Fed Mandate Copy Protection on All Software/Digital Devices

Electronic Frontier Foundation ACTION ALERT

Defeat the \"Security Systems Standards and Certification Act\" (SSSCA)

Draft Bill Would Require All Software and Digital Devices to Include Federally-Mandated Copy-Prevention Systems
(Issued: Friday, September 21, 2001 / Expires: Wednesday, October 21, 2001)

Introduction:
Widespread public outcry has resulted from the circulation of draft legislation titled \"Security Systems Standards and Certification Act\" (SSSCA) that would require that all future digital technologies include federally-mandated \"digital rights management\" (DRM) technologies that will enable Hollywood to restrict how consumers can use digital content. The EFF opposes this proposed legislation and urges its members to send their concerns to the sponsoring Senators.

What YOU Can Do Now:
Mail or email the EFF letter below to Senator Hollings and Senator Stevens today. Feel free to use this letter verbatim, or modify it as you wish. Inform both Senators of your concerns regarding the SSSCA. Please be polite and concise, but firm.
Contact your own legislators about this issue. For information on how to contact your legislators and other government officials, see EFF\'s \"Contacting Congress and Other Policymakers\" guide at:
http://www.eff.org/congress.html
Join EFF! For membership information see:
http://www.eff.org/support/
Sample Letter:
Use this sample letter to the Senators or modify it, and send to:

The Honorable Fritz Hollings
Washington, D.C.
125 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
+1 202-224-6121
+1 202-224-4293 (fax)
To send e-mail, use the form at:
http://www.senate.gov/~hollings/webform.html

and

The Honorable Ted Stevens
United States Senate
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
+1 202-224-3004
+1 202-224-2354 (fax)
senator_stevens [at] stevens.senate.gov

and most importantly, your own legislators.

You can get your legislators\' contact information from Project Vote Smart:
http://www.vote-smart.org/vote-smart/data.phtml?dtype=C&style=
or the House:
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html
and Senate:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm
websites. You can also look up your Representative with this form:
(see EFF website)

Dear Sen./Rep. [Surname]:

I am writing to express my grave concern about the draft Hollings/Stephens copyright legislation, \"Security Systems Standards and Certification Act\" (SSSCA), principally authored by the Walt Disney corporation. This bill, would force virtually all consumer electronics to include mandatory \"digital rights management\" (DRM) copy-prevention and use-control mechanims to \"protect\" all digital content (whether copyrighted or not), and essentially destroy completely the public\'s already endangered fair use rights, first sale doctrine, and public domain rights. I urge you to oppose this legislation.

Congress and the courts have always struck a careful balance between preserving incentives for authors while ensuring public access to our cultural heritage. The SSSCA represents an outright assault against this balanced view of copyright. Under the SSSCA, Congress would abdicate its responsibility to protect the public\'s interest in copyright, leaving content owners to dictate terms to technology companies behind closed doors. The public would be left with no voice in this process, and with crippled technologies that permit only the uses that Hollywood has the unilateral ability to control.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), University professors and visiting foreign programmers are already being legally threatened by the music industry and even criminally prosecuted at the behest of software companies for what always has been and should legal activities such as research and making proprietary formats more accessible. The DMCA was a major step backwards for both the public side of the copyright bargain and the rights of scientists and researchers to study and report on computer security.

Hollywood forces are now hoping that this \"DMCA 2\" will reach even further, creating a direct federal mandate that DRM systems be included in every technology that interacts with digital content. Please do not let this happen. I urge you to vote AGAINST SSSCA when introduced. The pendulum has already swung too far away from the public interest.

Sincerely,

[Your name & address]

(Be sure to correct the salutation - use EITHER Sen. or Rep., and use the correct name.)

Campaign for Audivisual Free Expression:
This drive to stop this \"DMCA 2\" copyright land-grab is part of a larger campaigns to empower the creative community in the digital age by protecting the public\'s access to and use of audiovisual technologies.

Check the EFF CAFE campaign website regularly for additional alerts and news:
http://www.eff.org/cafe/

Background:
The draft legislation, \"Security Systems Standards and Certification Act\" (SSSCA) is being developed by Senators Fritz Hollings (D-SC) and Ted Stevens (R-AK) with the assistance of the Walt Disney Company. A draft of the measure was leaked to the press two weeks ago. If enacted, the proposed SSSCA would forbid the making, selling or trafficking in any \"interactive digital device\" that fails to include federally-mandated \"Digital Right Management\" (DRM) copy-prevention systems intended to protect all digital content (whether copyrighted or not).

The SSSCA\'s scope is breathtakingly broad, forcing technology companies to add support for copy and use restrictions into virtually all future digital technology. This would include not only all software, PCs, hard drives, CD-Rs and other computer peripherals, but also many non-PC technologies like cellular phones, TiVos, set-top boxes, video game consoles, digital watches, CD players, MP3 players, GPS receivers, ATM machines, digital cameras, digital photocopiers, and fax machines. Although existing devices are grandfathered under the statute, all future models of these devices would have to be revised to incorporate federally-mandated technology intended to help Hollywood control how its content may be used by consumers. The SSSCA also applies to anyone who sells or distributes these digital technologies, and to anyone who bypasses or modifies any DRM systems in them. Those who violate the SSSCA would face civil fines and criminal penalties.

And who gets to define the particulars of the DRM systems? According to the SSSCA, Congress will rely on technology companies and content companies to select DRM systems based on criteria set by Congress. If the industries are unable to agree, federal bureaucrats will choose. The public is not invited to participate, nor do the criteria set out in the SSSCA require the preservation or protection of fair use, first sale, the public domain, or any of the other rights reserved for the public by copyright law.

In the American legal tradition, Congress and the courts have always struck a careful balance between preserving incentives for authors while ensuring public access to our cultural heritage. The SSSCA represents an unvarnished attack on this balanced view of copyright. Under the SSSCA, Congress would abdicate its responsibility to protect the public\'s interest in copyright, leaving content owners to dictate terms to technology companies behind closed doors. The public would be left with crippled technologies that permit only the uses that Hollywood unilaterally permits.

The freedom to innovate, without the shackles of burdensome government mandates, has been the engine that has driven the information revolution. Now at the behest of powerful business interests, Congress threatens to shut this engine down by forcing technological innovators to beg permission from the content industries before introducing new tools and products.


As illustrated by the threats made to Professor Felten\'s research team by the record companies, as well as the criminal prosecution of Dmitry Sklyarov, the DMCA was a major step backwards for both the public side of the copyright bargain and the rights of scientists and researchers who seek to study and report on computer security. Apparently unsatisfied with this, Hollywood forces are now hoping that the SSSCA will reach even further, creating a direct federal mandate that DRM systems be included in every technology that interacts with digital content.

The draft of the proposed SSSCA legislation can be viewed at:
http://216.110.42.179/docs/hollings.090701.html