Senator Hatch recently made some comments in which he publicly endorsed the idea of allowing copyright holders to actually damage the computers of people who illegally trade copyrighted material. He then clarified those remarks (see here) but didn’t really back away from the idea.
Amish Tech Support noticed that Senator hatch’s website might actually be infringing copyright, and wrote to him about it, but since the Senator only responds to Utah constituents, I decided to help out by sending the following:
Dear Senator Hatch,
I was very disappointed to hear you condone acts of computer hacking by private parties as a remedy for copyright infringement. Even your clarification leaves that option open.
According to an analysis done by a blogger (See http://amish.blogmosis.com/archives/012511.html#012511 ), your own website may be infringing the copyright of the software developer that created the menu at the top. Surely you see how hypocritical that looks. Please follow up on this and let me know whether the analysis is correct, and, if so, that you have taken action to properly license the software.
Can you really believe that it could ever be justified for the copyright owner to take enforcement into his own hands and attack the computer serving your website, instead of seeking a proper remedy through the rule of law?
By the way, I’m not some liberal crank who’s just trying to annoy you; I’m a conservative Republican who voted for you in the last election. In fact, though you almost certainly don’t remember me, I worked as an intern in your D.C. office in the winter of 1991. So I am bringing this issue to your attention out of a desire to help you, because right now, a lot of people think your position on this issue is pretty foolish.
Sincerely,
Eric Stone
(Note: This entry is from my second attempt at a blog, called Spundit.com, and has been transferred here for historical purposes.)