SuitWatchFriday, October 5, 2001 —
Domestic threats
At dawn on September 11, 2001, the skies over the Eastern U.S. were what pilots call "severe clear." The economy was slumping and fewer passengers were flying, but the prospects for business were relatively obvious, as prospects go. By the end of that morning, the World Trade Center was on the ground, the Pentagon had taken a direct hit, more than six thousand people were dead and it was severely clear that there was a war going on.
"Compared to war, General George S. Patton said, "all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance." Now that President Bush has made the War on Terrorism official, the natural urge is to acknowledge the diminished significance of everything else, or worse, to offer some of it up for sacrifice.
To sacrifice conveniences is a natural and necessary calling in wartime. To sacrifice rights and liberties is natural as well, but not always necessary. But that's what's happening right now in a huge way. Amidst all the war coverage, a pile of legislation is getting very little attention outside of Congress and a few vocal cause groups:
Briefly, these variously legislate the following:
Ashcroft's ATA in particular gives the appearance of a police state wish list. Among other things it severely increases penalties for acts that have nothing in particular to do with terrorism, such as low-level computer intrusion, already a crime under other laws. The ATA adds broad pre-conviction asset seizure powers and strong criminal threats to other minor offenses as well. Sheltered by popular support for the administration's war efforts, this legislation is being rushed through Congress right now with little time for input or debate.
In all this legislation it's easy to see an implicit assumption that the only threatened freedoms are those used exclusively by hackers to cause mischief and by terrorists to wage war. This is not the case. Business itself operates best in what suits like to call an "open regulatory environment." The ATA would that environment significantly for the Internet and businesses that depend on it.
It happens that anti-terrorist legislation is coming along at the same time as other regulatory and standards-guiding moves that are equally if not more troubling for business.
The scariest item right now is the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA), which was written almost entirely by the Walt Disney corporation. It attempts to "protect" digital content, regardless of copyright status, by mandating "digital rights management" (DRM) (copy-prevention and use-control mechanisms) in all consumer electronics, which now includes all new computers and PDAs. In addition to trashing fair use and public domain rights (it essentially eliminates the public domain), it serves to further hegemonize the Asian cartels that manufacture the vast majority of consumer electronics products, while creating a protected space where large entertainment companies can verticalize the entire content creation, production and distribution system, effectively outlawing the independence from that system that allowed the whole Internet to come into existence and flourish, benefiting everybody.
With the SSSCA, Congress abandons its responsibility for protecting the public's interest in copyright, turning the entire system over to the largest copyright holders, who then have the power to say what kinds of products can and cannot be produced by technology companies.
It's easy to forget that the consumer electronics business is already highly cartelized, and that this was one reason why the PC business was able to grow up and flourish outside of it. (Though not entirely, since most laptop computers are mostly made with help from Microsoft to run only the Windows operating system, which is one big reason why no company has been able to mount a serious Linux laptop business.)
If it passes, the SSSCA will give Disney and Sony the power to tell Compaq, Dell and Palm what they have to put in every device able to play a tune, show a movie or display a book. The power of invention and distribution will be exclusively theirs. Then the Internet will quickly morph from a bazaar for everybody into a distribution system for Disney, Sony and the world's shrinking number of ever-growing entertainment conglomerates.
Last but not least, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is currently reviewing a Patent Policy Framework Working draft that would allow proprietary and closed technologies to be incorporated into the Web. As I said in the last newsletter (and will continue to chant for as long as it's still true), the Net and the Web continue to work for everybody because nobody owns it, everybody can use it and anybody can improve it. This framework compromises all three virtues. The W3C has extended its review period until October 11. I urge you to look closely at the matter and speak up about it, as well as these other regulatory threats.
Here are some links: