Subject: Bring on the SSSCA - Rev. 2

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 16:34:55 +0300 (IDT)

Here is the second revision. I added some more meat and stuff, as well as
something to do prior to the law's acceptance.

I did not integrate all of Nadav's suggestions yet, nor answered them. But
it's better to "release early and release often", than to make sure your
work is free of unwanted issues entirely. Rome was not built in a day.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

Bring on the SSSCA! Why? Because I want to kick some serious intellectual
property Law Butt! I have nothing against the concept of intellectual
property. I believe it is also valid now, in the information age. However, I
do believe that IP Law is objectively tilted towards the wrong side, and I
wish to change the fact. And legislation of the SSSCA (or CBDPTA as it is now
called)[2] is the perfect vehicle to make it gain momentum.

Let's imagine a world in which the SSSCA has been passed (in the U.S. alone
for the time), and it has taken effect. What would happen? Here's my
predictions based on the commonplace interpretation of the law:

1. Most existing software and hardware systems becoming illegal. Literally.
This includes open-source and commercial software. Windows XP, Microsoft's
latest operating system lets people hear "pirated" mp3s doesn't it?
Then, obviously it has to go.

2. Hardware and software vendors will need to invest a lot of money in building
copyright protection into their products.

3. Someone will have to finance this development, and later on converting the
legacy systems into the SSSCA-sound devices.

4. This someone is the U.S. Government.

5. I'm not really good at approximating things like that, but I think this
amount of money can easily surpass the current U.S. Budget. And I mean the
entire budget, defense budget and all.

6. Assuming they are forced to switch, then people will have to put up with
computers, that are not quite those that they were used to. Not only that
Moore's Law will be temporarily reversed, but those systems will not put up
with many actions that are considered mundane and day-to-day now. Even such
that are perfectly sound copyright-wise.

7. This will make everybody unhappy and they demand the law to be changed.

8. Most programmers or text-book writers I am familiar with cannot comply
with the SSSCA's terms. It was proven that it is cryptologically impossible
to create a non-breakable copyright protection scheme[4]. Trying to mess
their code with an ad-hoc heuristic imposed by the government is not their
idea of being productive.

9. The result: a massive brain drain of engineers from the U.S. If you think
that because of the recession there is a surplus of programmers, think again.
There is still a genuine lack of _good_ and qualified ones.[5] And those are
the exact ones which would prefer to abandon the U.S. in favour of a country
which gives them more freedom to program.[6]

Do you think that a different outcome can happen? It is possible that the
SSSCA will exist on paper but won't be enforced until someone is reported
to commit a crime against it. But obviously the Free Software Foundations
can sue Microsoft for manufacturing an operating system that violates its
intellectual property. After all, I can use Notepad to remove the copyright
notice off one of gcc's files. Which is a clear violation even of existing
copyright law.

When the SSSCA was first heard of (in its previous incarnation) some people
thought that Microsoft would be happy to see it because it will most existing
free software illegal. But even Microsoft cannot to put up with the terms of
the SSSCA. Microsoft would rather be a company whose products are possibly
threatened by Linux, than a monopoly which will manufacture a practically
useless operating system that could only exist in Sen. Ernest Hollings
imagination.

Obviously #7 will probably happen a long time before the law takes into effect.
And I think it is a good thing, because then:

1. Everybody will take about intellectual property laws and their
implication on computers.

2. Hackers who strive for political freedom will become media icons.
Remember when Linus Torvalds appeared on the cover of Forbes?
Now think of Richard M. Stallman on the cover of Time magazine.[1]

3. People will become interested in other IP laws that violate their
individual rights. Acts such as the DMCA, or the UCITA, or the
restrictions on encryption or previous copyright legislation that is
bluntly illegal (objectively speaking) may actually become headline news.

Which means: more publicity for us! And a greater chance of getting something
to move there.

Don't get me wrong, I don't encourage the U.S. legislation to make the SSSCA
into law. But I think it may actually serve as a turning point for those who
strive for digital freedom of expression. We should criticize it rationally
as much and as hardly as we can, but even if it passes it won't be the end of
the world, but rather the beginning of a wonderful era.

The other possibility would be that Sen. Hollings et. al will decide to pass
the SSSCA incrementally by one irrational provision at a time. But I
believe this will only make the process slower, but the final outcome
inevitable as it is. Many people who download mp3s illegally would agree that
it is the right thing not to do it. But they would much more think that
they should be given a choice whether to do it or not.

I have one piece of advice to Sen. Hollings, Disney's CEO, Michael
Eisner and all the other people who have expressed support of the SSSCA. Learn
how to program. This is not only enlightening and mind-exercising, but also
a very practical skill. After you have learned how to program, I want you to
make your code or commonly used code SSSCA-friendly.

I'd like you to take the Meta-Circular Evaluator of the classic text
"Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" and make sure it
does not execute copyrighted code. I'd like you to take GNU echo and make
sure it does not prints copyrighted expressions to the screen. (you may
actually find it useful to start from agrep). I want you to take gcc
and make sure it does not compile code that one does not own the copyright
to. And I want you to make sure your own pet programs and script follow suit.

Then I want you to let me know how you felt doing that. I know I would
feel that it would be a complete waste of time if my own Freecell Solver[3]
had to make sure it respects the copyrights of layouts it receives as input.
Worse yet, I may have to make sure it does not inspect such boards at
mid-run. FYI, Freecell Solver can scale to millions of
boards (which are all valid Freecell states) during a mundane run, and
I have to make sure I check each one.

If I had to comply with the SSSCA, I would rather be jailed before I implement
such a disaster in it. (seriously) If the U.S. Government would sacrifice the
well-being of thousands of engineers and millions of users just so Walt Disney
Corp. would be happy, then I'd rather get rid of the U.S. Government, (Disney
is actually a relatively benevolent and productive corporation as far as I can
tell), than the American or world-wide public.

So, fire away I say to Sen. Hollings. Unless, of course, he actually
want to remain in one piece afterwards.

Seriously now, I'd rather see the public start opposing the SSSCA before it
is enacted as law. How do we do it? By lobbying. Is there anything wrong with
lobbbying? Not unless there's anything wrong with talking. Here's a related
example: suppose you wrote a good screenplay and wish it to be materialized
as a movie. You can either send it to the Disney/WB/Paramount/etc. box and
wait for a reply, which you probably won't get.

Or: you can travel to Hollywood, try to talk with other people who hold
some power in the studios, tell them about your story; ask them to read
it or your favourite parts; improve what they don't like and gradually
think of ways to improve it; gradually have more people know about the
story and eventually have the higher people notice you. This way will
probably work better than just sending it by mail or E-mail and hoping for the
best. Likewise for politics.

We should get as many people as possible that can be concerned by the SSSCA
to know about it, and criticize it at public. Furthermore, those people should
propogate it further up the line. I.e: we should let Military engineers be
aware of it, and let them tell their commander about it. If a commander hears
about the SSSCA from 3 different engineers, he will become suspicious of it
himself. If you actually know a general or an ex-general (or admiral, yeah
yeah) tell him about it, and see what he makes from it. Now, substitute this
paragraph with the Tech Firms (not necessarily info tech), or Police, or
Local Municipilaties or generally equivalent.

Like it or not, we have become dependant on computers. And like it or not,
the SSSCA will make using and developing them impossible. So, let the people
know, so legislators will notice[7] and we can get rid of this crap.

And like I said earlier, it will give us a higher ground to further elevate
our fight for individual rights. I cannot force you to contribute to its
success ("Defame the SSSCA today!" and all this crap) but it does sound
realistic to me. Still, don't rely on others to do the job for you.
Remember: we are not centralized but distributed. Every node is important.
You can start by writing an article about it while expressing your opinion
rationally and benevelontly. Then, publish it somewhere appropriate.

Life awaits you!

[1] - I'm not very fond of the latter. But he is one of the most influential
and opinionated people in the free software/open-source world, so I chose
to give him as an example.

[2] - I'm not calling the SSSCA, in its new name, because it has a very
horrid acronym. And it is basically the same law.

[3] - Refer to:

http://vipe.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/freecell-solver/

[4] - If you think about it, you can quickly realize that it also "makes
sense". Naturally, it is not a proof, but should be convincing enough.

[5] - I used to worry about not getting a job after I finish the Technion,
too. However, I was told that experienced Linux developers (which is the
case for me) are actually very hard to find in Israel. In fact, many qualified
Windows programmers are hired only to force Linux down their throats.

[6] - The U.S. may pride itself on being a free country. But becoming liberal
and maintaining liberalism is a process, not a declaration. While no country
in the world today is perfect constitutionally, I believe there are many
countries in which a person can lead a free-er life than the U.S.

[7] - Sending mail to your representative does not work as expected because
of the following reasons:

1. Representatives receive a lot of mail and E-mail containing many things
starting from conspiracy theories to personal complaints (which may be
legitimate). It is probably that they will not notice the SSSCA.

2. It is possible that they have bad intentions and wish to pass the SSSCA.
Evil people exist, and I believe most representatives fall into that category.

3. A representative is likely to be more influenced by people he knows
personally than from some random L. Torvalds hacker. We are dealing with
people here, not with Turing machines.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish        [email-masked]
Home Page:         http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/
Home E-mail:       [email-masked]

"Let's suppose you have a table with 2^n cups..."
"Wait a second - is n a natural number?"

---

From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 16:58:25 +0300

Just some non-serious remarks:

> work is free of unwanted issues entirely. Rome was not built in a day.

I'm not sure "relase early and release often" is a good approach for texts.
Do you really think people like to read the same text over and over again,
each time trying to find the new or changed paragraph(s)?

A release-often policy makes reading your document a O(N^2) effort, rather
than a O(N) (where N is the length of your final document).

> some power in the studios, tell them about your story; ask them to read

Those who saw "Moulin Rouge" know there's another way: pretend to be filthy
rich, and sleep with the studio owner's young female protege :)

> rationally and benevelontly. Then, publish it somewhere appropriate.

:)

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |       Tuesday, Apr 9 2002, 27 Nisan 5762
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Today is the tomorrow you worried about
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |yesterday, and now you know why.

---

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 17:20:58 +0300 (IDT)

> than a O(N) (where N is the length of your final document).

I know, I know. If you want I can organize the article in an AVL tree, and
then it will be O(n*log(n))... :-)

> rich, and sleep with the studio owner's young female protege :)

Actually, Ayn Rand tells in "Atlas Shrugged" of an actress who became
famous not by sleeping with producers, but by the "shortcut" of sleeping
with politicians. ;-) The thought of an actress doing that makes me
shiver.

But regarding to your comment: (taken too seriously) I was talking of
moral, honourable ways. Which I believe lobbying or human-engineering are
such.

> > rationally and benevelontly. Then, publish it somewhere appropriate.

It's kind of like a BFS scan followed by the PI (propogation of
information) protocol, only for humans. The kind of crap you start to
think with if you learn too much CS.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

Knuth is not God! God's Book of Algorithms also cover heuristics with
working with actual people. They are not guaranteed to work, but they were
measured to have an average of %83 success rate.[1]

[1] - I don't mean any malevolent methods of course. Neocheating, lying or
its ilk is not something one will benefit from doing.

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