"A controversial law was recently drafted, although not
yet introduced, by U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina),
chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, and Sen. Ted Stevens
(R-Alaska), titled "The Security Systems Standards and
Certification Act" (SSSCA).
If made into law, the proposed bill would make it illegal to
"manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise
traffic in" digital devices that do not use "certified security
technologies."
The SSSCA, if enacted, will have serious negative affects on
free software, most specifically to open-source operating systems
such as Linux. This is because a DRM (digital rights management)
scheme as proposed within the SSSCA requires operating system-level
support."
