[Home]
May 03, 2002

[Action]
Hell Bent for "Consensus"

The BPDG is ready to draw its "consensus" to a close, no matter how little actual consensus prevails within its ranks. The co-chairs have just circulated their consensus-at-any-cost schedule:

Monday, May 6:
Deadline for any further questions/comments on proposals from 5C/CIG/MPAA (Table A criteria and compliance/robustness requirements) and Philips (Table A criteria).
Tuesday, May 7:
Deadline for proposals to include protection technologies on Table A (see summary above)
Thursday, May 9:
Deadline for any necessary parties (i.e., not you, not us -- we're not part of the "consensus") to confirm/reaffirm proposed technologies meeting indicated criteria.
Wednesday, May 15:
Deadline for comments on May 10 circulations.
Friday, May 17:
Circulation of final report

No more BPDG meetings, then -- the BPDG will present its final report to the Copy Protection Technical Working Group shortly after the 17th, and then it's off to the lawmakers, to gleefully legislate away our fair use rights and open source.

We're not giving up, though! The EFF will file comments on each stage of this, will follow this process to Congress and the FCC. We will be at the CPTWG meetings and in the press, helping our lawmakers to make the right decision.

Any interested party can file comments, you know, just by joining the BPDG mailing list.

Posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:30 AM