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Wired: Howling Mad Over Hollings' Bill

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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