Ignorant Legislators in Michigan
When lawmakers create stupid laws, they reduce respect for the what they do and injure civil society. With hardly any notice, but with the obvious connivance of a copyright cartel that doesn't care what damage it does to the rest of us in its pursuit of total control over copyrighted material, legislators are being herded into passing laws that basically ban common computing practices -- including some that are fundamental to your online security.
Ed Felten warned us a few days ago, and now the evidence is worse than we expected. Michigan Act 328 as amended and taking effect today, makes it illegal to communicate with your office via a VPN, for example, say people who understand this bizarre statute. Unbelievable stupidity.
According to Cnet, this is happening in other states as well. And guess whose greasy fingerprints are all over it? Right, the movie studios.
You expect underhanded behavior from the entertainment cartel. They don't care how many innocent people will get ensnared by this, whether through reduced security in their computing or through unfair prosecutions. If it's even one, given how avoidable this situation should have been, that's one too many.
� posted by Dan Gillmor 11:49 AM
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