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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
Politech archive on Sen. Hollings' SSSCA: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=sssca Letter from SSSCA opponents: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/sssca.opponents.letter.022702.html Intel letter to Hollings: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/intel.hollings.letter.022802.html Draft text of the SSSCA: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/hollings.090701.html --- http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50754,00.html By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) and Robert Zarate 2:00 a.m. March 1, 2002 PST WASHINGTON -- A Senate debate over embedding copy protection controls in all consumer electronic devices took a sharply partisan turn on Thursday. During a packed hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, Democrats appeared far more eager for the government to intervene in what has become a highly visible tussle between Silicon Valley, which advocates a laissez-faire approach, and the Hollywood firms lobbying Congress to step in to prevent piracy. "When Congress sits idly by in the face of these activities, we essentially sanction the Internet as a haven for thievery," committee chairman Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina) told a panel of witnesses that included Walt Disney chairman Michael Eisner, News Corp. President Peter Chernin and Intel Executive Vice President Leslie Vadasz. [...] "We might need to legislate," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), though he emphasized that he would prefer the private sector reach an agreement on how to protect copyrighted electronic content. "Unfortunately, one issue seems close to an impasse -- how do we keep files from being illegally shared and distributed over the Internet?" complained Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California). Republicans appeared much more skeptical of the SSSCA -- which is, after all, championed by a Democratic committee chairman -- and argued legislation would be too interventionist. In the 2000 election cycle, the entertainment industry gave Democrats a whopping $24.2 million in contributions compared to $13.3 million to Republicans, according to figures compiled by opensecrets.org. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------