Security Systems Standards and Certification Act Will Kill technology

falcon

Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA)

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.



This is the worst legislation to ever pass into congress. And if it gets passed I will have lost all faith is my country. Our technological dominance of the world would be crushed in a heartbeat. Thousands, possibly millions, would loose there jobs, along with the hundreds upon hundreds of companies that would go out of buisness.



Let us rise up against this gross infraction of our rights. Write a letter to your congressman. And sign this petition.



<a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/SSSCA/petition.html"; target="_blank">http://www.petitiononline.com/SSSCA/petition.html</a>;





<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/tech/2002-03-01-piracy.htm"; target="_blank">http://www.usatoday.com/money/tech/2002-03-01-piracy.htm</a>;



<a href="http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/business/2764054.htm"; target="_blank">http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/business/2764054.htm</a>;



<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&amp;siteid=yhoo&amp;dist=yhoo&amp;guid={CC92A3EB-B59F-41F6-840C-4D224E765A2E}&quot; target="_blank">http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&siteid=yhoo&dist=

yhoo&guid=%7BCC92A3EB-B59F-41F6-840C-4D224E765A2E%7D</a>



God help us if this is true.



[ 03-03-2002: Message edited by: Falcon ]</p>

artman @_@

[quote]Originally posted by Falcon:

<strong>* Assembling a home-built PC.</strong><hr></blockquote>



WHOA! That is the one that freaked me. I know that many here got involved with computers for just this reason!



And the rest just smacks of 1984...



I signed the petition and I hope everyone here does do too.

brian j.

I read the stories that Falcon provided, and read something about this last week. From my limited understanding, this act requires manufacturers to include piracy prevention support in their hardware. However, I didn't read anything about preventing:



* 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.



Can someone provide me a link please? I'm still trying to form an objective opinion on this.



[ 03-03-2002: Message edited by: Brian J. ]</p>

mac guru

<a href="http://www.stoppoliceware.org/"; target="_blank">http://www.stoppoliceware.org/</a>;



Mac Guru

brian j.

[quote]Originally posted by Falcon:

<strong>The SSSCA, among other things, will make the following illegal:

* Assembling a home-built PC.

</strong><hr></blockquote>

[quote]Originally posted by Artman @_@:

<strong>WHOA! That is the one that freaked me. I know that many here got involved with computers for just this reason!

</strong><hr></blockquote>

Hey, look on the bright side. Mac users were never able to assemble their own computers, so this would remove a major advantage of Wintel PCs.



Quoting Spock in Star Trek II, "Sauce for the goose, Lieutenant Saavik. The odds will be even."

fotns

You use Macs because of a personal choice, and accept that Apple sells them as appliances, not allowing you to buy components and build your own machine. But to deny others the freedom of building their own systems out of jealousy because of your own decisions is sad and disturbing.

There is no ?bright side? to this bill, and it must be stopped. There are too many laws and regulations in this country and we must not give the government even more power to intrude on our freedom.

brian j.

Chill out. I thought it was obvious that I was joking. I own four Wintel PCs, two of which I built myself.



But as long as I'm responding... I just read the bill. I believe the SSSCA Act is unconstitutional, so I will sign the petition.



HOWEVER, I think SSSCA's opponents have exaggerated how damaging it would be. I did not read anything in the bill that would stifle research or open source development, and, if executed properly, the SSSCA Act should still allow people to build their own PCs.



Furthermore, piracy is ridiculously out of control, and I support the efforts of copyright holders to stop it. I do not believe all software should be free as open source zealots, such as Richard Stallman, suggest. Capitalism drives the innovation that separates this country from deteriorating countries like Russia or third world countries like Afghanistan. And companies should do everything constitutionally allowable to protect it.



To sum up, I'm against the SSSCA Act, because it is unconstitutional. Although they won't admit it, most people are against it because they like getting their music and warez for free, or they just like to bitch. If you're not a pirate, I don't see how this bill effects you.



&lt;final rant&gt;Read the actual bill people, and form your own opinions, rather than blindly believing everything on a zealot's website.&lt;/final rant&gt;



[ 03-03-2002: Message edited by: Brian J. ]</p>

matsu

This is scary **** . I hope the day doesn't come when I can only buy hard-drives, optical drives, and motherboards that are more interested in reporting my use to some third party than they are with carrying out the tasks for which I've assembled them.



Interesting times ahead. <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />

airsluf

logan cale

When's the next flight off the planet?