ARCHIVED — A Marcel VanDalfsen

COPYRIGHT REFORM PROCESS

REPY COMMENTS

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Documents received have been posted in the official language in which they were submitted. All are posted as received by the departments, however all address information has been removed.

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Reply comment from Marcel VanDalfsen received on October 21, 2001 via e-mail

Subject: Reply Comment

This comment is in reply to the CPDCI and rp00345 (submission by AOL-TW).

I would like to make a comment on an erroneous assumption made by the MPAA and RIAA as expressed in the comment by AOL-TW (rp00345). They claim that opposition to Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) is only valid if :

"If works are available only in digital form; if all are encrypted; and if the encryption technologies do not build in appropriate access for lawful purposes"

and they claim that this would never happen. Their claim that this would not happen is erroneous on at least 2 levels: the present and the future (their intention).

1) the present: There are already works available only in encrypted digital form. How many times have you seen ads in a high-tech/media flyer in which some work or part of a work is "available exclusively on DVD" or there is a list of "exclusive DVD features".

2) the future: Disney has drafted and proposed a new law, sponsored by Senator Fritz Hollings, called the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). The Act would require all electronic devices to contain TPMs, and outlaw any devices that do not contain these properties.

"Sec. 101: (a) In General -- It is unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies that adhere to the security system standards adopted under section 104."

where digital device is defined as:

Interactive digital device -- The term "interactive digital device" means "any machine, device, product, software, or technology, whether or not included with or as part of some other machine, device, product, software, or technology, that is designed, marketed or used for the primary purpose of, and that is capable of, storing, retrieving, processing, performing, transmitting, receiving, or copying information in digital form."

So, it is the intention of the MPAA/RIAA/etc that works and content will be only available in encrypted digital form, and unencrypted media would be illegal. This will have several severe effects.

• a) In order for artists to publish their work, they will need to have it encrypted, which will involve paying a licensing fee to the corporations in charge of the TPMs. If the content is contrary or differing from the views of the corporation, they will refuse to license to TPM. Thus corporations gain the ability to stifle/stop freedom of speech and expression.
• b) Free or Open Operating Systems, such as Linux and various UNIX derivatives, would become illegal, because they possess the tools with which one could write a program to bypass the TPMs.

My earlier statement (in rp00422), about the DMCA bringing about the Dark Ages, is made even stronger with a bill like the SSSCA. The information cartels (the MPAA/RIAA/MS) will possess the knowledge and information, and it is they who will decide how much knowledge to give to the masses. They will have the power to silence any opposing or dissenting voice.

Marcel VanDalfsen
PhD student, McMaster University