Sklyarov Free, But The Battle Isn't Over7 January 2002 Dmitri Sklyarov is home. The Russian programmer got to spend New Years with his family in his own home, after spending months stuck here in the States for allegedly violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He'll be under court "supervision" for a year, but on the whole his defense team was successful in transferring the charges from Dmitri Sklyarov as a person to ElcomSoft as a corporation. Now, even if ElcomSoft is ultimately found guilty, no one faces any actual jail time. But while Sklyarov's story has a happy ending, there are still rough times ahead in the ongoing battle over digital rights management. The latest concern is a new bill in Congress sponsored by Senator Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina), the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). The SSSCA is a follow-on bill to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, designed to fill in one of the key weaknesses of the DMCA. While the DMCA made it illegal to circumvent copy protection on digital works, it made no provisions for the use of works not protected by digital rights management (DRM). This means that the DMCA is powerless against, say, pirated ebooks that were scanned in from a paper copy rather than cracked digitally. Content providers are understandably touchy about this, and many organizations like the RIAA and MPAA are reluctant to put music and movies, respectively, online until they have better assurances that free pirated versions won't be available to anyone who wants them. Specifically, the RIAA and MPAA have hinted to Congress that the future of the broadband Internet depends on their willingness to supply content, and that they are not inclined to do so given the current state of digital security. Enter Hollings and the SSSCA. The SSSCA is intended to ensure that unprotected commercial content doesn't proliferate by requiring that any "interactive digital device" sold in the United States includes DRM technology in the hardware. Think for a moment what this means. If the SSSCA passes -- it hasn't yet -- you could find yourself unable to play unprotected MP3s in any digital music player (or PDA) bought after the SSSCA went into effect. DVD players would only play protected commercial content. In theory, as vaguely as the bill is worded, PDAs could refuse to open unprotected, home-made ebooks, or even plain text files, since there would be no assurance that the content isn't pirated commercial content. I fear that the SSSCA will pass because on the surface, it doesn't seem that bad. So future PDAs and music players will have to have DRM built into them. What's so bad about that, right? It's been standard practice for game consoles, and it hasn't killed that market, right? The problem is that both the DMCA and the SSSCA are so vaguely worded that they could apply to far more than the surface implications of either bill. If this is because they were drafted by people who don't understand the underlying technology, then perhaps they really are well-meaning and won't be misused. But I don't think so. It's not uncommon in Washington for lobbyists to "help" draft legislation, especially bills on technical subjects that the congresspersons may not fully understand themselves. I think that the DMCA and the SSSCA were both very carefully worded in order to grant the content providers much more power than it would seem to a casual observer. I know I'm going to sound like a conspiracy theorist here -- it wouldn't be the first time -- but hear me out. If the SSSCA is passed, and the DMCA is generally upheld (see the recent dismissal of the 2600 and Edward Felton cases), then media companies like AOL/Time Warner and Sony will have total control over what you see, read and hear. Imagine this day, not so far in the future:
Now ask yourself, does this sound like something you want? Is this something you think your elected representatives should be in favor of? Should your tax dollars go towards taking choice and freedom away from you? It's not too late to act. There are two things we can all do to make sure the above total control of information doesn't come to pass. One, write your congresspersons and make sure they know that you're against the passage of the SSSCA, and why. Two, donate as much as you can afford to organizations that fight this sort of digital oppression. The Electronic Frontier Foundation funded the defense of Dmitri Sklyarov, 2600 Magazine and other victims of the DMCA, and they'll need as much money as they can get if the SSSCA gets passed. Help them out today so they can help you out tomorrow. |