June 20, 2003 6:08 AM

And then we'll shove bamboo shoots under their fingernails and tape their eyelids open (Part Deux)....

Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate? (thanks, Adam!!)

That wacky Orrin Hatch... I mentioned a couple of days ago that Hatch had suggested that he would be in favor of destroying the computers of those folks who illegally download music from the Internet. Well, he who live in gas tank best not be lighting matches.

But Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website, which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system he proposes.

The senator's site makes extensive use of a JavaScript menu system developed by Milonic Solutions, a software company based in the United Kingdom. The copyright-protected code has not been licensed for use on Hatch's website.

"It's an unlicensed copy," said Andy Woolley, who runs Milonic. "It's very unfortunate for him because of those comments he made."

Hatch on Tuesday surprised a Senate hearing on copyright issues with the suggestion that technology should be developed to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Net.

Hatch said damaging someone's computer "may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights," the Associated Press reported. He then suggested the technology would twice warn a computer user about illegal online behavior, "then destroy their computer."

Any such technology would be in violation of federal antihacking laws. The senator, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested Congress would have to make copyright holders exempt from current laws for them to legally destroy people's computers.

On Wednesday, Hatch clarified his comments, but stuck by the original idea. "I do not favor extreme remedies -- unless no moderate remedies can be found," he said in a statement. "I asked the interested industries to help us find those moderate remedies."

Just as well. Because if Hatch's terminator system embraced software as well as music, his servers would be targeted for destruction.

Of course he neglected to add "...just as long as I'm not held to these same standards." Ah, yes, the old "Do as I say, not as I do" defense....

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on June 20, 2003 6:08 AM.

When does it stop being nudity and become child porn? was the previous entry in this blog.

Yep, it really IS worse than it looks is the next entry in this blog.

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