the SSSCA is here
Mar. 25th, 2002 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eubSenator Hollings has introduced S.2048, the "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act", which you may have heard of as the SSSCA. This bill would make it illegal to create or use "digital media devices" that do not meet federal standards intended to make copyright violation impossible. "Digital media device" includes any hardware or software that can reproduce, view, or transmit a copyrighted work. An industry committee will agree on the precise technical standards within a certain time, or the FCC will make some up.
Loony as this sounds, loony as it is, this is not an "FCC modem tax". The text of the bill is here, and Declan McCullagh has further articles and press releases here.
The bill's requirements cannot be met on a general-purpose computer. Nor can you meet them purely by redesigning the storage and display peripherals on a general-purpose computer. They can't, of course, really be met at all, but the only approach I can imagine we're in for is one or more government-approved operating systems with copyright management built into their security model. Homebrew and open-source OSes are out.
Loony as this sounds, loony as it is, this is not an "FCC modem tax". The text of the bill is here, and Declan McCullagh has further articles and press releases here.
The bill's requirements cannot be met on a general-purpose computer. Nor can you meet them purely by redesigning the storage and display peripherals on a general-purpose computer. They can't, of course, really be met at all, but the only approach I can imagine we're in for is one or more government-approved operating systems with copyright management built into their security model. Homebrew and open-source OSes are out.
