Re: Michigan First With A Law That Could Outlaw VPNs

[Lincoln Rutledge <lrutledge@fairfield.lib.oh.us>]

Marcus Watts wrote:
> Various people wrote claiming that Michigan has a law that outlaws
> VPNs.  Before people go all alarmist about this, I think they should
> go read the actual law in question here:
> 
> http://www.michiganlegislature.org/mileg.asp?page=getObject&objName=mcl-750-540c-amended
> 
> There's nothing in here about IPsec.  There is some stupid stuff here
> about attempting to illegally decrypt stuff.  Probably that's intended
> to cover cable de-scramblers.  Conceivably it could cover attempts to
> break WEP - if you're going to get upset about it, at least get upset
> over the right bad part.
> 
> There is stuff here about "concealing" ones origin.  What exactly that
> means is up to the courts - there's no point in reading more into the
> law than that.  I think the text was written to give law enforcement
> more teeth with which to pursue people such as Ralsky.  VPNs and NATs
> could simply be regarded as mechanisms to handle routing issues and
> scarce IP address issues -- both legitimate and nothing to do with
> concealment at all.  I don't know of anything that requires one to
> *identify* one's point of origin per se -- so address mapping in itself
> can't be an issue.  It's still badly worded, and there's a chance the
> court decision could be too broadly interpreted with bad results.
> 
> For those who are curious; Michigan has term limits.  A lot of them
> expired last year -- so something like 2/3rds of the legislature are
> brand new at it.  Michigan also has a strong telecommuniations lobby --
> so the text of this law was probably intended to favour Ameritech and
> Comcast.  You can thank the Republicans for term limits.
> 
> Personally, in the wake of 9/11, I'm amazed that there hasn't
> been more bad stuff passed that affects telecommunications.
> 
> Very little of this (except perhaps the wep stuff) has anything to
> do with OpenBSD.
> 
> 					-Marcus Watts
> 
> 

Ah, a voice of reason :)  I have the same feeling about it that you do, 
unlike the slashdot Chicken Littles...

The only part that gives me the creeps is that I remember last year some 
Michigan detective started arresting cable modem uncappers and taking 
all of their equipment as if they were drug dealers.  It was chilling. 
I remember because I wrote to the local newspaper.  I have to admit that 
I didn't follow up to hear the outcome.

So while total paranoia is probably not in order, there may be some 
cause for concern.

Unfortunately I think it is another case where the commercial lobby is 
squashing individual rights to squeeze those profit margins a little wider.

Working in the library world, I am constantly (sadly) barraged with info 
along these lines...


-- 
Lincoln Rutledge
Information Technology Manager
Fairfield County District Library
www.fairfield.lib.oh.us

Open Source Automation Software - oss4lib.org