copyright due for overhaul (Re: Software pirates face

[Joe Harrison]

> Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 02:02:34 +0100
> From: Adam Back <adam@cypherspace.org>
> To: ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk

> The latest trends of outlawing circumventing copy controls (DMCA) are
> quite evil and stifling of progress.  In the US the current battle is
> over proposals to outlaw sale of general purpose computers without
> digital copyprotection mechanisms extending right out to peripherals
> -- encryption to the monitors, and speakers, copy-protection
> encryption in the hard disk firm ware.

It's not that I don't broadly agree, although to a certain extent you can
see their point that having spent 100 zillion dollars filming "Star Blaster
Warriors III" in a quarry somewhere they want to be able to deter easy
duplication of their DVD releases.

What I see as much more important is that many would like to use this
anti-piracy excuse as a convenient vehicle basically to get control of your
hardware. After which of course they 0wN J00 and you can kiss goodbye to
secure crypto, running unapproved software, visiting banned websites, well
you get the drift.

Joe