SSSCA Is "Dead on Arrival"

Rep. Darrell Issa, a member of the US
House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee, said that Sen. Fritz
Hollings' controversial Security Systems Standards and
Certification Act (SSSCA) is "dead on arrival in Judiciary".Speaking to Embedded Linux Journal at
the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, the California
Republican said he is opposed to the bill, which would
establish
a government-mandated copy restriction system for all digital
devices. Any House version of the SSSCA would have to go
through the Judiciary Committee, with another committee possibly
holding hearings as well, he said."Can the private sector deliver encryption? Of course they
can. It's a choice that people make", Rep. Issa said. He called
SSSCA "a bite at the apple that we've already consumed". The 1998
Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) explicitly did not require
devices to honor copy restriction systems."Nothing in this section shall require that the design of, or
design and selection of parts and components for, a consumer
electronics, telecommunications, or computing product provide for a
response to any particular technological measure", the DMCA
states."I want to have competition between great minds coming up
with copyright schemes," Rep. Issa said. Besides thorough
opposition for the SSSCA, he showed both knowledge of the DMCA and
skepticism about some of its less rational provisions. For example,
he brought up the problem that it can often be legal to make a
personal copy of a work but illegal to circumvent the
copy-restriction technology on it.And he said that in the case of making it possible for blind
people to read e-books, "Fair use, including compliance with ADA,
should have equal balance with the DMCA."Don Marti is Technical
Editor of Linux Journal.

email: dmarti@ssc.com