Orrin Hatch’s Online World

by John Hawkins | June 18, 2003 9:18 pm

Orrin Hatch’s Online World: Orrin Hatch is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but he doesn’t deserve to be. In fact, no one who actually believes something as ridiculous as this[1] would get my vote in an election…

“During a discussion on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange music and movie files over the Internet, Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal experts have said any such attack would violate federal anti-hacking laws.

“No one is interested in destroying anyone’s computer,” replied Randy Saaf of MediaDefender Inc., a secretive Los Angeles company that builds technology to disrupt music downloads. One technique deliberately downloads pirated material very slowly so other users can’t.

“I’m interested,” Hatch interrupted. He said damaging someone’s computer “may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights.”

The senator acknowledged Congress would have to enact an exemption for copyright owners from liability for damaging computers. He endorsed technology that would twice warn a computer user about illegal online behavior, “then destroy their computer.”

“If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we’d be interested in hearing about that,” Hatch said. “If that’s the only way, then I’m all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize” the seriousness of their actions, he said.

“There’s no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws,” Hatch said.”

So let me get this straight; Hatch wants to give corporations the power to legally destroy the computer of anyone who has already been “warn(ed) twice about their illegal behavior?”

What about your privacy on the internet? Sorry, in Orrin Hatch’s world corporations are allowed to snoop around on your computer to see if you’re violating copyright law. We’re lucky that Disney and Warner Bros aren’t complaining about people making illegal copies of their movies or Hatch might favor allowing them to break into your house to make sure you don’t have any illegal copies of the “Lion King” or the “Matrix”.

What about being, “innocent until proven guilty in a court of law”? Sorry, that doesn’t apply to people on the internet in Orrin Hatch’s world. The corporations will decide who’s innocent and who’s guilty and you’ll just have to learn to live with it.

What about the idea that everyone should be equal under the law? Sorry, but in Orrin Hatch’s world, corporations should be able to destroy your computer if they decide it’s necessary. After all, the TV/Movies/Music industry gave Orrin Hatch $175,322[2] in 1997-2002. If you pony up 175k like they did then maybe Orrin Hatch will favor keeping corporate hackers out of your computer.

Fortunately, I don’t think Orrin Hatch’s world is ever going to come into being because Hatch’s proposal has been bashed like Osama Bin Laden at a marine BBQ. That suits me just fine because I think Hatch deserves every nasty adjective that’s being hurled at him right now…

***Update***: Well, well, well — it looks like Orrin Hatch is a software pirate himself! Wired[3] has confirmation that Laurence Simon of Amish Tech Support broke yesterday[4].

Endnotes:
  1. this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6241-2003Jun17.html
  2. $175,322: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/indus.asp?CID=N00009869&cycle=2002
  3. Wired: http://wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59305,00.html
  4. yesterday: http://amish.blogmosis.com/archives/012511.html#012511

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/uncategorized/orrin-hatchs-online-world/