It seems nuts at first look. The way to enact nocopy is to embed liscencing info and match objects with users. With the CBDTPA one illegal version of 'cp' and and hell breaks loose. Yeah, that's clever alright. John A.

Douglas H. Quebbeman wrote: Hollings isn't insane, just venal and corrupt, and most likely (conveniently) ignorant, like most politicians. If you think lying and the evasion of responsibility are insane, you're ok in my book, Doug, but the numbers aren't with us there. Even it reality does bite people like Hollings in the ass eventually. The "piracy" issue is a red herring here. Pointing it out, though, will get you no more sympathy or support in many quarters than those who noted that the American Civil War was about regional economic aggression (and fueled by opportunistic war profiteering.) Fortunately, though, "piracy" is a lot easier to defend on moral grounds than slavery, when the real theft has been from third-parties by copyright holders, and most importantly, from the public domain. jbdigriz

Looks like another attempt at lawmaking aiding Microsoft and shooting Linux in the foot nicely. This has some bad and far-reaching consequences. Gary Hildebrand St. Joseph, MO "Douglas H. Quebbeman" wrote:

I'm not sure if he's insane or not, but I do believe he's guilty of Treason! This bills effect on Classic Computing really isn't important (though it would effect everyone here). What's important is what it would do, it would basically turn the US into a 3rd world country! The High Tech companies would basically have to go elsewhere or die. As for Opensource software, you can forget any further development in the US or bringing new copies (such as new versions of Linux) into the US, as that would effectivelly be illegal. As for innovation or development of new technology in the US, forget it, it wouldn't be economically viable. Then there is the question of schools. How would you be able to teach Computer Science if this is passed? Basically Senator Hollings has betrayed America and is attempting to make it impossible for the High Tech industry to survive here. It appears that he has also betrayed his constituents on another level, as he's not looking out for thier best interests, he's doing what Disney Corp, and others want him to do. How much of a investment does Disney Corp, the MPAA, or the RIAA have in South Carolina? As far as I can tell none of the entities he's really representing have any kind of real interest in South Carolina itself! One thing that needs to happen is that the citizens of South Carolina need to remove him from office! On a positive note, I think I've finally figured out which is more evil, Disney Corp or Microsoft. Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

This idiodic bill bill sounds like a sure fire way to kill the electronics industry in the US. I wonder who Fritz Hollings really works for, the Taliban? In any event, it will NEVER happen in the US, we already smuggle in huge quantities of drugs, guns, booze, parrots and everything else that the US government attempts to ban so I guess we may have to add computers to the list next. joe At 11:52 AM 3/29/02 -0500, you wrote: