Entertainment industry lobbyists say programmers and open-source activists should not be alarmed by a controversial proposal to embed copy-protection controls in nearly all PCs and consumer electronic devices.

In interviews Monday, representatives of the Walt Disney Company and News Corp. defended a draft of the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) as a reasonable compromise that will spur high-speed Internet access and boost hardware sales. "This is an exceedingly moderate and reasonable approach," said Preston Padden, executive vice president of the Walt Disney Company, which helped to craft the legislation. Wired News has obtained a draft of the SSSCA, which Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, plans to introduce this month. "We think it's likely to jumpstart the broadband revolution, because entertainment content will create consumer demand," Padden said. "If you're a computer company or if you make hubs and routers or if you're trying to build a broadband network, you want this bill." Padden and his allies in the content community view the SSSCA as a kind of supplement to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which increased legal protections for digital content.