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Rogues
Gallery-"Fritz" Hollings
If
there is one man in Washington who doesn't get it, it has to be Senator
Earnest Hollings from South Carolina. As a member of Commerce, Science,
and Transportation Committee he is in a position to have a major impact
on the laws of the country through the regulation of Commerce. He is a
lifetime politician beginning his political career in South Carolina at
the age of 26. He has been in the Senate since 1966. While he may politically
savvy, he certainly doesn't have a clue when it comes to technology, the
internet, and the issues surrounding them. One has to wonder about his
motives in kissing up to the movie industry and its mouthpiece
Jack Valenti (another of our rogues). During the last election cycle
Fritz received over a quarter million dollars in campaign donations from
the copyright industry (movies, music, and entertainment).
Lets
speculate a bit.
Perhaps
the Senator has some skeletons buried in his closet that Jack Valenti
is aware of? Fritz first came to the hill in 1966. At the time Jack Valenti
was a special aide to Lyndon Johnson and actually living in the Whitehouse,
only the second staff member in the history of the United States to do
that. Later that year Valenti became the head of the MPAA. A little research
and one becomes aware that it was during the administration of Lyndon
Johnson that the famous tape recording equipment (that nailed Nixon) was
installed. Hmmm........Interesting set of coincidences don't you think?
Last
fall he floated a draft of a bill called the SSSCA. (Security Systems
Standards and Certification Act). The outcry was immediate and loud. The
tech community would not accept the draconian measure suggested by Sen.
Hollings and backed by Michael Eisner of Disney. The draft received so
much bad press, so quickly that when he did introduce it, he has changed
the name. It is now the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion
Act (CBDTPA ). The reason for the change is simple there was a lot of
opposition to SSSCA, and the fact that Jack Valenti used the selling point
that we aren't releasing movies on the internet because they aren't protected,
and as a result the Broadband companies are not investing in bringing
high speed internet to the majority of the public because of that. Also
about to pass was the Campaign Finance Reform Act that would limit severely
the amount of money that Valenti and his cohorts could funnel to Sen.
Hollings. They don't want you to be able to record movies from digital
TV (like you can from analog now) because the quality is too good. They
say that these draconian copy measures will promote broadband. They won't.
All they do is further line the pockets of the industry, by taking away
things you can do now (like record a movie from TV to a VCR).
You
need to contact your Senator and Reprensetatives (a House version has
been introduced by a Representative from Hollywood) and let them know
this must not pass. Tell them you will not support anyone with your vote,
who votes for this act.
The
Senate by State
Members of the House
of Representatives
The
Text of the CBDTPA
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