---------- Forwarded Message:
http://goatee.net/2002/03#_02sa
Subject: On the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on content protection for
digital media
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 12:55:13 -0500
From: Joseph Reagle
To: John_Kerry@K
Senator Kerry,
I am writing to you to express my alarm with the recent hearings of the
Senate Commerce Committee on content protection for digital media. I will
keep my comments brief.
The content industry has been systematically abusing the limited monopoly
granted to authors via copyright. Their position is contrary to the goals
of the United States Constitution that, as you know, permits this monopoly
so to encourage innovation and creativity. Consider an example of Senator
Holling's draft SSSCA proposal. Such "protection" requirements would likely
be encumbered by software patents that would damage one the most innovative
and creative forms of content creation today: open source software such as
Linux. Such a law could make the creative efforts of many authors and
companies impossible if not illegal! Surely we should not sacrifice a
technical culture of international collaboration and innovation, and the
productivity of the technology sector for the sake of Hollywood's
uncompromising greed!? Particularly when any such controls would be
technically ineffectual.
I read in a report that during the hearing you said, "We might need to
legislate." If you do, you will not have deterred the infringement of
copyrights by the determined infringer, but you will have wounded an
industry and many authors producing some of the most innovative content and
software today.
Sincerely,
Joseph Reagle Jr.
Laboratory for Computer Science, MIT
Cambridge, MA 02139.
--
Regards,
http://www.mit.edu/~reagle/
Joseph Reagle E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E
* This email is from an independent academic account and is
not necessarily representative of my affiliations.