news.com has an article titled: FBI to get veto power over PC software. Basically the FCC -- an unelected body -- has given the FBI the power to legally tell people in the USA what they can and cannot do on or with their computers. (If you're thinking something like "yeah right"... I'm serious!)
The FBI now gets to choose what software you are allowed to install. They now get to choose what you do with that software. The now get to choose how you do that too. And they can change their mind at any time and even make different rules for different people. And if you don't do what they say, you are breaking the "law". (I strongly suspect that this new power the FBI has been given is unconstitutional. But with stuff like the USA Patriot Act and DMCA, no one in the government seems to care if a "law" breaks the consitution or not. I.e., no one in the government cares if a "law" is illegal or not.)
It is pretty disturbing to see that the FCC once again has put "laws" into place outside the democratic process. There's a rule with government and laws that I have said over and over again: whatever can be abused will (probably) be abused eventually. So no "law", "rule", or "regulation" should be made that allows for any kind of abuse; or at the very least minimizes it. To put this in language like I hear politicians and law makers use:
(Note, I hate using the phrase "bad guys". I just wanted to use language that I think some people need to hear it in to understand.)The government is where the power is. And it will attract the "bad guys" to it. They'll try to take control of it. And all you need is the "bad guys" to gain any level of "power" in the goverment to abuse the powers the government has to do "bad things" to decent people.