With government agencies, one often has to try to guess what they are hiding. A close look at a FCC policy document released at 9 p.m. on a Friday may shock you.
Controlling Software
The Federal Communications Commission has issued a policy paper that sets free speech back a few thousand years. Yep, the FCC is taking the position that computer software companies must first get approval from the FBI before they will be allowed to put software products on the market. Think about that for a minute and cringe.
The ostensible reason for Big Brothers power grab is, once again, the pursuit of terrorist and bad, bad people. You see, Brother wants to make every software company put a backdoor in their systems that lets Big Brother access your computer on the sly to keep an eye on you. No doubt, many evil people use Adobe and Microsoft products!
Big Brother Out of Control?
Obviously, everyone is interested in catching terrorists and bad guys. The idea of giving the FBI carte blanche power over the software industry, however, goes way beyond such concerns. Let us consider a practical example.
What if construction companies had to seek approval...