Fergie's Tech Blog

DRM Throw-Down: Can Techie Oust Orrin Hatch?

Eliot Van Buskirk writes on Wired News:

Technology policy rarely makes for compelling campaign theater -- and rarer still moves the body politic -- but I can't help rooting for Pete Ashdown.

In a political mismatch of almost biblical proportions, the tech-savvy Democrat is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch.

Hatch is a popular incumbent who has polled over 62 percent in past elections. Apparently, Utahans couldn't care less about the Republican senator's slavish endorsement of entertainment industry-backed bills that would, without understatement, create the equivalent of a copyright police state.

Hatch has terrorized techies from his Washington perch by sponsoring the much-loathed DMCA. He's on record saying it'd be a good idea to let entertainment companies remotely destroy the computers of those they suspect of copyright infringement. And he's a co-sponsor of the Induce Act, a moribund bill that aimed to hold tech companies responsible for creating devices that could be used to pirate digital content.

posted by Fergie @ 5/01/2006 06:31:00 AM