[dvd-discuss] Congress fiddles while Caesar takes over..

[Scott A Crosby <crosby(at)qwes.math.cmu.edu>]

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/24/gen.america.under.attack/

     Saying that the United States is trying to fight terrorism with
     "antique weapons," Attorney General John Ashcroft asked Congress
     today to quickly approve legislation that would give law enforcement
     broader surveillance powers.

     ...

     (CNN) -- Warning that "the American people do not have the luxury of
     time," Attorney General John Ashcroft called on Congress Monday to
     quickly approve a legislative package he said would help authorities
     combat terrorism.

     ...

And,

     http://www.securityfocus.com/news/257

     Hackers face life imprisonment under 'Anti-Terrorism' Act

     ...

     But the list also includes the provisions of the Computer Fraud and
     Abuse Act that make it illegal to crack a computer for the purpose of
     obtaining anything of value, or to deliberately cause damage.

Wasn't Skylarov called a 'hacker'? After all, he did hack his own computer
to derive something that at least Adobe called valuable. And the way that
'value' is being redefined, a loss of a sale (say, installing linux
instead of windows). Will that be called illicitly obtaining things of
value.

Anyone want a bet as to the odds of SSSCA passing behing the scenes soon.
Maybe in conjunction with these laws. ``See! We can build a PC that has
unremovable trapdoors to let you monitor or control whenever you want. We
can even disable encryption software. Just pass this law making other PC's
illegal to sell, and in 10 years, we'll co-own the keys to the digital
kingdon.''


Now I wish I had a fiddle.


Scott



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