Senator Hatch of course is the person behind the PIRATE Act of 2004, or “Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act”, this last May in which any and all petty copyright infringement would become a crime, as opposed to being a civil violation, and force the Department of Justice to handle all instances of copyright infringement.
However, the senator is now back with new legislation, the INDUCE Act, or “Inducement Devolves into Unlawful Child Exploitation Act”.
This act would make illegal anything that “intentionally” “aids, abets, induces, counsels, or procures” others into actions that constitute piracy, which unfortunately thanks to the wording in this law means tha if a device or application can be used for infringement, it makes the producers of such devices liable, even if it’s the end users committing the violation.
And what the hell is with the blatant “ZOMG! THINK OF TEH CHILDRENS!” card being played within the name of the act? There seems to be a growing trend that any legislation introduced these days which uses an acronym as its name is automatically bad. PATRIOT, PIRATE, INDUCE, etc.