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I like Orrin Hatch. BUT I think he is very wrong on this issue. There are a lot of things they can do, they could make the download not play, unless you enter an ID number, just as when you buy computer software, you can't install it, unless you enter a number, even in shareware, which you can use for 30 days, they can deactivate it after 30 days, there are a lot of simple things they could do to make it harder to enjoy the illegally downloaded music.

Remotely destroying the computer of someone, for this, is something that shouldn't even be considered. That would be like the music companies being prosecutor, judge, jury & executioner. Not to mention their employees doing it to someone just for fun, even if a person didn't download anything illegal. Or some kid plays with Dad's computer, so they destroy all the important data on the guy's computer, and so on. But as I said, even for those who do download music illegally, destroying their computer, with the loss of data, the expense, just by some company, who had immunity from this, is totally crazy.

I will certainly write to him and strongly suggest he think it over and revoke his remarks.

I like Orrin Hatch. BUT I think he is very wrong on this issue. There are a lot of things they can do, they could make the download not play, unless you enter an ID number, just as when you buy computer software, you can't install it, unless you enter a number, even in shareware, which you can use for 30 days, they can deactivate it after 30 days, there are a lot of simple things they could do to make it harder to enjoy the illegally downloaded music.

An MP3 or MPEG or DIV/X or other media file are not the same as a program - they are data only. The security system would have to be interaction between the player program and the data file.

Of course, even IF you could protect music files using a special encoding technique, special computer hardware, and special software, you have to actually PLAY the music at some point, after all, that's the point.

You could always at that point re-record the audio, and encode it in a non-protected format... like MP3. Bye bye protection!