Intellectual Property Legislation Proposed

[Rodney Clowdus]

Here's something I found yesterday that sheds some more light on the bill.
Why do I get the feeling that Microsoft is behind this as well???  It's
not hard to see the hidden agenda in this bill to take away our freedom of
speech.  It does not take a rocket scientist to see where this will lead.
Maybe we need an Internet Tea Party, but where's the harbour?


   Linux Journal Home  >  Articles  >  Conversations #34
   Friday, September 14, 2001 | Last Updated 03:31pm

                                Ion Computer

   CONVERSATIONS

   Open Letter to Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO, Walt Disney Company

                       by Don Marti <dmarti at ssc.com>
                             14-September-2001

   Open letter to Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO, Walt Disney Company.

   Dear Mr. Eisner,

   I hear you're planning a trip to Washington, DC next month to close
   the deal on a computer censorship bill, the SSSCA, you're buying from
   Congress. I'm writing to ask you to please stay home.

   I'm not asking because of concerns for your safety. All Americans are
   getting back to regular work and travel, and that's the right thing
   to do. But you and your bill should stay out of Washington, DC, and
   let our elected representatives do their jobs.

   Here's why.

   On the morning of September 11th, I was wondering about one thing.
   Nothing the mass media could spare the time to answer, though. My
   question was "What happened to Jim and Ari?" They work in a building
   facing the World Trade Center, and often use the subway station
   underneath.

   In mid-morning, an internet server still chugging along on lower
   Broadway passed along the answer. "I just talked to Ari. He and Jim
   are OK."

   That was it. A few words, passed along by a freely available mail
   program on an old Pentium system in the corner of an office. Words
   that ended up copied many times and passed along to internet places
   where Jim and Ari's friends gather. Low-budget Internet hosts you've
   never heard of, with names like zork.crackmonkey.org and
   barley.nylug.org, running software you've never heard of, with names
   like Postfix and GNU Mailman.

   This isn't the flashy Internet of IPOs and Herman Miller chairs. It's
   the Internet where a regular person with a couple books and a used
   computer can start up a meeting, an argument, a conversation about
   anything. No venture capitalists, no advertisers, no licenses, no
   chat room monitors--just independent know-how, Linux Documentation
   Project style.

   What did we learn from the low-profile Internet this week? Just
   little things. Some guy went to one hospital to give blood, they sent
   him to another, and everyone with type O blood please come, too. The
   A Train is running, making all stops except World Trade Center.
   Here's a complete bus schedule. A librarian in Indiana told the
   police she is keeping the library open, so that people can get on the
   Internet for news of their friends and family.

   The Ventures came out with a song called, "Be Strong America" and
   their webmaster put it up as an MP3 file for free distribution. Other
   people posted photos and movies of their trips by foot out of
   Manhattan or Washington. Forwarded copies made the proverbial rounds
   as if they were virus warnings or lawyer jokes.

   The song is corny, and the news is minor, but I know from the Jim and
   Ari message how much it could mean. On the evening of the 11th,
   President Bush said, "These acts shattered steel, but they cannot
   dent the steel of American resolve." Americans knew that because, as
   we watched TV, our inboxes became full of copies of copies of copies
   of individual stories of human steel.

   The stories weren't all good news. A sister's friend and her fiancee,
   missing. One of the members of someone's favorite band was working
   his day job at a sky-high restaurant. Another sister was a flight
   attendant. And nobody would say the Internet could help with that
   loss.

   It wasn't accurate or eloquent. Primitive reactions spewed out,
   ill-informed calls for revenge, racism, ignorance--the best I could
   say for some of the hateful garbage was, well, at least this guy is
   just typing, instead of breaking shop windows or worse.

   It's wasn't fun and it wasn't sanitary; there can be no happy ending
   to this story. But it was America.

   President Bush said, "The federal government and all our agencies are
   conducting business. But it is not business as usual." Mr. Eisner,
   please take that as a hint. It's a mistake for any American to shut
   down another's freedom to speak, whether the person being censored is
   editing an on-line newspaper or just making tweaks to the software
   that runs the "Crackmonkey" site.

   The SSSCA, which you are in the middle of buying from Congress, would
   outlaw the software that powers the independent Internet, the
   Internet that had many of us crying on our keyboards this week, from
   loss, relief or rage. At times like this, a slightly cracked monkey
   means more to us than a perfectly coiffed mouse.

   It would be shameful for you to show up at the US Capitol with a
   duffel bag full of "campaign contributions" at a time like this.
   Paying Congress to silence your fellow citizens, now, is not the act
   of a loyal American.

   The SSSCA is all the more dangerous because we're a big country. I
   would love to be able to say that even without the Internet, our
   independent radio stations, local newspapers and town meetings would
   get our communicating done. I would love to be able to say that many
   voices in all media brought us news, personal appeals, debate.

   But that's not what happened. Blame the price of paper, the limited
   radio spectrum or our spread-out geography, but the fact is that the
   only national, public voice most of us have is the Internet. Our
   national conversation runs on open standards and interoperable
   software. Allowing it to exist only at the pleasure of major media
   corporations and software giants would turn our democracy over to
   unaccountable private-sector rulers.

   I recognize that you just want more outlets for your movies, and the
   Internet might look like TV to you at first. But you have plenty of
   markets for your products--not just TV, but the multiplexes, the
   theme parks, the malls. Please let Americans keep our disorderly
   public places, too. The Internet is annoying, flaming and
   rumor-mongering, but for many of us it's all the free speech we've
   got.

   Mr. Eisner, please stay home.

   Sincerely,

   Donald B. Marti Jr.
   American

   For more information:
   cryptome.org/sssca.htm

   Copyright 2001 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
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