Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 03:54:10 -0700
Reply-To: John Dagastino <themisanthropicmeanie@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Dagastino <themisanthropicmeanie@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Off Topic, but important.. the "SSSCA"
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
i don't mean to derail the content of the vanagon
mailing list in any way, i merely feel that this is
important enough to take a moment and look at:
http://www.stoppoliceware.org/
http://www.boycott-riaa.com/
it amazes me, continually, what they try to get away
with behind our backs.
sign the petition ,please. :(
" 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.
http://www.boycott-riaa.com/
they've also tried to make hard drives 'copy
protected' in the past. they have thankfully failed.
the blind, shameless, unabashed greed of the RIAA is ,
to say the least, frightening.
http://www.stoppoliceware.org/
=====
"Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. "
- H. L. Mencken
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live in the real world."
-Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
More Quotation fun @ http://nerddom.8m.com/quotes.html
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