On Fri, 29 Mar 2002 11:52:46 -0500 (EST) "Douglas H. Quebbeman"
<dougq_at_iglou.com> writes:
> The End of Classic Computing, and in fact, the end
> of Computing as a hobby for almost all of us, is on
> the table in the U.S. Congress in the form of The
> Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion
> Act (CBDTPA). This insidious bill would strike at
> the very heart of this community, the software that
> keeps our ClassicComputers running, unless we or
> someone incorporates anti-pirating measures.
I say fuck 'em. Any software that complies with
this probably won't be worth using anyway. History
has proven time and again that 'anti-piracy' measures
don't work. If the 'protections' are too cumbersome,
no one will use the product. Conversely, it is also
possible to implement 'protections' that don't pose
a serious obstacle.
> Now, if that sounded inflammatory, it should. It's
> not quite accurate either. The bill will cover only
> software created from the time of the bill's passage
> and on into the future. The stuff we play with now
> would therefore be exempt.
Yeah, it looks like it's written to cover all of the
M$ crap. Don't need it. Don't want it.
> There appears to be a loophole for stuff you do that
> you never distribute. There also appears to be a loophole
> for computers that do not contain microprocessors.
RIght. 'We'll never distribute this version of Linux'
(wink, wink). It will just ram a whole bunch of
creative people underground (but maybe we'll see a
rebirth of CPUs implemented in discrete logic :^).
> But there would be a horizon coming soon. If the bill
> is passed, computers and software being developed now,
> once 10 years old, might be on-topic, but you'd be
> breaking federal law to share software.
Like I said, fuck 'em. If they come after one guy,
you know they'll have to come for about 1,000,000
other guys who are doing the same thing. There ain't
gonna be no budget for this . . .
> Sponsored by someone who must surely be certifiably
> insane, one Senator Fritz Hollings of South Carolina,
> if you want more information, see:
Certifiably insane? I don't think that's open to
debate: It's a job requirement, and has been for decades.
> This will require lots of work to defeat, I think, as
> the politicians have bought into the fantasy that a
> pirated copy of something conctitutes a lost sale.
Even if it does pass, there's nothing *anyone* can do
about it. Everyone (who matters) will ignore it.
My $0.02
Jeff
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Received on Fri Mar 29 2002 - 12:47:50 GMT