probably would forbid even legal copying..

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

Antipiracy bill a high-tech threat, Hollywood-style
By Hiawatha Bray, 03/04/02

Digital Mass.com (Boston Globe)
http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/globe_tech/upgrade/2002/0304.html

The junior senator from South Carolina, no longer content to erect trade
barriers in defense of his state's textile industry, is now riding to the
rescue of music recording companies and Hollywood studios. But this time,
Democrat Fritz Hollings isn't seeking to protect American industries from
foreign competitors. Instead, he wants to protect them from you.

snip

The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act is Hollings' effort
to rescue entertainment companies from the consequences of digital
technology

snip

It's possible to fight(piracy) by adding copy-protection features to the
original video and audio files, but such systems are beatable. It'd be
much harder to defeat hardware, features built into the digital devices to
block illegal copying.

(The Bill says) "It is unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the
public, provide or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device
that does not include and utilize certified security technologies."

snip

In Hollings' vision of the future, each new Intel processor, and all the
supporting chips needed to make it work, must henceforth be engineered to
protect the interests of Britney Spears and the Walt Disney Co.

snip

Any fair-minded person must admit that the music and movie industries have
a legitimate concern. Millions of people already steal their products with
digital assistance, and the problem is getting worse. But the proposed
alternative would turn our personal computers, and all our other personal
technologies, into digital busybodies that probably would forbid even
legal copying.

--end--