Squeak will become illegal in the US under the CBDTPA?

Kevin Fisher kgf at golden.net
Tue Mar 26 18:58:32 UTC 2002


A chilling thought...are all these wonderful laws (specifically the DMCA)
being put in place to bring US law in accordance with WIPO?  That would
explain why Canada is working towards the same stupidity. :(

If so, then it's true...you can run but you can't hide (if your country
belongs to WIPO, at least).


On Tue, Mar 26, 2002 at 10:50:43AM -0800, Duane Maxwell wrote:
> > The Hollings-Feinstein CBDTPA bill pending in the US will, AFAICT, make
> > Squeak illegal unless we add approved "digital rights management" code to
> it.
> >
> > This is probably not what was intended, but appears to be the case given
> the
> > wording of the bill.
> 
> I think this bill is very unlikely to pass, but if it should, there are two
> possible responses - strict conformance, or civil disobediance:
> 
> 1) Take down all sites and projects over which you have control and replace
> with a black banner declaring that it is a result of the law.  Also tell
> your employer that continuing to develop software could expose both you and
> them to prosecution, and thus you want explicit indemnification from
> liability.  Every company I'm currently working with would be directly
> affected by this law.
> 
> 2) Write some innocuous software, sell it to your friends for a nominal
> amount, report yourself to the authorities and demand prosecution.  We can't
> all be arrested.
> 
> Frankly, I think the more immediately dangerous law is the UCITA, which
> exposes software developers to liability for flaws.  Not that Squeak is
> flawed, or anything....
> 
> -- Duane
> 
> 



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