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FC: Senate Democrats love SSSCA -- but GOP says not so fast

Senator brutalizes Intel rep for resisting CPRM

By Thomas C Greene in Washington

Posted: 01/03/2002 at 14:41 GMT

Entertainment industry lapdog Senator Fritz Hollings (Democrat, South Carolina) lashed out at Intel executive VP Leslie Vadasz who warned that the copy-protected PCs Hollings is obediantly promoting on behalf of his MPAA and RIAA handlers would stifle growth in the marketplace.

"We do not need to neuter the personal computer to be nothing more than a videocassette recorder," Vadasz said in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Thursday.

[...]

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 11:23:11 -0500 From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: politech@politechbot.com Subject: FC: Senate Democrats love SSSCA -- but GOP says not so fast Send reply to: declan@well.com

Politech archive on Sen. Hollings' SSSCA: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=sssca

Letter from SSSCA opponents: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/sssca.opponents.letter.022702.html

Intel letter to Hollings: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/intel.hollings.letter.022802.html

Draft text of the SSSCA: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/hollings.090701.html

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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50754,00.html

By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) and Robert Zarate

2:00 a.m. March 1, 2002 PST WASHINGTON -- A Senate debate over embedding copy protection controls in all consumer electronic devices took a sharply partisan turn on Thursday.

During a packed hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, Democrats appeared far more eager for the government to intervene in what has become a highly visible tussle between Silicon Valley, which advocates a laissez-faire approach, and the Hollywood firms lobbying Congress to step in to prevent piracy.

"When Congress sits idly by in the face of these activities, we essentially sanction the Internet as a haven for thievery," committee chairman Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina) told a panel of witnesses that included Walt Disney chairman Michael Eisner, News Corp. President Peter Chernin and Intel Executive Vice President Leslie Vadasz.

[...]

"We might need to legislate," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), though he emphasized that he would prefer the private sector reach an agreement on how to protect copyrighted electronic content.

"Unfortunately, one issue seems close to an impasse -- how do we keep files from being illegally shared and distributed over the Internet?" complained Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California).

Republicans appeared much more skeptical of the SSSCA -- which is, after all, championed by a Democratic committee chairman -- and argued legislation would be too interventionist.

In the 2000 election cycle, the entertainment industry gave Democrats a whopping $24.2 million in contributions compared to $13.3 million to Republicans, according to figures compiled by opensecrets.org.

[...]

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