Granted, we all know this is possible, but to have a government official state that personal property should be destroyed, also known as appropriated by the government, without a hearing or offer of fair compensation, if 'other means' can't stop them is a concern,

it is also kind of a sad statement as to how this official feels about you, your property, and your rights.... and also a clear statement of his view of the rights of the wealthy and the corporate.

--bp--
On Tuesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said that illegal file swappers of the worst stripe should have their computers destroyed if other means could not thwart their actions. Destruction could come via a remote technology that can destroy offenders' computers.
--ep--

What do i think? I think that until 50 years ago 99.9% of musicians were lucky to feed themselves through their art. As big a fan as I am of musicians being able to eat, I think musicians and the companies that profit from their art, should be glad to share.

Oh, the 'P' word.

Well, we should stop taking as gospel that music is an enormously profitable industry. Most of it is not, most musicians don;t play for the money, and the stars should count their blessings after they have become popular enough to pay their back taxes and their credit card bills and realize that most of their money is made on-tour.

On tour it doesn;t matter why they like your music or where they got it from, just that there is a warm ass there who paid 32 bucks for their nosebleed seats. The artist might see 10 bucks of that, but it beats the 99cents they make off a CD purchase.

If you believe in your music, you shouldn;t care.

And if you don't believe in your music, you should.

Here's what I mean. I once burned a copy of an out of print CD by an small-time artist from NYC. I liked the CD so much I sent her ten bucks with a note of explanation and a thank-you note. When I copied a Radiohead CD I didn't bother.

what's the difference? Radiohead had just played a 40,000 seat show near my house, and so i knew I wasn't taking food off of Radiohead's plate, whereas for this small-time artist, whom i had seen with 45 other people, I just might have been taking food off of her plate.

One way or the other, Orren Hatch should shut his pie-hole.