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

[John Galt <galt(at)inconnu.isu.edu>]

The bill with the short title of Anti-Terrorism act of 2001 is HR 2896.
Go read it yourself and find the life imprisonment for hackers in it...  I
would normally soften the blow by saying that I was late in pointing this
out because of blah and whatever, but it got cosponsored about the time
the post I'm replying to came out.  Does ANYBODY ever check these things
out anymore?


On Mon, 24 Sep 2001, Scott A Crosby wrote:

>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
>
>
>
>--
>No DVD movie will ever enter the public domain, nor will any CD. The last CD
>and the last DVD will have moldered away decades before they leave copyright.
>This is not encouraging the creation of knowledge in the public domain.
>
>
>

-- 
The early worm gets the bird.

Who is John Galt?  galt@inconnu.isu.edu, that's who!