This morning, before I headed off to the office, I decided to check my e-mail/RSS feeds to see if anything interesting had arrived overnight. What greeted me was a message from Doug Kaye, founder of IT Conversations, regarding a new audio file that was available entitled “The Induce Act 2.0: Law and IT“. I quickly transferred the file to my iPod and made my way out the door.

Listening to the program during my commute, I discovered that once again, legislation is being considered that would eliminate the “substantial non infringing use” precedent that was set by Sony v. Universal, (the Betamax VCR Case). I’m not sure what disturbed me more, whether it was the ramifications that legislation like this would have on technology innovation or the mere fact that the RIAA and MPAA still believe that litigating is a better solution than innovating.

But I digress and by now you’re probably asking, “What’s the correlation between the Induce Act and using the tools of a pirate?” The main crux of the Induce Act is that it eliminates the phrase “substantial non-infringing use” from copyright law and thus any technology with infringing capabilities could be the target of a lawsuit. Technologies such as VCRs, DVRs, CD writers, hard drives, MP3 players, etc…, could all be shown to have an infringing capability, which would put them in violation of the Induce Act should it become law. So whether or not the technology IS being used in an infringing manner becomes inconsequential. Instead all that matters is whether the technology CAN be used in an infringing manner irregardless of its non-infringing uses. This sets a bad precedent based on the assumption that just because something can be used for illegal purposes, it should be viewed as if it will be used for such purposes.

The Induce Act, plain and simple, is just a bad idea. It is intended to protect the rights of copyright owners by making technology innovators/manufacturers culpable for the infringing behavior of their customers. Instead it will only inhibit innovation and curtail the global economy that has been the benefactor of innovative technologies for the last thirty years.

For additional information on the Induce Act, visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) web site, where they have created a fake complaint based on the initial bill (S. 2560) written by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and the senate judiciary committee. It’s definitely worth a read as I believe it demonstrates the possible implications that might result should this bill be enacted into law. - [ocomik]