Sadly, the United States is no longer a country run on ideals like freedom, human rights, and limited government. Instead it is a nation that hardly even notices each time a new form of government oppression is handed down from Washington. Once upon a time, political leaders here said things like "give me liberty or give me death!"
Contrast that with Senator George Allen's, R-Va., comment last week: "Fear is a good motivating factor. Whether that's fear of draconian government regulations or fear of inept government regulations, that may get folks moving."
Have we dropped even the pretense of being a free country now?
What Senator Allen was referring to is the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, a bill that is being proposed by Sen. Earnest Hollings, D-S.C., after a heated debate last week in a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee. It would force every interactive digital device sold in the United States be equipped with "certified security technologies."
Nominally, this would be done to prevent copyright violation. The main supporters of this, media companies like Disney and associations like the Motion Picture Academy Association, are on the warpath against any and all forms of digital copying.
Not only are they doing their best to shut down file-sharing groups like Napster and create copy-proof CDs, now they want to alter every electronic device from computers to CD players to make copying impossible.
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That doesn't sound so bad, except that it will require every manufacturer of electronics to redesign their products to be less useful to the consumer. The Supreme Court has long upheld the concept of "fair use" - that is, if you buy a CD, you have the legal right to copy the music on it for your own use.
The act also would impose restrictions on software, especially hitting hard on small software companies and universities by requiring any program they create to be "secure" according to government standards. Computer chips and peripherals would all have to comply with the new standards as well.
It's therefore understandable that the most vocal opponents of this bill are the technology companies themselves. Intel Vice President Leslie Vadasz pointed out that, "The media industry would try to make the personal computer nothing more than an expensive DVD player." This is because the new requirements would make it harder for smaller companies to produce media that anyone could use on their home computers.
Recently, another battle was fought in the arena of copy protection. Philips, the company that co-invented the Compact Disc, has refused to cooperate with media companies that are adding copy protection to their CDs. In fact, since Philips controls the trademark on Compact Discs, it is not allowing drastically altered discs to be labeled as CDs.
This is because discs that have added copy protection may not work in all CD players. The same problem applies to every technology that would be altered by the act - it may not be compatible with the devices and media consumers already have. Everyone would either be forced to buy new equipment or make do with what they already have.
Before you assume that this would be a good thing for the electronics companies, think again. People aren't going to want to buy new CD players, CDs, DVD players, DVDs, TVs, computers and everything else. Imagine how much it would cost to replace your entire music collection! Or to buy a new computer and all the software that goes with it!
What will happen instead is that irritated computer geeks will find ways to bypass the security measures in a couple of days, and the knowledge will spread quickly to everyone else. The law would be utterly unenforceable among the millions of consumers who would ignore it, but would cripple electronics companies that would be forced to change their products to something no one wants.
Worst of all, it would put a short leash on the ability of American companies to innovate and explore new technologies. Rather than simply inventing something and marketing it, they would have to be sure a new product was "secure" and met the government's approval to be sure it could never ever be used to copy something.
Under conditions like those, who would want to sell electronics here? How would we deal with the electronics black market? By restricting innovation, senators such as Hollings and Allen would create a new prohibition. It probably won't help Disney sell more overpriced DVDs, and it certainly won't help the average consumer.
by Craig A. Butler
Daily Lobo Columnist
