TCPA/PALLADIUM

[Jason Clinton]

Kurt Kessler wrote:

>This all may be true, but it WILL NOT pass in all
>countries. Many countries are not as liable to the
>'knee-jerk' that seems so prevalant here... And that
>being the case, it will still be possible to buy NON
>palladium electronic 'things' elsewhere...
>
No, but if the Fritz's CBTA passes, it will make importing such
electronics also illegal. Take for instance the hubub over the PS1 mod
chip that allows you to play ROM burned on to a standard CD-R media. As
soon as Sony got wind of it, it fired of a letter to the FTC demanding
that the chip be confiscated persuant the Digital Millinium Copyright
Act. Thus, it's now almost impossible to find and expensive if you can
find it. Sony danced all the way to the bank on that one because they
can continue to assure their game developers that their PlayStation
games cannot be pirated as easily as on the PC.

It should also be noted that the European Union is in the process of
passing a law very similar to the DMCA and a law extremely similar to
Fritz's CBTA is also in the works in the UK. As long as these companies
have more lobbying power than the consumer, rape of consumer rights will
continue...