Two new state-level bills in MA and TX propose to extend the DMCA even further (nearly identical bills are pending in SC, FL, GE, AK, TN and CO). Ed Felten describes the world these bills would create:
Here is one example of the far-reaching harmful effects of these bills. Both bills would flatly ban the possession, sale, or use of technologies that “conceal from a communication service provider … the existence or place of origin or destination of any communication”. Your ISP is a communcation service provider, so anything that concealed the origin or destination of any communication from your ISP would be illegal — with no exceptions.
If you encrypt your email, you’re in violation, because the “To” line of the email is concealed from your ISP by encryption. If you use a secure connection to pick up your email, you’re in violation, because the “From” lines of the incoming emails are concealed from your ISP by the encrypted connection.
Worse yet, Network Address Translation (NAT), a technology widely used for enterprise security, operates by translating the “from” and “to” fields of Internet packets, thereby concealing the source or destination of each packet, and hence violating these bills. Most security “firewalls” use NAT, so if you use a firewall, you’re in violation.
(Thanks, Fred!)