Red Hat puts out Legislation Alert on the SSSCA

the_2nd_coming writes "Red Hat has announced a legislation alert for the SSSCA. They are collecting comments to hand to lawmakers. Get those comments in while you can, but make sure you give them some thought."

Stupid rhetorics

[Anonymous Coward]

Goddamn that guy.

"We're going to shine the light of justice..."

"...draw the line in the sand against the evil ones..."

"Our work is against Evil"

Who's he talking to? The IQ 85 population?

Justification for Legislation?

[debest]

I seem to recall that the DMCA was "justified" because it was written to be compliant with the WIPO / WTO treaties that the U.S. signed.

Does anyone know if these international treaties proposed anything like the restrictions called for in the SSSCA?

Impact of law on non US citizens

[Diabolical]

I have contemplated for a time.. trying to figure out what the implications of laws like this would have for non-US citizens. Currently lot's of software/code stems from US based people.

Can someone please enlighten me as to what this law and others like it would mean for me in the Netherlands?

I would be happy to join your (and mine btw) cause but since i am not represented in the US in any way i can't do alot of things i'm afraid.

SSSCA Loophole

[Apreche]

Just as with the DMCA DCSS loopholes of turning the code into a prime number, and making songs out of the source code, there is a loophole in the SSSCA as well. If you previously owned non-secure electronic equipment then it's ok. Oh, look plextor has to re-design all of their plexwriters, I wonder what will happen to the old ones? ^_^
The big problem with the SSSCA is that newer faster computers will have to have built in security against copyright infringement, and it is illegal to break that security. It is also illegal to remove security stuffs from a copyrighted file, like one of those secure windows ones. What do we do about this? We write a java program that goes into your system and cracks all the security. Then we have it run off an obscure web server in another country. Visit website, java runs. You didn't do it. You thought the site was something else. It doesn't say anything about files that originally had no security. The SSSCA is all about making new stuff illegal, not already existing stuff. So you change the dates on all your files.

The real reason the government gets away with stuff like this is because we /.ers are the only people who understand what's going on, and pay attention to it. We have to bring this to the attention of the general public. Tell people that mp3s wont play correctly on a new computer with windowsxp. And that if this law is passed it will be illegal to download winamp. See what happens.

Yeah so buy up a bunch of hardware and download software now, that way it wont be illegal.

Let Freedom Ring

[W.B. Yeats]

I am against anything that will reduce my ability to use Open Source software. I can't afford to buy Microsoft products -- and I won't pirate them. I hope my government can understand that there are lots of people like me -- I mean, I don't go to movies, I don't rent movies -- I don't want and can't afford that culture. All I want to be able to do is participate in a community of software users and developers who share their work -- I don't want to topple Microsoft or upset the movie and recording industries or anything like that.

Think about the original New England Colonists -- they didn't want to destroy England or infringe on England's ability to do business or impose any beliefs or behaviors on England. The result of their cooperation and independence is the greatest country on the face of the Earth -- and the most vital democracy in the history of human civilization. Just think -- maybe Open Source software can be a new chapter in the continuation of the unfolding story of democracy that is the United States of America.

What RedHat has that we don't

[TedCheshireAcad]

By taking this initiative, RedHat has brought some corporate muscle behind the fight of the SSSCA. Before now, it is all private citizens writing letters to their representatives, but now that there is a major corporate backer, the anti-SSSCA movement will go further, and more representatives will pay attention to it. As a corporation, RedHat can also provide some solid technical reference, details that a Congressman or Congresswoman would be able to better understand, and be more likely to pay attention to than what Joe Linux User says about copyright protection technology.

Why would anyone think this is a good idea?

[mttlg]

Okay, so the idea here is to make every possible data storage device and the associated software play nice with copyright. The benefits are:

• Copyright infringement in the original digital form is theoretically impossible.
• Content providers, software manufacturers, etc. can sleep well knowing that their profits are secure, as long as people keep buying their products.

And some of the problems are:

• Copyright "theoretically" expires, but protection methods don't.
• Fair Use will be outlawed through technology.
• Infringement will just require an analog capture method or good old reverse engineering (which of course is already illegal in some cases, even though it isn't...).
• Hardware and software will be more expensive/less useful and there will be less to choose from, resulting in slower sales of new products and a surge in the used equipment market.
• Content will be less useful, and therefore will have less value, meaning lower sales if prices do not fall considerably to compensate (take a look at the sales of e-books).
• Updates must be made mandatory to prevent vulnerabilities from being exploited once they are discovered, meaning that the government must have access to your computer for this to work.
• The feeling of the government trying to regulate or control every aspect of our lives will increase dramatically, adding fuel to the anti-government sentiment that has temporarily faded in the past month.
• The acronym "SSSCA" doesn't even have the warm and fuzzy feel to it that "DMCA" does.

So why would someone support this?

• Ignorance
• Stupidity
• Bribes
• Greed
• Totalitarianism
• A general desire to screw people over

Am I missing something here, or could this show us what our lawmakers really think of the people they represent (assuming that they actually record the votes this time...)? We've seen much of this before, but this time they aren't even trying to make it look good.

What about literature?

[Anonymous Coward]

As I understand this, all literature on the internet (and I use this term widely to include web pages, articles, magazines, and emails) is in a digital format. Therefore if you wish to own a hard copy of it (cd , floppy disk, dvd etc...) it will have to be encrypted.

I suspect that this encryption mechanism will itself be copyrighted. This will occur for two reasons. The first, that there will be a cost involved in its design, certification, and implementation. The second, partially mentioned in the first is that digital recording equipment producers will have to "buy" into at least one scheme. There will therefore be heavy politics, and encryption mechanisms backed by well funded companies will have the upper hand in "assisting" the implementation.

Once there is a predominance of encryption mechanisms which require copyrights ( required quite vaguely to be "available for licensing on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms") specific ones will become widely accepted and used making any use of available media locked into monetary gain.

What we see here is the loss of open exchange of information. The only devices that will be able to access these media, will be again copyright devices, where the copy of information from and to will be limited. This spells the demise of the modern computer, where we can write a document, pop a floppy in, copy it and pass it to a friend. This also forshadows the end of infomation sharing, as it would be too cumbersome to allow others to access files on your computer due to excessive copywritten access mechanisms.

This will bring the internet to a standstill if implemented as intentioned in this bill.

At the heart of this controversy is the contradiction in philosophies, of ease of exchange of information which the information revolution is dependent upon, and ease of copyright which has never existed.

When this writer compares these philosophies it is the former which offers the most obvious gains to humankind, having allowed democracy and representative governments to exist, as well as dispensing with feudalism and an uninformed abused public.

the truth shall set you free

[twitter]

We'll call it The Ministry of Information

Mininfo, second in importance only to Minilove.

Re:I hope this happens.

[Billly Gates]

Americans won't care or even notice. They don't write operating systems. When napster closed down they were a little upset but forgot all about it a few weeks later.

THis will only effect only linux/freebsd geeks and even regular ms programers will not notice anything different. Perhaps just higher windows prices after linux is destroyed.

We must fight it. We are a small minority and the media is in favor of this law so our voices will never be heard to the general public. We must be involved politically then.