Well, Orrin Hatch, a man that, at one time, I thought was a decent senator (hell, he’s my senate representative), has added another item to the list of truly mind-bogglingly stupid legislation aimed at protecting the poor old entertainment industry from the big, bad rest of the world. Originally called INDUCE (and now renamed the Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act), the legislation basically makes, well, any sort of copying illegal. From our friends at Rogue Amoeba (makers of the stupendous Audio Hijack Pro):
Under INDUCE, anything that “aids, abets, induces, or procures” others into actions that constitute piracy would itself be culpable. Does the item in question have substantial non-infringing uses? It won’t matter under INDUCE, so say goodbye to your iPod, your CD burner, hell, even floppy disks. INDUCE is incredibly broad, absolutely ridiculous, and if we don’t do something, it will be the law.
Well, you CAN do something about it! The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a web-form you can fill out and either email (which their form will do for you) or fax to your senate representatives. Seeing as my senator is the sponsor of this bill, I doubt my email will sway him much, but hopefully we can get enough people pissed off that the bill will die a quick and painful death. This isn’t just about our rights and fair use, this is about honest companies being put out of business because of broad, overarching legislation!