[sdiy] Re: DMCA's successor, SSSCA, renamed to CBDTPA

[Josh Landau]

I don't normally forward things like this to the list, but...

This should put the CBDPTA into perspective.

>From: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
>To: politech at politechbot.com
>Subject: FC: Forget MP3 players: Hollings' CBDTPA regulates software too
>X-URL: Politech is at http://www.politechbot.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 at 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.
>
>    [...]
>
>
>
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