Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["H. Wade Minter" <minter AT lunenburg.org>]

On Thu, 25 Jul 2002, David R. Matusiak wrote:

> 1. while i truly believe we must fight this type of ignorant legislation, i 
> do
> wonder why the onus is always upon the "techie-geek-hacker" types to do all 
> the
> work? if these horrific laws are going to effect everyone equally, then why 
> are
> only geeks responsible for protecting everyones rights? is it because most
> citizens are too stupid to understand what is going on? or too busy to care?
> additionally, this is the ONE group that the square community isn't going to
> ever listen to - so they are forever treading water without any assistance.

The onus is on us because we're the ones who will be first and most
directly affected.  Joe Citizen's not going to care until he can't tape
"The Sopranos" from his new HDTV onto his Time-Warner Tivo clone.  By the
time that happens, the impact to the tech sector and the more
technologically inclined citizen will have become severe.  The idea is to
try to rally our own troops around the cause, and make like Barney Fife
and nip it in the bud.

> 2. just how far does the congress/mpaa/riaa triumvirate think they can push 
> the
> american public? it seems to me that there is this giant slip-n-slide 
> directly
> from their potties to our mouths and that we just keep taking it -- over and
> over again -- year after year. eating sh*t, that is. frankly, i'm tired of 
> the
> taste. but i don't have a movie/recording studio in my house...

They'll push it as far as they can, of course, especially since they have
Congress in their pockets.  Joe Citizen may grumble about the price of
movies and CDs, but by and large don't care, as long as they still have
their MTV.  One hope for the future may be with the generation in college
now - they're growing up with P2P filesharing, CD burners, and fast
internet connections.  If those get threatened, they may try to make some
waves.

> 3. okay, now wrap your mind around THIS: these people want to be given the
> "right" to protect their "property" by technological means. do you have any
> recollection of their past "technological means?" [1] macrovision filters 
> on VHS
> tapes - workaround devices were released within weeks for copying. [2] the
> brilliant encryption written by DVD-CCA (CSS or Content Scrambling System) -
> reverse engineered by a bunch of teens in europe with code (DeCSS) released 
> on
> the internet. [3] also outstanding was the adobe e-book protection "sceme" -
> broken by elcomsoft and Dmitry. had he not gone to jail (under the DMCA) we
> would be seeing that code now.

There is no unbreakable protection method, which is why Big Hollywood is
going to Congress to be able to hang the threat of prison and/or fines
over people.

> here is the only 'gotcha' - if the law (or any like it) passes, then these
> entities will have the full wrath of U.S. Law behind them -- which makes it 
> oh
> so easy to abuse the smaller factions. by having the authority to close 
> down an
> entire network segment and/or block IP addresses and/or search and seize
> houses/equipment/etc then surely the techies will be fuXored.

Exactly.  If they can intimidate people with lawsuits, it doesn't matter
if they're in the right or in the wrong.  Most people will cave rather
than engage in a legal fight against a multibilliondollar corporation.

> thankfully, i don't participate in such P2P non-sense, but still the legal
> ensnarements trouble me. however, at the end of the day, i don't fear for 
> the
> sanctity of my systems. i don't think they could get in if i gave them a 
> login.

Even if you don't P2P, or if you think that P2P users are all a bunch of
dirty pirates, the act of Congress handing over the authority of a lynch
mob to some private corporations, just because they claimed hardship,
should give you pause.  P2P is first, then things like Tivo, CD/DVD
burners, etc.  Eventually, I can see it getting to a point where in order
to "create content", you have to get the blessing of the government or the
*AA in order to mark your content as "approved."

--Wade

-- 
If you have a VCR or MP3 player, you need to read these links:

http://www.digitalconsumer.org/
http://digitalspeech.org/
http://www.libertyboard.org/