[lug] Colorado "Super-DMCA" bill impacts on Internet, privacy, security

[Neal McBurnett]

Yeah - it's hard to get into the swing of how legislation happens.

The bill in Colorado just passed a third reading in the senate, but
with amendments so it goes back to the house, scheduled for a vote
late this afternoon.  I hope that it does not make it today and is
held over until next week.  It will help a lot to just ask your rep to
look at it, since the amendments are pretty significant.

  http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm

See the calendars and journals at
http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/stateleg.html for more info.

The amendments did help with the NAT/VPN stuff, but it is still a
classic DMCA-like bill.

-Neal

On Fri, Apr 11, 2003 at 04:18:44PM +0200, Dhruva Reddy wrote:
> I'm having trouble understanding the history of the bill (see link from
> Neal's original post).  The last item says that  "Senate Third Reading Passed
> with Amendments".  Does this mean that the bill has already passed?  Or that the
> Senate has merely approved the reading?
> 
> 
> > Colorado bill HB03-1303, "Unlawful Telecom Access Cell Phone Crime",
> > is being pushed by the Entertainment industry, in this case the MPAA.
> > Edward W. Felten <felten at cs.princeton.edu>, (609) 258-5906, Associate
> > Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University, says that the
> > model legislation would have the possibly unintended effect of
> > outlawing critical and popular Internet technologies like NAT (Network
> > Address Translation).  Many say that it clearly would outlaw Vitual
> > Private Networks (VPN), private email (TLS-SMTP), etc.
> > 
> > But some of the *intended* consequences of the bill also limit our
> > civil liberties and would raise confusion about and outlaw important
> > software and technologies used every day by system administrators who
> > are trying to keep their networks secure, and by individuals trying to
> > get popular hardware working on Linux and other non-commercial
> > operating systems, because more control is handed to manufacturers and
> > communications providers.
> > 
> > The law has redefinitions that are used to make laws sound good though
> > they actually restrict altrusitic and normal practices.  My reading
> > suggests that a standard 802.11 wireless computer interface ("wi-fi")
> > fits their definition of a "Cellular Phone" and it probably becomes an
> > illegal "Cloned Cellular Phone" if someone writes a driver so it works
> > on Linux.
> > 
> > The MPAA and the entertainment industry in general have been trampling
> > on our rights in recent years, trying to protect their distribution
> > monopoly at the cost of customers, artists, innovation, etc.
> > 
> > With DMCA they have sued people who write and give away software to
> > play DVDs using the free Linux operating system.
> > 
> > With CBDTPA they tried to regulate how ALL computers and media
> > players are made.  We are holding them at bay there.
> > 
> > Now they are trying to stifle innovation in the communications field
> > and are breaking basic Internet technology in the process.  As with
> > previous laws they have proposed, many of these new provisions are
> > broken even if there is no malicious intent.
> > 
> > I think they need to hear it again in the House, since the Senate made
> > amendments.  Please let your legislators know this is a bad bill,
> > carved out by special interests, which hurts consumers and businesses
> > in Colorado.
> > 
> > You can find out who your representatives are at
> >   http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm
> > 
> > 
> > For more info:
> >   The best simple description I've seen:
> >    http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/doc/2003/taylor_2apr.pdf
> > 
> >   Central site about Super-DMCA:
> >    http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/superdmca.html
> > 
> >   Colorado bill, as amended by the senate on April 9:
> >    
> >
> http://www.leg.state.co.us/2003a/inetcbill.nsf/billcontainers/A2F0DA113DF2BFC087256CC2006BFB94/$FILE/1303_rer.pdf
> > 
> >   Colorado Legislative History:
> >     
> >
> http://www.leg.state.co.us/2003a/inetcbill.nsf/billsummary/FFD96D398232513587256CBF00543930
> > 
> >   Article:
> >   http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/28/1541230&tid=103
> > 
> >   If you're not tired yet:
> >   http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/doc/2003/security_29mar.pdf
> >   http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/cat_superdmca.html
> >   http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/stories/storyReader$86
> > 
> > Neal McBurnett                 http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/
> > GPG/PGP signed and/or sealed mail encouraged.  Keyid: 2C9EBA60
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> 
> -- 
>  "Those who would give up essential liberty
> to purchase a little temporary safety deserve
> neither liberty or safety. Nor, are they
> likely to end up with either."-- Benjamin
> Franklin
> 
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