FC: Business Week on Linux, copy protection, and Hollings bill

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Sat May 18 2002 - 15:47:26 PDT

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    Politech archive on CBDTPA bill:
    http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cbdtpa
    
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    From: "Jane Black" <jane_blackat_private>
    To: <declanat_private>
    Subject: CBDPTA and Linux
    Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 10:45:27 -0400
    In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20020515100659.022aaa50at_private>
    
    Thought Politech readers might be interested in this. A look at how Linux
    and other open source software would be affected by the trend towards
    embedded copyright protection....
    
    Forget about Bill Gates, folks. The biggest enemy of free software may be
    Senator Ernest F. Hollings. Legislation introduced in March, 2002, by the
    South Carolina Democrat to require that copyright-protection software be
    embedded in PCs, handheld computers, CD players -- and anything else that
    can play, record, or manipulate data -- could make open-source software such
    as the Linux operating system illegal.
    
    Initially, the Hollings bill provoked a huge outcry mainly from consumer
    groups, plus makers of PCs and electronics gear (see BW Online, 3/27/02,
    "Guard Copyrights, Don't Jail Innovation"). Now that the measure's full
    implications have sunk in, the usually vocal open-source community is
    starting to react as well.
    
    Linux guru and Hewlett-Packard consultant Bruce Perens says Hollings-style
    copyright protection schemes are "a high-level concern" for open-source
    advocates, a point he has made to Hollings' aides and to protechnology
    Representative Rick Boucher (R-Va.). Consumer-advocacy groups such as San
    Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation also are defending the
    open-source concept in negotiations between electronics manufacturers and
    entertainment companies that could result in new standards that outlaw the
    use of open-source components in new digital TV sets and tuners.
    
    http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2002/tc20020515_8741.htm
    
    
    
    
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