House Judiciary Subcommittee on 
Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property


Dear Chairman,

I write in opposition to the fantastic assaults upon the Internet now being
attempted by the oligopoly of mass market music selling companies.  The
laws proposed by the oligopoly will not enable prosecution of copyright
infringement cases, but will rather grant effective ownership of every home
computer in the world to the oligopoly.  If the SSSCA passes, computer
manufacturers will be required to place spy machinery and remote control
machinery in every computer sold in the United States.  These machineries
will not be under the control of the home user, but under direct control of
the oligopoly, backed by United States law.

The home computer and the Internet have today provided millions of people
in the United States with whole music studios within their own homes, and
also with means of collaboratively creating, presenting, and distributing
music.  It is this competition which the oligopoly fears.  If the SSSCA and
cognate laws are passed, the computer industry and the communications
industries will be required to do the bidding of a small group of
companies, whose revenues are insignificant compared with the computer and
communications industries.  Large scale economic damage will be done to
these industries.  And worse, our rights to own a printing press/music
studio and to distribute our own works freely, without seeking permission
of the music oligopoly, will come to an end.


Please read and ask your staff to read Kevin Kelly's fine New York Times piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/magazine/17ONLINE.html


For serious consideration of what the real economics of the Internet are
see Andrew Odlyzko's "content is not king":

http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/doc/networks.html


I thank you and the whole Subcommittee for this opportunity to comment upon
the issue of copyright and the Internet.

I remain, as ever, your fellow user of the Internet and your fellow
believer in a free press and a free music, Jay Sulzberger


PS. If you use the web or email you use free software.  The Internet is
built of and on free software.  If the SSSCA passes free software will be
outlawed.


I vote in the city of Yonkers, New York.

My address is

79 Lewis Parkway
Yonkers, New York 10705-2525

My email address is

jays@panix.com


For purposes of identification only:

Jay Sulzberger 
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org

Co-winner of the 1999 Linus Torvalds Community service award