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[FYI] Wired: Howling Mad Over Hollings' Bill



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Hallo Liste,

- -- snip --  http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,51337,00.html -----

Howling Mad Over Hollings' Bill
By Brad King

2:00 a.m. March 28, 2002 PST

Jim Dinda's apartment is a high-tech entertainment haven, but that
could change if a bill that restricts how electronics devices work is
passed into law.

[..]

He's invested several years and thousands of dollars building the
system, but a controversial piece of legislation introduced by Senator
Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina) could soon render his setup obsolete
once he begins upgrading the network.

With the full support of Hollywood and the major music labels,
Hollings introduced the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television
Promotion Act, which would require all new hardware and software
products be embedded with copy protections that limit how people are
able to watch and listen to digital files.

"The bill could very easily create a great divide in the home between
the entertainment and computer aspects of your life," said Carl Howe,
a principal analyst with Forrester . "There are (cable and phone)
gateways into the home, and the technology allows for convergence, but
the business model of the entertainment industry requires divergence."

[..]

Several consumer groups and electronics companies aligned themselves
against Hollings, saying consumers like Dinda would suddenly stop
purchasing new gadgets. That would give the electronics industry less
incentive to innovate. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has also
battled government-mandated copy protections as well, arguing that the
security allows corporations to dictate how people watch movies and
listen to music they have legally obtained.

[..]

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MfG
 Olaf, ./fx3

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