> > A new DMCA-like law is being readied in congress.  This one would
> > mandate that all computers include music-industry approved secure
> > non-copyable storage system.  $500k/5year penalties for noncompliance.
> 
> Anyone with half a brain can see that these laws will be unenforcable
> concerning individuals.  Take a look at the mass-email laws.  Have they
> at all noticably reduce the amount of spam that we get?

I only wish that were true.  I'm honestly not so sure.  I still can't
download sources to a program to play DVD's under NetBSD.  Now I
really don't care that much about DVD's.  I can live without them.

Once things start hitting CD's I get a bit concerned.  I have a big
directory of all our CD's as 128kbit/sec mp3's.  (Several linear feet
of CD's crunched down into a small fraction of a disk.)  Playing the
mp3's with gqmpeg playlists is so convenient compared to sticking
physical cd's into a changer that we have started referring to our
CD's as "backup storage".

It would really piss me off if the RIAA in an attempt to play
anti-napster games were to two things I care about 1) a free and open
OS and 2) CD playing tools that are far superior to the crap the
stereo electronics manufacturers are putting out.

-wolfgang
-- 
Wolfgang Rupprecht    <wolfgang@wsrcc.com>     http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/
Coming soon: GPS mapping tools for Open Systems. http://www.gnomad-mapping.com/