This INDUCE act, proposed by would-be singing star, Mormon and wholly-owned subsidiary of the Disney corporation Orrin Hatch, is utterly ridiculous. Essentially, Hatch proposes an amendment to the Copyright Act which would make liable anyone who aids, abets, induces, etc. copyright violation. Forget about the 'noninfringing uses' standard set by the Betamax case--even though that VCR can be used for time-shifting and dubbing home movies. Basically, we're talking about suing pencil manufacturers. Like many bills proposed by Sen. Hatch, this one appears to be unconstitutional--not that that will stop it from passing.
Check out today's exhaustive discussion on
Slashdot, the considerably-less-exhaustive discussion on
Metafilter, and, my favorite, the
obsessively-annotated text of Hatch's introduction speech. Further, here's more from
Ars Technica,
Copyfight, the
EFF, the
Home Recording Rights Coalition and
Google News. Last but not least, here's coverage from
Wired, and some from the
biggest newspaper in Utah.
Also, here's a Beastie Boys/DRM
update, via
Slashdot.