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Some things I agree with
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Sunday, November 4 I sincerely hope this doesn't happen... Taken from //www.stoppoliceware.org/ WHAT IS THE SSSCA? The SSSCA is a bill, pushed by the entertainment industry, to be proposed in Congress by Senators Fritz Hollings (D-SC) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). The acronym stands for "Security Systems Standards and Certification Act". WHAT WOULD THIS LAW DO? The law would force all new personal computers and digital home entertainment devices sold in the United States to have government-approved "policeware" built-in. This policeware would restrict your use of copyrighted material on these devices -- including music files and CD's, video clips, DVD's, e-books, and more. WHO COULD GO TO JAIL? You, if you're one of the millions of Americans who uses your computers to burn music CD's, listen to MP3's, share video files, etc. You'd face up to five years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine. Think you'd be able to get around the law by removing the policeware from your personal computer? Think again -- anyone who defies the government by disabling or tampering with the policeware on their own computer, in the privacy of their own home or business, would also face five years in the slammer. Since alternative operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD would most likely refuse to incorporate government policeware into their code, users of these open-source systems would also be eligible for hard time. HOW CAN WE FIGHT THIS? If we have any hope of keeping government policeware off of our personal computers and home entertainment devices, we must act quickly and decisively. For starters, you can sign our petition opposing the SSSCA, contact your representative in Washington, tell a friend about this site, and put a banner on your own web site. Thanks for joining the fight. So go on then sign the petition damnit! //www.petitiononline.com/SSSCA/petition.html Read the full Bill here. //www.stoppoliceware.org/sssca_bill_text.php And the images:  Get them here. //www.stoppoliceware.org/link_to_us.php Phew. Long post. ;) Dragged out of Christopher's memory and pasted into his blog at 11/04/2001 11:55:00 PM. Roughly. Blog ID: 6865506· | Permalink |