[PLUG-TALK] HR4569, the "Destroy Electronics in America Act"

[Keith Lofstrom]

Appended is a letter I just sent off to Representative David Wu.
You can read more about HR4569 at 

http://static.publicknowledge.org/pdf/HR-4569-DTCSA-Analog-Hole.pdf
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/47939.html

Think about what this means, and write your own letters, please.
If this thing passes, we probably have to leave the country to
continue doing electronics.

Keith


Here is what I wrote:  -----------------------------------------------

HR-4569, the "Digital Transition Content Security Act" will be 
coming up for a vote in Congress in 2006.  If this horrible bill 
passes, it will put thousands of people in your district out of 
work - soon after, it will destroy the US electronic infrastructure,
followed by the destruction of the United States itself.  

*Serious words!*  Let me explain:

The Act concerns "analog to digital converters" - silicon devices
that convert analog signals into bits for computer-like processing.  
These devices are not merely in consumer media players and recorders,
but in perhaps 90% of electronic equipment in some form or other. 
Most particularly, they are in telephone communications, military
equipment, and electronic test and measurement equipment, such as 
that made by Tektronix.  

I once designed A-to-D converters for Tektronix - I have a number of
patents in that area.  Some of these converters were used in the
company's television test and measurement equipment, and in their
Grass Valley Group video subsidiaries.  Others are used in oscilloscopes
and other measurement gear.  Without practical analog-to-digital
converters, Tektronix cannot produce any products.  

Some of these A-to-D converters are extremely powerful, and are barely
possible with the current state of the art.  Adding "copyright content
detection" would complicate them enormously, and make them no longer
possible to manufacture.  While it is possible to use these general
purpose "digitizers" to digitize video and sound signals, violating
copyright, they are essential in the design, manufacture, and 
maintenance of electronics.  Without them, all electronics fails; 
phones quit, cars stop, airplanes are grounded.  Our military is 
rendered impotent.  

Laws that temporarily enhance Hollywood revenues at the expense of
the survival of the United States are not just a bad idea, they verge
on treason.  If the MPAA and RIAA cannot adapt to the advance of 
technology, then they and the people they represent should find new
ways to make a living.  A few extra percent on their bottom line 
does not justify the destruction of our electronic infrastructure.

I feel very strongly about this.  You will probably not hear much 
in the near term from the CEOs of Tektronix or Intel - they probably
don't know what an A-to-D converter is, much less what the engineering
issues are.  Their engineers could educate them, if somebody made 
it a priority, but most people don't pay a lot of attention to what
legislators do until the laws are enforced.  And while I think this 
bad law will be repealed by the time the damage becomes obvious, it 
will be far too late to save our technological infrastructure in a
rapidly advancing world market.  

I am not wealthy, but I am willing to fly to Washington to talk 
about it to you and your staff.  The damage this bill will do to me 
as an ordinary citizen, one among millions, far outweighs the cost
of a plane ticket.  It must be stopped at all costs.

Please have someone technologically savvy research this, and make 
sure that you get feedback from practicing engineers, not just 
executives.  Entertainment is optional;  survival is not.

Keith Lofstrom  (keithl at keithl.com)

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-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs