FW: Proposed Legislation Significantly Affecting Computer Profession (46637)

Wed Oct 3 23:07:30 UTC 2001

Thought you might be interested in this and might want to express your 
opinion to your elected representative.

Gregory Hicks

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From: board-enotify at usenix.org [mailto:board-enotify at usenix.org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 1:38 PM

The USENIX Board of Directors has decided to alert our membership that
bills pending before the U.S. Congress or in committee appear to have a
detrimental impact on computer professionals.

We are most concerned about aspects of two proposed bills, the
Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and the Security Systems Standards and
Certification Act (SSSCA), and how they interact with existing
legislation such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act.  The ATA redefines virtually all computer
crime as terrorism, enlarges the maximum penalty to life in prison
without parole, allows broad pre-conviction seizures, and, furthermore,
does this retroactively, removing the existing statute of limitations.
The SSSCA essentially mandates copyright protection in all digital
consumer devices and makes disabling or avoidance of copyright
mechanisms a felony offense.

More information about these and related issues can be found at:
http://www.usenix.org/whatsnew/legislation.html

Similar legislation is being considered in other jurisdictions
including Canada and some states.

If you believe that provisions of these or similar acts are
inappropriate, we strongly encourage you to contact your elected
representatives as soon as possible and register your opinions.

                                Sincerely,
                        The USENIX Board of Directors
                    http://www.usenix.org/directory/board.html

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Gregory Hicks                           | Principal Systems Engineer
Cadence Design Systems                  | Direct:   408.576.3609
555 River Oaks Pkwy M/S 6B1             | Fax:      408.894.3479
San Jose, CA 95134                      | Internet: ghicks at cadence.com

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