The SSSCA, which sets out to mandate copy control mechanisms in all digital
devices (essentially criminalising open-source operating systems, for one)
is on the move, and is scheduled to get
a hearing in Congress on October 25.
If it passes in anything close to its present form, the consequences can be
horrific; the most conservative scenario would be the crippling of all
computers on the consumer market into "trusted clients" and a legally
indemnified 100% monopoly for Microsoft, enforced by law; all in the name
of protecting the content industry, the flagship of the American economy,
from the terroristic acts of mp3 swappers. (And even if it is struck down
five years later -- in exactly the way that recent copyright power grabs
have not been -- the damage will have been done.)
Here is the
EFF alert.