Tuesday, June 17, 2003 ::
Why Does Hatch Hate Technology So Much?
For some odd reason, it seems to be the conventional wisdom that Republicans are "good" on technology issues, while Democrats are "bad". As I have argued here earlier, the conventional wisdom is wrong. More evidence today from the Honorable Orin Hatch, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and one of the elected officials with the most juice in the technosphere:
"No one is interested in destroying anyone's computer," replied Randy Saaf of MediaDefender Inc., a secretive Los Angeles company that builds technology to disrupt music downloads. One technique deliberately downloads 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 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, he said.
"There's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws," Hatch said.
And I guess there's no longer any excuse for anyone to take the GOP seriously on technology, either. Or privacy, or civil liberties, or just plain common sense.
GOP in Bed with Big Tobacco
Are recently divorced House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Philip Morris lobbyist Abigail Perlman headed for the altar? Word around town is that the two lovebirds — whose romance has been raising eyebrows and giving fits to self-appointed ethics cops — are planning to announce their engagement soon.
This news explains at least two things. One, it explains Blunt's "recently divorced" thing. Two, it explains the "secretly inserting an amendment in the Homeland Security bill to benefit Philip Morris" thing. Give Abigail credit, though — she definitely gave her all for the company.