(no subject)

Sometimes I get really behind on events. I just read this article on the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which would, if enacted, make Free software effectively illegal (it requires that all digital products include anti-copying measures, and the whole points of free software is that you can distribute it freely). By some interpretations, it could also make it illegal for Americans to even download Free Software. Actually, it occurred to me that since web pages are also digital products, logically speaking it should outlaw the WWW.

OTOH, if the bill passes, at least it would shift the global balance of info-power. Americans get stuck with buggy Windows, and the rest of us walk hand in hand into the IT future. Unless, of course, the next act classifies distributing Linux as an act of terrorism and bombs Finland.