Linux and Main: The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act — A Closer Look

“Anyone who has been following general legal news or the
computer trade press over the past few weeks likely has heard that
there is proposed legislation in Congress that will destroy the
computer industry. The bill in question was originally sponsored by
Senator Fritz Hollings of South Carolina as the ‘Security Systems
Standards and Certification Act.’

“Senator Hollings’s bill is now called the ‘Consumer Broadband
and Digital Television Promotion Act’ (‘CBDTPA’). It has drawn a
good deal of criticism from computer experts, computer-related
businesses, and First Amendment advocates. Claims have been made
that the bill assaults computer programmers’ First Amendment rights
and would destroy the personal computer industry. However, few, if
any, of the news articles written about the CBDTPA bother to
explain what the bill actually says, let alone explain very clearly
*how* the bill assaults First Amendment rights or would destroy the
computer industry.

“Since I am a lawyer, I decided to read the bill for myself, and
draw my own conclusions about whether, and why, the bill is
dangerous. (Anyone who may be interested in doing likewise can find
the text at
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/hollings.s2048.032102.html)
My reading leads me to believe that the CBDTPA is unlikely to be
effective in achieving its stated goals, and cannot be enforced as
written without violating important rights…”

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