While I don't usually get involved with political issues. This one threatens my ability to stay on the internet. And, not me alone. There are a lot of us who can't afford a big formal web hosting service and it's these 'little' ISP's that cut us the slack that allows us to operate.

This one has me worked up enough to actually join the EFF, though I don't endorse all that they do.

Do your own web research by searching for 'SSSCA' and/or 'CBDTPA'. Then you decide if I'm really as crazy as I sound.

I strongly urge all Americans to write, on paper, their representatives and oppose this legislation.

Hollywood money goes a long way to tempting our representatives. There is a strong Entertainment Industry Lobby fighting to control America.

Here are a few links I thought You'd find interesting. updated 03APR2002

Here is the letter I drafted. Please feel free to link or use as a template.

March 27, 2002

Dear Senator/Congressman/Etc.,

I am deeply troubled by the bill submitted by Sen. Hollings, CBDTPA - the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act.

I am adamantly against this bill and urge you to vote against it for the following reasons:

1. This bill would obsolete and make illegal almost all, if not all, ‘open source’ software such as Linux and Apache. Many small, especially rural area, ISP’s rely on low cost open source software to run their web services. This would put them out of business. And, kick literally 10’s of thousands of people off the internet.
   
   
2. I program part time and as a hobby. I write software to help children understand math and science. My software has always been given away free. I have never written a program to circumvent any copy protection scheme. However, under this bill should I give a copy of a free program I write to a friend I become a federal felon. Unless I include all of the bloated federally mandated copy protection code.
   
   To put this in perspective I’ll use this illustration. Let’s say your hobby is fly fishing. And, you are a world class fly fisherman. You relish using the lightest possible line. But, a new bill would make illegal your use of any line lighter than 75lb test. Further, it would also make it illegal for you to share your catch with anyone, should you happen to catch anything.
   
   That’s exactly what this bill will do to hobbyist programmers.
   
   
3. The inclusion of the extra federally mandated code on embedded systems will make most, if not all, no longer economically viable because of the increased size of the required code. Also, the complexity of the extra code would require a more robust, and expensive microprocessor.
   
   
4. I do not live in an area where I can expect Broadband or DSL any time in the foreseeable future, even with federal grants.
   
   The goal of making the internet safe for ‘hollywood’ to distribute ‘digital’ events is a ridiculous argument. The internet, even with Broadband, was never designed for that much data transmission. The resulting traffic jam would result in a DSL or Broadband connection running the equivalent of a 28K dialup.
   
   [added March 28, 2002]
   
   I would resist signing on with any broadband provider who would allow digital movies on their system as such offerings would degrade performance to the point that subscribing to broadband would make no improvement in my internet research and browsing activities.
   
   That's what cable and sattelite TV is for.
   
   The internet was concieved as a research tool. Not, an entertaiment medium.
   
   This bill would force out the very people who created the internet and for whom it was created.
   
   
5. Further, never in America has the Constitution or other legislative mandate been designed to remove any and all risk for a commercial entity in the market place. This bill would do that for ‘hollywood’.
   
   A simple solution, if their offerings are really that great (and you can get the ISP’s to agree to host such bandwidth hogging offerings), would be to encrypt the data and sell small set-top boxes to decode the offerings. These set-top boxes could have a downloadable key using the existing 128 bit key, and be updated periodically via the media feed, whatever that may be.
   
   But, to obsolete literally all of my software and hardware, and that of millions of other Americans, to benefit any commercial segment is ludicrous, asinine, and wholly unAmerican. The economic impact of this alone would be enough for me to leave the internet entirely and stop buying all digital media and hardware.
   
   
6. The letter of this law would preclude all computer programming instruction by making it illegal for students (or teachers) to share programming solutions and examples, unless the entire copy protection scheme is included.
   
   Now, I have to ask how in the world you can teach beginner programming when you are required to start with something as complex as a security algorithm? After all it has to be included.
   
   
7. The bill would pave the way for federally mandated software monopolies. Just the type we’ve already spent millions of dollars trying to prevent (ineffectively) by prosecuting Microsoft. By forcing out of business small software venders who are forced to concede that their product simply isn’t viable with all the software overhead required by law. Runs too slow, takes up too much memory.
   
   Further, the cost of maintaining membership in whatever secret committee is formed is likely to be prohibitive for all but the largest software vendors. (The committee in SSSCA is specifically exempted from all ‘Sunshine Laws’.
   
   
8. Locks are for honest people. No matter how secure a system is, if there is adequate incentive to attempt a penetration, it can and will be done. That is why the GSA rates safes in man-hours, and differing levels of security documents can be left only in certain man-hour rated safes for only so long without being physically checked.
   
   So, I have to ask who is being punished here? Surely the pirates aren’t. For, they will continue to circumvent and exploit holes in security no matter how tight the web oversight is.
   
   No, the people who are going to be harmed are the millions of hard working blue-collar Americans who surf the web, or who do recreational and educational programming.
   
   Not only that, but, millions of jobs will be lost when companies decide that it just isn’t economically feasible to continue operation with the extra overhead of software and hardware restrictions, and either shut down completely or otherwise radically change their operation.