I'd like to focus everyone's attention on this article:
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/business/2764054.htm
...not necessarily to put attention on Intel; Microsoft is joining Intel, and I hope the rest of the companies in the computing industry follow suit by speaking out against this travesty of congressional legislation.
Specifically, I'm talking about the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). This, my friends, is far worse than the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). It is yet another piece of legislation, supported by the likes of Disney and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), that supercedes decades of Supreme Court precedence regarding private fair-use laws and places the power in the hands of media and entertainment conglomerates.
Most of my greviences I'm addressing here are related to my position as a soon-to-be researcher and graduate student in Computer Science/Computer Architecture. But by no means will the SSSCA just affect scientists. The SSSCA mandates that any digital device, hardware or software, must utilize and recognize certified security technologies. This means every piece of software; every PC; every video card, hard drive, CPU, motherboard, etc; every PDA, every DVD-player and every digital movie media; every CD player & audio CD; absolutely every consumer and enterprise digital device. The use or sale of any non-SSSCA certified device leads to civil penalties up to federal felonies.
The SSSCA, among other things, will make the following illegal:
* Assembling a home-built PC.
* Using a non-secure computer (ie, a computer built before the would-be implementation of the SSSCA) on a network.
* Widespread development of open-sourced (non-copyrighted and “digitally unsigned? software.
* Use of open-sourced software (essentially the entire software platform for the UNIX and Linux operating systems, on which Computer Science research relies).
* University and corporate research on systems, debugging, security, and watermarking.
As a future researcher in Computer Science and Engineering, this is absolutely appalling. This bill would take the United States out of the position of leadership in Computer Science and Engineering, on which the multi-billion dollar PC, software, semiconductor, and computer chip industries rely. I can't even imagine the extent that this bill will hurt our relations with foreign computing companies, as well as high-tech imports and exports.
I have never been one to indulge in “conspiracy theories?or corporate hatred, but I cannot believe how many Constitutional freedoms the SSSCA would take away from the US citizens and place into the hands of the media corporations.
Yes, there is a need for security in the digital medium, but as has been shown time and time again, the computing industry will take care of itself in the implementation. There is no need to legislate this action, and do so in such a draconian manner that its implication decimates the way the computing industry operates. The entertainment industry wants to neuter the computing industry, turning powerful, general-purpose computers into expensive movie playing terminals.
I wrote letters to my Congressional representative and Senators yesterday regarding this issue, I implore all of you to do the same (write or type letters, don't send email). Tell everyone you know who is remotely interested in anything technological about this, and ask them to do the same.
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Also, sign This petition to block this horrid act:
http://www.stoppoliceware.org/
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