The Null Device

This is fucking scary. Politicians in the US are attempting to pass a law banning computers and digital devices that do not implement copy control mechanisms, and criminalising the disabling of any such mechanisms, with penalties more severe than for rape or murder. Outrageous, but with Bush/Ashcroft and their cronies supporting it and the media corporations (naturally) behind it all the way, it stands an alarming chance of getting in. And then watch the EU, Australia, Canada et al. follow suit with their own versions, as they did with the DMCA.

To quote a Plastic forum comment:

I believe you can read the nuclear winter left behind by the Dot Bomb fallout. Did business learn from its failure to be able to make a killing selling pointless crapola on webpages? Yes: it learned that it would like the Net, like a Chinese girl, to have its feet broken and bound, the better that it be tamed and taught to take mincing, servile steps in the presence of money.

Welcome to the digital millennium, folks. Make sure you pay your way.

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