[iwar] [fc:Senator.brutalizes.Intel.rep.for.resisting.CPRM]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-03-03 18:22:10


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Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 18:22:10 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Senator.brutalizes.Intel.rep.for.resisting.CPRM]
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Senator brutalizes Intel rep for resisting CPRM

By Thomas C Greene in Washington

Posted: 03/01/2002 at 09:45 EST

Entertainment industry lapdog Senator Fritz Hollings (Democrat, South
Carolina) lashed out at Intel executive VP Leslie Vadasz who warned that the
copy-protected PCs Hollings is obediantly promoting on behalf of his MPAA
and RIAA handlers would stifle growth in the marketplace.

"We do not need to neuter the personal computer to be nothing more than a
videocassette recorder," Vadasz said in testimony before the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Thursday.

An obedient Hollings tore into the witness, calling his testimony
"nonsense". 

"Now where do you get all this nonsense about how we're going to have
irreparable damage?" Hollings demanded. "We don't want to legislate. We want
to give you time to develop technology."

The "we" he mentions, it's quite obvious, refers to the entertainment
industry flacks and lobbyists who wrote Hollings' pet bill, the Security
Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA), which would require hard
drives to fail to load 'insecure' applications, and perhaps even operating
systems at some point in future. Tinkering with one's own personal property
to defeat this Orwellian innovation would be criminally punishable.

This is of course the entertainment industry's dream, as it seeks to hobble
all equipment so that it can determine when, where and how its content can
be enjoyed by consumers. Copying any content from one medium to another
could be blocked on the pretext of piracy prevention, so it's entirely
possible that one would have to purchase two CDs with the same content --
one for the computer and one for the stereo, say. It's this sort of
extortion the industry has relentlessly lobbied Congress to enshrine in law.

Defeating piracy is the pretext; but obliterating the consumer's right to
fair use is the true goal. But because Congress can't quite bring itself to
eliminate fair use directly and up-front, a series of laws like the DMCA and
SSSCA have been devised to eliminate it practically, or 'incidentally'.

Naturally, the hardware industry is going to resist any law which forces it
to break its products. It understands that consumers will be disappointed by
equipment which fails to let them enjoy content which they've purchased.
They see a slump in sales in the SSSCA. And they're probably right.

The hearing was a typical Congressional dog-and-pony show designed to stroke
Hollywood fat cats like Michael Eisner and Jack Valenti pursuing the Holy
Grail of pay-per-use technology. No critics were invited to speak, and no
harsh criticism was expected.

So when Intel's Vadasz showed the spine to blast the entertainment
industry's pet scheme, he had to be beaten down, and Hollings was of course
eager to please his masters.

Eisner and Valenti also testified, exhibiting their profound ignorance of
technology and their sneering contempt for the rights of consumers, under
Hollings' admiring gaze. Hollings, apparently, is an 'honest politician'
according to Brendan Behan's formula: when he's bought, he stays bought.

Hollings has also adopted the industry's basic stance, that copying is
primarily about piracy and only rarely about honest fair use, at one point
calling the Internet "a haven for thievery." But the best expression of this
comes from Recording Industry Ass. of America President Hillary Rosen, who
wrote yesterday that, "surely, no one can expect copyright owners to ignore
what is happening in the marketplace and fail to protect their creative
works because some people engage in copying just for their personal use."

The 'some people' says it all. Most people are criminals, and only a tiny
minority are honest and decent, Rosen assumes. This is also the official
perspective of Hollywood -- of Eisner, and Valenti, and Hollings. It is a
perspective natural to a certain class of person. Consider that we all
imagine others to be more or less like ourselves. Decent people expect
others to be decent, just like themselves. Criminals expect others to be
criminals, just like themselves. When Eisner and Rosen and Valenti and
Hollings see a world populated by cheats and frauds and freeloading scum,
what does that say about them? ®

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