CRIME Senator Hatch - Destroy file swappers' computers

From: Todd Ellner (tellner@private)
Date: Wed Jun 18 2003 - 08:34:33 PDT

  • Next message: Dorning, Kevin E - DI-3: "RE: CRIME Senator Hatch - Destroy file swappers' computers" 

    [Lots of crazy ideas bubble up out of Washington. Let's hope this one sinks
quietly back into the muck]

---------------------
http://theregister.com/content/6/31287.html

US Senator would destroy MP3 traders' PCs
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 18/06/2003 at 14:57 GMT


The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Orrin Hatch (Republican,
Utah), thinks it would be a fabulous idea if copyright owners could remotely
destroy computers that contain pirated material, the Associated Press
reports. 

"I'm all for destroying their machines," Hatch said during a Committee
hearing Tuesday. "'If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think
people would realize' the seriousness of their actions," the wire service
quotes him as saying. 

This would involve creating new legislation to exempt copyright owners from
old-fashioned laws that make it a crime to destroy other people's property,
and from somewhat newer computer trespass and misuse statutes as well. 

Such legislation would be in line with US Representative Howard Berman
(Democrat, California) and his vision of allowing copyright owners and their
agents to hack computer systems where copyright violations might be going on
 Hatch would simply take it a bit further, permitting copyright owners to
take overtly malicious action. 

While there may soon be an excuse for willful destruction of property, 
there's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws," Hatch explained. 

We can't quite picture the sort of attack our visionary Utah Senator has in
mind. Obviously there is little danger of actually destroying a PC remotely;
in spite of great advances in malware, it remains the sort of business for
which a hatchet comes in most handy. You could wipe the HDD or re-flash the
BIOS remotely, but victims can recover from this sort of thing. 

Benefit of the doubt 

One has to wonder how much evidence of wrongdoing a copyright owner would
need before their exemption from prosecution would kick in. Would they have
to maintain copious records of their investigations and findings? Or would
they be granted a blanket benefit of the doubt and therefor not have to
justify it at all? And what happens when an innocent person is victimized?
If their HDD were wiped by some malicious program, they would have an awful
time seeking a legal remedy with no data to challenge the media pigopolists'
evidence. 

Perhaps Hatch is imagining of some sort of Mission-Impossible-style DRM
self-destruct regime, possibly one mandated by a law like the one
contemplated by Senator Fritz Hollings (Democrat, South Carolina) known as
the CBDTPA. 

A mandatory DRM scheme of this sort could monitor the copyright status of
content being accessed, and after a set number of 'violations' sabotage the
PC with a Hatch attack. To further inconvenience copyright miscreants, the
DRM mechanism could be tied to some sort of Win-XP-style 'product activation
 discipline, possibly requiring users to purchase and install a new copy of
their operating system to regain full control of their computers. 

Or perhaps Congress will realize that Hatch is talking utter nonsense and
ignore his bizarre suggestion. It all depends on how much money the MPAA and
RIAA lobbyists can slip into the pockets of their Congressional lapdogs. 

Citizens are welcome to e-mail Senator Hatch here to offer him their kind
words of support. ®

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Jun 18 2003 - 09:13:47 PDT