WIPO: Bugtraq DOS Attack

[bobk () SINISTER COM (bobk)]

http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/news/0622/22wipo.html

I have just read this, and I am very alarmed about the consequences of
this bill. Essentially, if this bill becomes law, Bugtraq and much of the
rest of the Security community would be wiped out. It does this by making
it a crime to reverse-engineer software.

The horror of this bill is obvious, it is at least as bad as the CDA, and
we have yet to see much press about it. However, it is not too late to
lobby congress and the press. It passed the Senate already,
so we need to work on the house to block it. If we drum up enough media
support in a grass-roots method, we can reach the critial mass neccessary
to get heard.

The bill is supported, if not sponsored, by the SPA (software publishers
association). I'd like to get a list of its members and pressure them. I
live in the Boston area and am willing to carry a sign outside of Lotus or
whomever's headquarters for a few hours. I hope others are willing and
able to make a similar sacrifice of time and effort. Even making some
resources available to the cause would be a great help. We need to
coordinate political action. If you are in the Boston area please email me
if you are interested in coordinating action.

I realize that this list is for technical discussion and some may
consider this post off-topic, but I feel that as this bill threatens the
very existance of this list and therefore needs to be discussed.

p.s. also check:
http://www.l0pht.com
http://www.eff.org/effector/HTML/effect11.08.html
http://www.dfc.org