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6.21.2004
More From the Imaginary Laws Department
Set to be introduced by your friend and mine, copyright-infringing Senator Orrin Hatch: the INDUCE Act, which some commentators believe is so broad as to outlaw currently existing and commercially available digital media technologies like DVD burners, file-sharing networks and digital video recorders like TiVo and ReplayTV. The gist is that anyone who intentionally induces copyright infringement (which includes providing technologies or tools that could be misused by pirates, scalawags and ne'er-do-wells) would be in violation of the Act and presumably subject to the penalties of copyright law; the intent is that such draconian potential penalties will prevent the advent of copyright-infringing technologies.
Let's see... where did I put that copy of the Constitution... oh yeah: Article I, Section 8: The Congress shall have Power... [t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;... [and t]o make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. Nope, nothing in there about suppressing or stifling the creation of new technologies. Whaddayaknow?
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