[ale] SSSCA rears its (ugly) head once more

[Charles Shapiro]

If you haven't heard of it, the SSSCA (Security Systems Standards
Certification Act) would mandate that all new hard drives contain an
as-yet-undecided copy-protection scheme. Buying or selling a new drive
which was not so crippled would be a crime.  It  would also be a crime
to tamper with the copy-protection hardware or software on a disk drive.
Up to a half-million dollar fine or five years in jail for the first
offfense. This ain't law yet, but the time to act is now.

"When Congress sits idly by in the face of these activities, we
essentially sanction the Internet as a haven for thievery" 
Fritz Hollings (D-SC) Feb 28, 2002 (hearings re the SSSCA)

Uh, maybe it's time to do an ALE meeting on "Progress toward outlawing
Open Source". Congress is really starting to scare me here. Any lawyers
or politicos in the house? I'd be glad to help out, but I don't really
feel qualified to do a full presentation.

-- CHS

---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.