anyone else heard about this????

I read over most of it... this "term" is the problem:

(3) DIGITAL MEDIA DEVICE. -- The term "digital media device" means any hardware or software that --

(A) reproduces copyrighted works in digital form;
(B) converts copyrighted works in digital form into a form whereby the images and sounds are visible or audible; or

(C) retrieves or accesses copyrighted works in digital form and transfers or makes available for transfer such works to hardware or software described in subparagraph (B).

A and C are the ones that concern me... I think if they take a logical approach to this and say for example "video, audio, image files" and the like are subject to this we'll be ok. But, if they take this ridiculous approach, almost ANYTHING ANYONE makes, including-someone who makes something as simple as a nifty perl module or a snippet of PHP code-could be a candidate for having to embed the copy-protection. That would be absolutely insane.

I had heard about the new act, but I had no idea how bad it was. Its probably time to start circulating emails to everyone you know about this. Hopefully we can get a movement going in time to stop them passing the act.

what they seem to fail to realise is that as soon as this protection is released, there will be cracks available to get rid of the protection.

No joke, it's real. Most of the act's "benefits" seem to revolve around broadband networks and various media technologies such as HDTV. I have to wonder if maybe someone more than Disney is crammed in the good senators wallet.

The law would be fine if it referred only to people who didn't want their works copied by other people. Unfortunatley, for some reason it's drafted in extremely broad terms that seem to be rather unfriendly toward people who want to share their programs for free.

Weeeel, the answer must be to move all technology outside of the US and to not send any back in. There's plenty of other areas on the planet that could support the industry.

What's ironic (and what most people don't realize) is that many of the devices under the effect of this law would require an extensive bit of hardware redesign just to accomdate the software required by law: digital alphanumeric pagers, digital cameras, telephones, video monitors, CD players, etc. All of these fall into the category of devices that convert "copyrighted works in digital form into a form whereby the images and sounds are visible or audible."

It's ridiculous, but that never stopped the American legislature before. This is basically a bill that would make anyone who owns electronic devices (meaning "everyone") into either a criminal or very potential criminal, including the Senators who drafted the bill and the media giants that support it. They could have easily limited the terms of the bill in a less non-sensical way, but they wouldn't be morons if that happened. So, basically, technological advancement in the US as we know it today would come to end.

Which is good, because I've been meaning to go out and buy up all of the old Atari 2600s, Intellivisions, Colecovisions, and old-school original Nintendos I can get my hands on. I'll be at the height of American technology! Bwa-ha-ha!

is this just a draft that has a good change of being modified? or is this probably gonna be enacted? because wouldn't there be lots of companies totally against this and stick their money in OTHER senators pockets to lobby against this?

update:

http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/s...site=Technology