Sen. Hatch Tries to Destroy Computer

This is just mind boggling. Senator Hatch has lost his mind. Apparently, he wants to give people who download copyrighted materials a warning the first and second times, but on the third, he says they should have their computer remotely destroyed.

The term “destroyed” is a bit vague in this sense. Does he want them to physically explode? Does he want the operating system to corrupt itself? Does he want personal documents destroyed? I think that any of these “punishments” are out-of-line and downright moronic.

I could drone on about how every operating system developer would be required by law to implement some piece of software that allowed some draconian government to remotely send a signal to the operating system, which would then be required to self-destruct and how absolutely ridiculous that idea is, especially considering the fact that it would probably be a matter of days before black hats managed to spoof signals and destroyed the 21st century as we know it. I’m not going to though, because the problem with this suggestion is a lot closer than that.

You, by viewing this web page, downloaded copyrighted materials. In fact, every time you go online and view anything that isn’t public domain you’re downloading copyrighted materials. Watch a video on YouTube? Bye-bye computer. Check your Myspace? Bye-bye computer. Login to your company’s intranet from a work computer? Bye-bye computer. I think you get the picture here. Apparently Hatch doesn’t understand that what he’s doing would successfully destroy computing as we know it. Sure, it would stop people from sharing music, but I don’t think that the trillions of dollars lost by network providers, website operators, etc. would be worth the few million that record companies lose each year.

And I’d like to remind everyone here that downloading copyrighted material is NOT ILLEGAL. Please, review the laws yourself. There is nothing illegal about downloading something that has been copyrighted. The problem is distributing copyrighted material, hence the reason you can download websites for viewing, etc.

If you are Senator Hatch, or you have some way of getting him to read this, I have a little message for him/you: Pull your head out of your ass. We’re in an unpopular war with no end, fighting a hopeless fight against oil barons, struggling to obtain better government provided healthcare, and being invaded by illegal immigrants. Your private dissatisfaction with copyright laws are certainly not on the top of America’s list of things to address.