FC: Forget MP3 players: Hollings' CBDTPA regulates software too

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

As a bonus, here's a section-by-section summary of the bill:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51275,00.html

And a collection of info on the Consumer Broadband and Digital
Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA):
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/

-Declan

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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51274,00.html

   Anti-Copy Bill Slams Coders
   By Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

   1:25 p.m. March 22, 2002 PST
   WASHINGTON -- America's programmers, engineers and sundry bit-heads
   have not yet figured out how much a new copyright bill will affect
   their livelihood.
   
   When they do, watch for an angry Million Geek March to storm Capitol
   Hill.

   A bill introduced this week by Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina)
   would roil the electronics industry by forcibly embedding copy
   protection into all digital devices, from MP3 players to cell phones,
   fax machines, digital cameras and personal computers.
   
   But the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act
   (CBDTPA) would also wreak havoc on programmers and software companies
   -- both those distributing code for free and those selling it.
   
   No more than two years and seven months after the bill becomes law,
   the only code programmers and software firms will be able to
   distribute must have embedded copy-protection schemes approved by the
   federal government.
   
   To put this in perspective: The CBDTPA would, if enacted in its
   current form, have the electrifying effect on computer professionals
   that the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore did to some
   Democratic Party members.
   
   Legal experts said on Friday that the CBDTPA regulates nearly any
   program, in source or object code, that runs on a PC or anything else
   with a microprocessor.
   
   That's not just Windows media players and their brethren, as you might
   expect. The CBDTPA's sweeping definition of "any hardware or software"
   includes word processors, spreadsheets, operating systems, compilers,
   programming languages -- all the way down to humble Unix utilities
   like "cp" and "cat."
   
   "The definition will cover just about anything that runs on your
   computer -- except maybe the clock," said Tom Bell, a professor at
   Chapman University School of Law who teaches intellectual property
   law.

   [...]



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