Michigan First With A Law That Could Outlaw VPNs

zaren writes "Holy frell, Taco, we're gonna be criminals! I was checking out Freedom to Tinker after reading the posting about that multi-state anti-VPN-style legislation, and I saw a new posting that says that Michigan has ALREADY passed such legislation, and it goes into effect on MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2003 . Guess I better tighten down the base station and batten down the hatches..."

Irony

[JanusFury]

Michigan residents being arrested on april fools' day because of a law that's a joke.

Re:What were they thinking???

[rela]

What were legislators smoking when they wrote that clause?

I don't know, but whatever it is, I want some! It must be a REALLY good trip.

I propose..

[mcbridematt]

To make this a worldwide law:

FUCK TELECOMMUNICATIONS (and DMCA, non-POSIX) LAWS CONVENTION
Section 1.
(a) No darn goverment in the world will legislate any telcommunications laws.
(b) IPv4 Sucks. Everyone will be assigned a unique IPv6 address.
(c) There will be no DMCA-style legislation anywhere. Everything will be licensed under a GNU GPL-compatible license
Section 2.
(a) Any Operating system NOT implementing the POSIX standard, with exception of embedded devices is banned.
Section 3.
(a) A person shall not use a Fifty-Six Kilobaud analog modem device.
(b) A person must have access to an T3 line within 200 meters of residence.
Section 4.
(a) Every person over the age of 6 that is capable of operating a computing device will recieve free copies of the latest stable release of either FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Minix or Linux.
(b) Every person who is able to operate a SQL92/99 Server will recieve a stable copy of PostgreSQL every time a stable release of that 'computer application' is released

Re:Also with effect 31 March...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, you'd think we'd have sprouted a decent filmmaker by now. Its truely a sad state of affairs.

Oh wait, Sam Raimi...

Punctuation in your article title

[billstewart]

You left out the comma:

What, were they thinking???

The answer, of course, is "no!"

Re:Not one but two !!!

[October_30th]

Uh... I don't see the connection between geeks and nude women?

Re:Not one but two !!!

[nadaou]

Who said "America- land of free" must now be turning in graves.

"Soon we will be able to harness the rotational energy from Orwell's grave to solve all world energy problems"
- GigsVT (#208848 [there is no #1, #6])

This might work on Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson's graves as well.

But don't worry, the oil companies and their puppet government won't stand for this nonsense for very long. They'll buy & bury the technology soon enough.

What will *really* happen...

[0x0d0a]

"Hi, this is Mike. You remember me from yesterday? Yeah, well, I was wondering if I could "facilitate the recipt" of another couple of packets today. I was kinda thinking about maybe checking the weather."

"Kid, I'm giving you express authority to send you all the packets you want. Get the hell off the support line." ...

"Hi, this is Bob. I was wondering if I could decrypt something...I was thinking about buying a CD for my sister using https. Also, I..."

"Blanket approval. Go for it."

Sitting down is illegal...

[MosesJones]

Today the RIAA announced it was pushing for legislation that made the use of chairs illegal

"Pirates sit down to make these illegal copies that are destroying society" said an RIAA spokesperson "This is all about making it uncomfortable for the pirates"

When questioned as to the many valid uses of chairs the spokesperson replied "Sure this will have a minor effect on some people, but isn't that worth it to protect the American way of life and ensure the success of democracy that rides on the music and movie industries, what are you some sort of Communist or one of the Al Q'uada people.... guards arrest this person"

How to use this law to get rid of the legislators

[Andy_R]

1) phone legislator
2) ask him his exact location
3) if he tells you, say thanks and hang up. Wait 5 minutes go back to step 1)
4) if he hangs up without telling you, get him locked up for concealing the destination of the telecommunication.

Repeat until all the legislators are locked up, then elect some people who are less dumb.

Re:The Ma Bell similarity

[bn557]

quite possibly the most useful/informative post in the history of slashdot.

P

Re:Not one but two !!!

[Mattsson]

If all the geeks in the US moved to florida, for how long do you think there would still be nude women there? =)

new slashdot "Form Error"

[Anonymous Coward]

This form has been used already 10 minutes ago. You can not use a form and hit the back button to use it again. Chances are, you're behind a firewall or proxy. If the problem persists you will be tried and convicted in the state of Michigan for violation of state legislation.

Rotary phones (OT)

[schon]

Wonder how many people here have ever even seen a rotary dial

Interesting note - I read a newspaper article a couple of years ago about a high school that put a rotary phone in the office, to prevent students from using the phone to call out..

Apparently they had no idea how to use one.

Re:Haha, This could be the end of NAT!

[0spf]

It depends on what the defination of "is" is.

Re:Also with effect 31 March...

[wirelessbuzzers]

... they have just one more tool to fuck you over with impunity.

I don't know about that. Fucking someone over with a tool ought to qualify as lewd and lascivious, don't you think?

Every cloud has a silver lining

[unitron]

"(b) Conceal the existence or place of origin or destination of any telecommunications service."

So if a telemarketer keeps their number from showing up on your CallerID screen you can have them arrested as a terrorist. Cool.