[free-sklyarov] Hollings Schedules SSSCA Hearings October 25

Thu Oct 18 21:40:31 PDT 2001

(Forwarded from New Yorkers for Fair Use list, fairuse at mrbrklyn.com)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 00:25:15 -0400
From: Brooklyn Linux Solutions CEO <ruben at mrbrklyn.com>

On 2001.10.18 20:53:34 -0400 Karsten M. Self wrote:

Mark Lewis of Webnoize reports that hearings on the SSSCA ("Security
Systems Standards and Certification Act") are scheduled for October 25.
Public and fair-use interests not invited.

Background:

The SSSCA is legislation authored by Senators Hollings (D-SC) and
Stevens (R-AK) that would mandate copy prevention controls on every
piece of electronic hardware, and every computer program, with no
exceptions.  It was first publicized in early September.  Sponsorship
appears to come from Disney corporation.  

The law would make illegal a broad range of hardware, and would
effectively render the burgeoning free software movement a criminal
movement.  The focus on digital television, and language in the statute
on "time shifting", also appears to ban such pedestrian activities as
recording programs for repeated playing from TV broadcasts.

This language has *not been revised*, according to

http://news.webnoize.com/item.rs?ID=14477
Hollings Sets Hearing on Copy Control, Explains Need for New Law

Executives from Walt Disney, News Corp. and Thomson Multimedia will
testify next week on Capitol Hill on the need for a proposed bill that
ensures that computers and digital devices prevent individuals from
making unauthorized copies of media, whether the content is copyrighted
or not.

Scheduled for October 25, the Senate Commerce Committee hearing will
provide the first congressional forum to probe Disney's and News Corp.'s
support for an unintroduced draft bill that would require all hardware
manufacturers, networking companies and web sites to use security
technologies approved by the federal government.

Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC) drafted the
bill, called the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, at
the urging of Disney and News Corp., which have sought new legal
guarantees for the protection of digital movies and digital TV
broadcasts. A Senate source said it hasn't been determined whether the
bill will be introduced in the remaining weeks of this congressional
session. The bill's draft language, first reported by Webnoize, hasn't
been revised [see 09.7.01 Hollings' Draft Bill Presents Radical Changes
to Hardware and Copyright Law, Document Shows].

...

Some computer and electronics attorneys believe their industries might
eventually agree to a bill that only establishes copy-control for
digital video and requires technology to prevent consumers from
distributing digital TV files through the Internet.

Closing that loophole is a problem because digital TV is broadcast
without any encryption. Some industry attorneys believe that a law is
needed to force manufacturers to build sets and recorders that use
encryption, because a licensing system to require encryption could run
afoul of antitrust law.

...

Hollings' letter, which was also sent to lobbying groups the Business
Software Alliance and the Consumer Electronics Association, chastised
the organizations for offering their leaders to testify at the October
25 hearing, but not senior executives from member companies. Members
include 3Com, Apple, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sony Electronics and
hundreds of others.

...

Disney and News Corp. secured witness spots for their top executives --
Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner and News Corp. Chief Operating
Officer Peter Chernin. Other conglomerates' studios, notably Sony
Corp.'s Sony Pictures and AOL Time Warner's Warner Bros., haven't chimed
in to support the bill, having already agreed to use encryption
co-developed by Matsushita, Sony, Hitachi, Intel and Toshiba for movies
delivered over cable and satellite systems.

Thomson, the French electronics giant, snagged a witness spot for Jim
Meyer, the firm's highest-ranking American and a special advisor to
Thomson's chairman. Eager to accelerate its digital TV business and
protect its MP3 audio business, Thomson is taking a careful political
position on the issue.

...

Non-profit public interest groups haven't been invited to the hearing,
which has motivated them to take action. The Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) is drafting a letter to Hollings asking that the EFF,
librarians or consumer groups be included, according to Fred von
Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney for the EFF.

Branding the bill "DMCA 2," after the highly controversial Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the EFF states on its web site that
Hollings' bill would eliminate the "preservation or protection of fair
use, first sale, the public domain, or any of the other rights reserved
for the public by copyright law."

"We're also talking to other interested parties, including the Consumer
Electronics Association, the Home Recording Rights Coalition, and ACM
[Association for Computing Machinery], as well as several technology
companies, about the possibility of building a broad coalition to oppose
the bill," emailed von Lohmann.

The hearing is called "Promoting Broadband: Securing Content and
Accelerating the Transition to Digital Television." At press time, the
hearing had not been postponed due to a clean-up project to remove
anthrax bacteria sent to the office of Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the
Democratic majority leader.

For additional background, see:

Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (Full Text)
http://cryptome.org/sssca.htm

Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (Analysis)
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/hollings.090701.html

EFF Alert:  Defeat SSSCA:
http://www.eff.org/alerts/20010921_eff_sssca_alert.html

USACM letter to Sen. Hollings criticizing draft SSSCA bill
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02591.html
http://www.acm.org/usacm/SSSCA-letter.html

Sen. Hollings plans to introduce DMCA sequel: The SSSCA
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02483.html

Anti-SSSCA petition asks Congress not to pass draft bill
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02488.html

Hollywood lobbyists laud SSSCA as "exceedingly reasonable" bill
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02499.html

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>    http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?           Home of the brave
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