From rbowen at rcbowen.com Thu Mar 28 15:11:15 2002 From: rbowen at rcbowen.com (Rich Bowen) Date: Thu Aug 5 00:06:11 2004 Subject: LPM: CBDTPA - proposed legislation Message-ID: For those of you who don't follow very closely what goes on in Congress and the Senate, I would encourage you to take a look at a bill recently proposed by Senator Hollings, affectionately referred to as The Senator >From Disney. Poorly disguised as a bill to protect the Broadband and Digital Television industries, and more broadly claiming to be a way to defeat media "piracy", this bill has the very real potential to make Open and Free operating systems, and free software in general, illegal, or at least heavily restricted. It may seem that I am being alarmist about this, so rather than launch into my rant about this (I am really very worked up about this, and have been discussing it with various people a lot today) I will direct you to some URLs that discuss the issue from the perspective of what it can and will do to the technology business. First, however, the URL to the bill itself, so that you have the proper context: http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020321_s2048_cbdtpa_bill.pdf OK, and the following are some important commentaries on this bill: http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/24616.html http://lwn.net/2002/0328/ http://www.evolt.org/article/ITAA_Opposes_Digital_Rights_Management_Act/1/23037/index.html And, on the Senate's own web site, http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/input_form.cfm This last URL sometimes seems to not load properly the first time or two. It is responses from citizens, directed to the committe who proposed this bill. They are overwhelmingly opposed to the measure. I encourage you to contact your senator, and your congressperson, and tell them how you feel about this issue. I don't presume to make up your mind for you, but it is my considered opinion that the entertainment industry is willing to dispose of my job for the sake of creating additional revenue for their industry, and in the process deny me certain rights that Mr Adams and Mr Jefferson thought that I should have when they wrote the documents that started this whole USA thing going in the first place. I am also proposing that the LPLUG contact our legislators with a statement about this matter. I am writing up such a statement, and will send it out to the list when I have done so, so that you can see what I will be sending to our legislators in our name, and you can shout me down if you think that I am misled. -- Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com Education Director, Lexington Professional Linux Users Group From gcasillo at ket.org Thu Mar 28 15:28:52 2002 From: gcasillo at ket.org (Gregg Casillo) Date: Thu Aug 5 00:06:11 2004 Subject: LPM: CBDTPA - proposed legislation References: Message-ID: <3CA38B14.1090601@ket.org> I agree with Rich's assessment of this legislation, but I would encourage anyone moved to speak against (or for) this bill to call their respective Representatives and Senators. Form letters and form e-mails are easily mass-produced, and thus, they do not possess as much persuasion as intended. While you probably will get some page or other lackey that works in your Representative's or Senator's office, a phone call likely has more influence. You can't photocopy or bulk mail a phone call. Remember to be courteous but firm. Repressed ;), Gregg Casillo From janine at emazing.com Thu Mar 28 15:49:55 2002 From: janine at emazing.com (Janine) Date: Thu Aug 5 00:06:11 2004 Subject: LPM: CBDTPA - proposed legislation In-Reply-To: <3CA38B14.1090601@ket.org> Message-ID: Postal mail sent to the Hill can be delayed up to 2 weeks due to decontamination procedures. So if you want your opinion to be known *now* then consider email or, as Gregg suggested, a phone call. Janine