:16:49 -0500
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: politech@politechbot.com
Subject: FC: Forget MP3 players: Hollings' CBDTPA regulates software too
Send reply to: declan@well.com
As a bonus, here's a section-by-section summary of the bill:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51275,00.html
And a collection of info on the Consumer Broadband and Digital
Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA):
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/
-Declan
---
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51274,00.html
Anti-Copy Bill Slams Coders
By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
1:25 p.m. March 22, 2002 PST
WASHINGTON -- America's programmers, engineers and sundry bit-heads
have not yet figured out how much a new copyright bill will affect
their livelihood.
When they do, watch for an angry Million Geek March to storm
Capitol Hill.
A bill introduced this week by Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-South
Carolina) would roil the electronics industry by forcibly embedding
copy protection into all digital devices, from MP3 players to cell
phones, fax machines, digital cameras and personal computers.
But the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act
(CBDTPA) would also wreak havoc on programmers and software
companies -- both those distributing code for free and those
selling it.
No more than two years and seven months after the bill becomes law,
the only code programmers and software firms will be able to
distribute must have embedded copy-protection schemes approved by
the federal government.
To put this in perspective: The CBDTPA would, if enacted in its
current form, have the electrifying effect on computer
professionals that the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore did
to some Democratic Party members.
Legal experts said on Friday that the CBDTPA regulates nearly any
program, in source or object code, that runs on a PC or anything
else with a microprocessor.
That's not just Windows media players and their brethren, as you
might expect. The CBDTPA's sweeping definition of "any hardware or
software" includes word processors, spreadsheets, operating
systems, compilers, programming languages -- all the way down to
humble Unix utilities like "cp" and "cat."
"The definition will cover just about anything that runs on your
computer -- except maybe the clock," said Tom Bell, a professor at
Chapman University School of Law who teaches intellectual property
law.
[...]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing
list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this
notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at
http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech:
http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is
archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---
------- End of forwarded message -------
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: debate-unsubscribe@lists.fitug.de
For additional commands, e-mail: debate-help@lists.fitug.de