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Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act

{{Short description|United States bill proposed in 2002}}

The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) ({{usbill|107|S|2048}}) was a United States bill proposed in 2002107th Congress, 2nd session, S. 2048. [http://w2.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020321_s2048_cbdtpa_bill.pdf Full text PDF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214151257/http://w2.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020321_s2048_cbdtpa_bill.pdf |date=2012-02-14 }} that would have prohibited any kind of technology that could be used to read digital content without digital rights management (DRM)—which prohibits copying and reading any content under copyright without permission of the copyright owner. The bill was known in early drafts as the Security Systems and Standards Certification Act (SSSCA) and was sometimes called the Consume But Don't Try Programming Act.

Legislation

The CBDTPA was proposed by South Carolina senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC). Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had stated that he could "not support" the proposed legislation and, as chairman, intended to block consideration of the controversial bill. This essentially killed the bill in 2002.

Proposed penalties for violating the CBDTPA ranged from five to twenty years in prison, and fines between $50,000 and $1 million.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

Richard Stallman criticized this act due to the restrictions that it would place in the immediate and long-term future on free software, dubbing the bill the "Consume But Don't Try Programming Act."{{cite web|first=Richard |last=Stallman |url=https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html |title=Can You Trust Your Computer? |publisher=GNU |date=October 2002 |access-date=2009-07-02}}

Other U.S. senators named as sponsors of the CBDTPA bill include:

See also

References

External links

  • [http://economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=1549398 Economist article on the January 14, 2003 "truce"]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20020403024800/http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/input_form.cfm Form to post feedback to the Senate Judiciary Committee, with archived existing comments]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20021011142721/http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020321_s2048_cbdtpa_bill.pdf The CBDTPA Text]
  • [http://cryptome.org/sssca.htm The SSSCA Text]

Category:United States federal copyright legislation

Category:Proposed legislation of the 107th United States Congress

Category:Digital rights management