I e-mailed my senator, Bill Nelson ,one of the co-sponsors of the Hollings scheme to hand over the desktop market to Gates in the guise of protecting the copywrites of DVD movie cretins. Most of his answer is baffgarb but it does indicate that a lot of senators only bothered to listen to the movie industry side of it. I think what is needed is a little consumer input from around the country and world.
Lee ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Subject: Re: www_email Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2002 09:52:07 -0400 From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> October 3, 2002 Mr. Lee McKnight 104 Earl King St. Apalachicola, Florida 32320 Dear Mr. McKnight: Thank you for contacting me regarding S. 2048, the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), formerly known as the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). For many years, content developers and holders and consumer electronic manufacturers have discussed how to protect copyrighted content in the digital world. Although representatives from these industries continue to work together to find a solution, they have not yet achieved consensus on how to best solve the problem. Meanwhile, thousands of movies and hundreds of thousands of songs, video games and software programs are illegally traded every day on the Internet. Recent advances in technology pose new challenges to copyright protection. Full-length movies and video games can be downloaded illegally in several minutes for little or no cost. Products developed by our country, and others around the world are being stolen because important guidelines have not been implemented to protect these products. For these reasons, some content providers are now asserting that they can no longer wait for a solution from the industry itself, and that the situation requires legislation to force relevant industrial sectors to find a reasonable and balanced solution. To respond to those concerns, Senators Fritz Hollings and Ted Stevens recently introduced legislation (S. 2048) that establishes a timeline for representatives from digital media device manufacturers, consumer groups and copyright owners to come to a consensus on what technologies should be implemented to best enforce the nation's copyright laws. If representatives do not reach a consensus during one-year after enactment of this legislation, the bill requires the Federal Communications Commission to make a determination about which technology could best accomplish this goal, and then implement necessary regulations. Although I want industry to reach its own consensus on how to best solve the piracy problems on the Internet, I cosponsored S. 2048 because I believe the legislation will assist these groups in coming to such agreement. While the Senate considers this legislation, I plan to continue to work with industry in examining these issues to ensure that the all players involved, including consumers, will be protected in the process. During these negotiations, I will continue to keep your concerns in mind. Please feel free to contact me in the future. Please do not reply to this message. The e-mail address [EMAIL PROTECTED] is no longer valid for incoming messages. If you would like additional information or would like to contact me in the future, please visit my website, http://billnelson.senate.gov, and click on the link marked "Contact Bill". ------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe/Suspend/Etc -> http://www.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
