Several government and industry leaders this weekend criticized proposed legislation that calls on hardware makers to help protect Hollywood's interests, saying lawmakers should not decide the tech industry's "winners and losers." Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Les Vadasz, president of Intel Capital; . . .

Several government and industry leaders this weekend criticized proposed legislation that calls on hardware makers to help protect Hollywood's interests, saying lawmakers should not decide the tech industry's "winners and losers." Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Les Vadasz, president of Intel Capital; Mitch Kapor, chairman of the Open Source Applications Foundation; and Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, engaged in a lively, sometimes heated, debate on recently proposed government controls on digital media devices. They met Sunday in an opening panel discussion at PC Forum, an annual technology conference hosted by author and technology pundit Esther Dyson.

The debate comes days after Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings introduced a bill that would ultimately require computer and consumer electronics companies to build piracy-prevention software into their products. Called the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Act--once known as the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act--the bill has some powerful lobbyists including Hollywood studios Walt Disney and 20th Century Fox.

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