EFF Action alert

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html

ALERT: Congress Calls For Public Participation on Digital Media Technology
Mandates

Submit Comments Opposing Technology Mandates
(Revised: April 9, 2002 / Expires: April 22, 2002)

Introduction:

Imagine a world where all digital media technology is either mandatory or
forbidden -- Senator Fritz Hollings and a cabal of Hollywood entertainment
interests are cooking up a set of laws aimed at conjuring this apocalyptic
world into existence.

Today, Senator Hollings introduced the alarming Consumer Broadband and
Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), which will give Hollywood
plutocrats the power to stall new digital media technologies for a year,
negotiating a phony "consensus" at lawyer-point with technologists. This
"consensus" will receive the force of law, prescribing which user-hostile
features are mandatory and which innovative features are forbidden. CBDTPA
is derived from the draft SSSCA (Security Systems & Standards
Certification Act), the subject of our last alert.  The Senate has called
for comments on the future of digital media distribution, an issue that is
deeply entwined with technology mandates.