Congressmen Coble, Berman, and Boucher, and Other Interested Parties
Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property
2138 Rayburn House Office Building, B351A
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressmen,

Kindly permit me to state my opinion, in accordance with the Subcommittee request for submission of views on proposed Copyright Act revisions.

I am handwriting this in the expectation that if some permutation of the "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA)" passes, then very possibly the F.B.I. will come knocking on my door to confiscate my computer. It seems that I run the Linux operating system on my computer, and this pretty much makes retrofitting my machine for "digital rights management" impossible. The CBDTPA (formerly known as the SSSCA) would effectively outlaw certain operating systems, such as Linux and BSD, since any embedded copyright protection code within them could not be concealed and made tamperproof.

I contend that the CBDTPA fails the Common Sense test for legislation.

1) Will the proposed measure accomplish its intended purpose?

It would, in fact, be effectively unenforceable and would, by legislative fiat, create a new class of criminal - "informationleggers", for the most part teenagers illicitly copying mp3 music files for sharing with their friends.

2) Will the benefits of the proposed measure exceed its costs?

It would, at worst, make Open Source software illegal, and at best put it into a gray area of tolerated-but-not-quite legal. I, as a Linux developer, would not be permitted to write or document software for a computer operating system that has no provisions for hiding digital rights management code, yet Hollywood could continue to produce copyright-protected X-rated films.

I contend further that the sponsors of the proposed legislation could have come up with a far better name than "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA)". Much more appropriate would have been something like "Peace-and-Freedom Universal-Happiness Motherhood-and-Apple-Pie Chicken-in-Every-Pot-and-Car-in-Every-Garage Act (PFUHMAPCEPCEGA)".

Such legislation is Big Government at its worst. It involves infringement of basic civil rights (fair use and privacy) and the expansion of the law enforcement bureaucracy. And for what overriding social good should we make this sacrifice? Is this about the preservation of our cultural heritage? On the contrary, the entertainment industry worries about illicit copying of its "cash cows" - semi-pornographic films, violence-inciting Rap and Heavy Metal music, and insipid Britney Spears music videos.

Last summer the Congress, in its infinite wisdom, voted funds for the expansion of F.B.I. responsibility into the field of copyright violations. This was only a few scant months before the terrorists struck, undeterred by law enforcement authorities preoccupied with other concerns (perhaps too busy investigating teenagers bootlegging mp3 files).

Back over a century ago, someone introduced into the Mississippi state legislature, as a joke, a bill setting the value of Pi to exactly 3. It took a while for the legislators to catch on. I would hope that the United States Congress will prove to be a bit more intelligent than that.

I thank the members of the Subcommittee for their time and attention.

Sincerely,


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