This is what Senator Stevens has been up to: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/hollings.cbdtpa.release.032102.html "..any device that can legitimately play, copy, or electronically transmit one or more categories of media also can be misused for illegal copyright infringement, unless special protection technologies are incorporated into such a device..." The bill defines a digital device as just about anything, including software or components of software. This would apply to such things as the Gimp, or even the Linux kernel - they would be illegal without a US Deptartment of Commerce approved copy protection scheme that can not be removed. Given that all open-source software has source code available, defeating such a scheme would be trivial. The obvious conclusion is that open-source software would itself become illegal, as there would be no way to force end users to comply with the bill. <RANT> I find Senator Steven's apparent proposition that we are all guilty of intent to commit copyright violation until proven otherwise interesting. Those of you that enjoy hunting in the fall can take an interesting intellectual exersise and replace "digital device" with "firearm" and "copyright violation" with "personal injury". Or a better example, replace "digital device" with "motor vehicle" and "copyright violation" with "personal injury" - unless you can prove your car is absolutely incapable of harming another person (say, should the operator accidentally drink too much), it should be taken away. Forget learning about computers, get a taxi driver's license. There's more of a future in that. </RANT> Cheers, James ------------------------------------ This is the Juneau-LUG mailing list. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to juneau-lug-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject header.