Re: [dvd-discuss] Protecting Creative Works in a Digital Age (revised)

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On Sun, Mar 24, 2002 at 09:06:42AM -0800, John Young wrote:
> The computer industry will not be harmed by Hollings' law
> any more than the arms industry is harmed by gun and 
> export controls.

This is not quite right. If government regulations increase the
barriers to purchasing a firearm domestically in the U.S., fewer
people will do so (this depends on a number of factors, including how
onerous the regulation is and how strong demand is). Fewer people
buying firearms does hurt the firearms industry.

> Protestation by the computer industry is prelude to
> an increase in prices to offset the cost of implementation
> of copy controls, the cost to customers being multiplied 
> several fold over the actual cost due to the expense
> of maintaining and enforcing copyright controls.

Ah, John, you're being too glib. My reading of the bill is that
i could be a felon for selling this program after the FCC
regulations take effect (unless the regs exempt me, which I wouldn't
want to gamble on):

10 INPUT A$
20 PRINT A$

The Hollings-Feinstein bill is too amazingly broad to use the
usual forms of analysis. It is the nuclear winter of technology
legislation.

-Declan