Something very important you all should read..

[Gorlim]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=728226&STARTPAGE=1
http://www.usatoday.com/money/tech/2002-03-01-piracy.htm
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=344049

The SSSCA, among other things, will make the following illegal:
* Assembling a home-built PC.
* Using a non-secure computer (ie, a computer built before the would-be implementation of the SSSCA) on a network.
* Widespread development of open-sourced (non-copyrighted and “digitally unsigned? software.
* Use of open-sourced software (essentially the entire software platform for the UNIX and Linux operating systems, on which Computer Science research relies).
* University and corporate research on systems, debugging, security, and watermarking
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?SSSCA

 

[danielson]

what is their reasoning behind it?

and this sounds crazy,....

 

[polarpixie]

Hmmph...i'm gonna have to call an urban legend on this one.

 

[TheProject]

Not an urban legend, but an exaggeration of the truth.

The SSSCA is designed to protect copyrights in the digital world.

It would not make building your own PC illegal, but the individual components would have to support whatever form of digital copy protection is approved. While I don't think the bill makes good sense, let's not go crazy and proclaim this the end of the PC.

A few links of interest:

A Wired magazine article:

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46655,00.html

Specific information about the bill:

http://216.110.42.179/docs/hollings.090701.html

 

[polarpixie]

Not an urban legend, but an exaggeration of the truth.

The SSSCA is designed to protect copyrights in the digital world.

It would not make building your own PC illegal, but the individual components would have to support whatever form of digital copy protection is approved. While I don't think the bill makes good sense, let's not go crazy and proclaim this the end of the PC.

A few links of interest:

A Wired magazine article:

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46655,00.html

Specific information about the bill:

http://216.110.42.179/docs/hollings.090701.html

Ah...thanx Project....and...

 

[TheProject]

Ah...thanx Project....and...

You're welcome Pix!

And right back atcha!

 

[Gorlim]

not an exaggeration they wanna talk it that far.. and definetly not an urban legend.

 

[TheProject]

not an exaggeration they wanna talk it that far.. and definetly not an urban legend.

There's nothing specifically mentioned in the legislation that WOULD take it that far. Granted, assuming this becomes law, it would be open to interpretation, but nowhere does it say "you can't build your own PC". The implication is that your home-built PC would have to contain components that meet the requirements of the law.

Personally, I think some sort of law like this is inevitable, and quite possibly futile. The US government will always be able to shut down domestic companies like Napster, but what do you do about KaZaa? Gnutella? Or any of the others.

The major studios and record companies will get something passed to protect their vested interests, but how useful it will be in the long term is the question.

 

[Gorlim]

if this happened i would really really start to hate the united states government big time. I already realize its a bunch of lies and bullshit but this would just take it to a new extreme.

 

[KA-BAR]

The End is Near!