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

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Politech archive on CBDTPA bill:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cbdtpa

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From: "Jane Black" <jane_black () businessweek com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: CBDPTA and Linux
Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 10:45:27 -0400
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20020515100659.022aaa50 () mail well com>

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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