Posted on 06/18/2003 11:28:53 AM PDT by El Conservador
WASHINGTON - Illegally download copyright music from the Internet once, or even twice, and you get a warning. Do it a third time, and your computer gets destroyed.
That's the suggestion made by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) at a Tuesday hearing on copyright abuse, reflecting a growing frustration in Congress over failure of the technology and entertainment industries to protect copyrights in a digital age.
The surprise statement by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that he favors developing technology to remotely destroy computers used for illegal downloads represents a dramatic escalation in the increasingly contentious rhetoric over pirated music.
During a discussion of 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 deliberately download 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, a composer who earned $18,000 last year in song-writing royalties, 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.
"There's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws," Hatch said.
Some legal experts suggested Hatch's provocative remarks were more likely intended to compel technology and music executives to work faster toward ways to protect copyrights online than to signal forthcoming legislation.
"It's just the frustration of those who are looking at enforcing laws that are proving very hard to enforce," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former Justice Department (news - web sites) cybercrimes prosecutor.
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee's senior Democrat, later said the problem is serious but called Hatch's suggestion too drastic.
"The rights of copyright holders need to be protected, but some Draconian remedies that have been suggested would create more problems than they would solve," Leahy said in a statement. "We need to work together to find the right answers, and this is not one of them."
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., urged Hatch to reconsider. Because Hatch is Judiciary chairman, "we all take those views very seriously," he said. But Kerr said Congress was unlikely to approve any bill to enable such remote computer destruction by copyright owners "because innocent users might be wrongly targeted."
A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites), Jonathan Lamy, said Hatch was "apparently making a metaphorical point that if peer-to-peer networks don't take reasonable steps to prevent massive copyright infringement on the systems they create, Congress may be forced to consider stronger measures." The RIAA represents the major music labels.
The entertainment industry has gradually escalated its fight against Internet file-traders, targeting the most egregious pirates with civil lawsuits. The RIAA recently won a federal court decision making it significantly easier to identify and track consumers — even those hiding behind aliases — using popular Internet file-sharing software.
___
On the Net: Sen. Hatch: http://hatch.senate.gov
I respect Sen. Hatch and all, but this is getting out of hand. Now RIAA's tactics are pure and sheer terrorism.
I get the urge to download some of his songs just to "cheat" him out of royalties.
Any method RIAA tries to use to destroy computers (other than breaking into your house and beating it with a baseball bat) will be similar to a virus/trojan horse or a breakin via the net. Those are stopped by anti-virus software and firewalls. Even if they get a few computers, protections against RIAA attacks will be created quickly.
If they do this, RIAA will unleash the hell of a million hackers aiming to destroy them. You could even have a friend email them a song you wrote. Then you send then a couple of quick cease and desist messages for having your copyrighted song on their computer and then attack it legally. After all, they are presumed guilty by their own rules.
So what happens when someone shows up in Hatch's office with a Louisville Slugger, and proceeds to destroy his computer?
After all, what's good for "the great unwashed" is good for the "high & mighty"...
Hey nutHatch...try it, you old senile fart. This guy is certifiable.
FMCDH
"No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. (Ammendment V)"
Well, it's a bit more like having your car set on fire after the third time it's been seen driving away from a gas station without paying for the gas.
And that sounds like vigilante justice to me. What ever happened to due process? And innocent until proven guilty?
Well they did try it. And within days it was common knowledge that a 75-cent Sharpie pen would work around it.
Secondly, a song writer is lucky to see his or her royalties with all of the ripoff contracts out there and the failure to actually get paid whats owed. The corporations hang onto the bucks while they abuse the talent until they're dried up.
I'm like everyone else here concerning the Dixie Chicks, but at least they jerked a knot in the necks of the industry for being ripped off for their work. Of course the crap still happens to others. This is one industry that needs a close going over.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.