[note] This originally played on 18 June 2003

Senator Orrin Hatch R-Utah

Read this: All your computer are belong to Orrin Hatch

I dont know about you, but it seems to me that a federally supported law allowing some anonymous corporation the ability to destroy a users computer based on something that MAY or MAY NOT be pirated music/software/whatever is not only draconian, but incredibly bad juju.

Here's the deal people. I am NOT in favor of piracy, but when a United States Senator starts spouting this stuff, we need to really take notice. Fighting piracy is one thing, however, where is the discrimination? Who is to say that that Pink Floyd song that I was listening to while I was working on a script the other night is one that I stole via some P2P network, or one that I made a legit fair use copy of from a CD that I purchased in a record store a month ago. I mean, an mp3 is an mp3 is an mp3, regardless of whether I download it from Kazaa or rip it from a CD that I purchased. SO, the question begs, how could this wonderful technology that Sen. Hatch and others are so goo goo over discriminate between my legit fair use copies and some possibly illegal ones?

That, my friends, is the real question. How indeed? And what happens when this destroys someones computer because of a mistaken identity? Remember when the BSA went after OpenOffice? Keep your eyes on Sen. Hatch and his cronies, and please... by all means, support groups like Electronic Privacy Information Center and of course Electronic Frontier Foundation. Groups like these fight the good fight, and can only do so with your help. Remember, you dont have to be a pirate to be targeted. All you have to do is be a computer user. When you give up one right, or one freedom, others quickly follow.