Polygon, the Dancing bear reports
on the new “super-DMCA” law which went into effect two days ago:
Firewalls now illegal here? A new Michigan law, enacted during last year’s lame duck session, takes
effect today. Among the features of our new “super-DMCA” ? similar bills, sponsored by the MPAA, are
pending in many other states ? are sweeping new restrictions on telecommunications.Public Act 672 of 2002, besides amending various other criminal code provisions, purports to “update”
prohibitions on theft of cable and telephone service. But the law as written would ban many widely used
computer security measures.The language is extremely broad: starting today, it’s a felony to “assemble, develop, manufacture,
possess, deliver, offer to deliver, or advertise” any device which are intended to, among other things,
conceal the origin or destination of a communication, even without any intent to defraud anyone. That
covers firewalls, encryption, steganography, remailers, NAT, tunnels, Kerberos, SSH, IPSec, pretty much
the gamut of secure communications.