Legal/Government

INDUCE Act: Will it make the iPod illegal?

Orrin Hatch's INDUCE Act is even more dangerous than I first thought -- I knew it was a bad idea, but the never tiring folks at the EFF have worked up an excellent example why this proposed law is a monumentally bad idea. They created a fake complaint that alledges that Apple's iPod could be used to infringe copyrights and thus should be illegal. Apple would be considered a counselling infringer:

When the lawyers at EFF first sat down and asked "Whom could we sue under the Induce Act if we were an abusive copyright holder?" the answer was clear: pretty much everybody. Playing the devil's advocates, we knew we could draft a legal complaint against any number of the major computer or electronics manufacturers for selling everyday devices we all know and love - CD burners, MP3 players, cell phones - and that with that complaint, we could file a lawsuit that would survive any attempt to dismiss it before trial, costing the targeted company up to $1,000,000 per month in legal fees alone. The Induce Act is a nasty, brutish stick in the hands of the wrong plaintiff.

Everyone and their brother is blogging about this, but it is too important for me to not mention it here. Go read this and then contact your representatives and tell them that this law is an abomination and should never see the light of day!

Posted by Mayhem at June 25, 2004 11:01 AM