Internet Privacy Laws

Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) has introduced the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) internet privacy laws into the Senate (note that prior to its introduction into the Senate, Hollings' bill was known as the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, or SSSCA, so if have trouble finding information about the CBDTPA internet privacy laws, try searching for the SSSCA instead).The CBDTPA internet privacy laws would mandate that a copy-protection standard be part of "any interactive digital device". VCRs, TVs, DVD players, stereo equipment, and especially computers - all would fall under the CBDTPA's internet privacy laws reach. Users who disable the built-in copy-protections, or buy or sell a non-CBDTPA-covered device, will have broken the internet privacy laws and could face up to five years in jail and a $500,000 fine for a first offense.

With the CBDTPA internet privacy laws in place, the big media companies will control how users use their personal computers. Under the rubric of "preventing piracy", the government will make internet privacy laws impossible for users to exercise their fair use rights to copy software they own for backup, tape an episode of "Friends" on their VCR to watch a week from now, or convert their music CDs into MP3's. Open source software will either be compromised by the forced inclusion of internet privacy laws proprietary, source-secret copy protection schemes designed to work with CBDTPA-protected hardware, or it will be illegal. For all of this internet privacy laws to work, the computers of private citizens will have to constantly monitor what the individual does and compare their actions against internet privacy laws "rules" set up by someone else.