[Commons-Law] Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate?

[Sunil Abraham]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59305,00.html

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested Tuesday that people who download
copyright materials from the Internet should have their computers
automatically destroyed.

But Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website,
which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system
he proposes.

The senator's site makes extensive use of a JavaScript menu system
developed by Milonic Solutions, a software company based in the United
Kingdom. The copyright-protected code has not been licensed for use on
Hatch's website.

"It's an unlicensed copy," said Andy Woolley, who runs Milonic. "It's
very unfortunate for him because of those comments he made."

Hatch on Tuesday surprised a Senate hearing on copyright issues with the
suggestion that technology should be developed to remotely destroy the
computers of people who illegally download music from the Net.

Hatch said damaging someone's computer "may be the only way you can
teach somebody about copyrights," the Associated Press reported. He then
suggested the technology would twice warn a computer user about illegal
online behavior, "then destroy their computer."

Any such technology would be in violation of federal antihacking laws.
The senator, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested
Congress would have to make copyright holders exempt from current laws
for them to legally destroy people's computers.

On Wednesday, Hatch clarified his comments, but stuck by the original
idea. "I do not favor extreme remedies -- unless no moderate remedies
can be found," he said in a statement. "I asked the interested
industries to help us find those moderate remedies."

Just as well. Because if Hatch's terminator system embraced software as
well as music, his servers would be targeted for destruction.

Milonic Solutions' JavaScript code used on Hatch's website costs $900
for a site-wide license. It is free for personal or nonprofit use, which
the senator likely qualifies for.

However, the software's license stipulates that the user must register
the software to receive a licensing code, and provide a link in the
source code to Milonic's website.

On Wednesday, the senator's site met none of Milonic's licensing terms.
The site's source code (which can be seen by selecting Source under the
View menu in Internet Explorer) had neither a link to Milonic's site nor
a registration code.

However, by Thursday afternoon Hatch's site had been updated to contain
some of the requisite copyright information. An old version of the page
can be seen by viewing Google's cache of the site.

"They're using our code," Woolley said Wednesday. "We've had no contact
with them. They are in breach of our licensing terms."

When contacted Thursday, Woolley said the company that maintains the
senator's site had e-mailed Milonic to begin the registration process.
Woolley said the code added to Hatch's site after the issue came to
light met some -- but not all -- of Milonic's licensing requirements.

Before the site was updated, the source code on Hatch's site contained
the line: "* i am the license for the menu (duh) *"

Woolley said he had no idea where the line came from -- it has nothing
to do with him, and he hadn't seen it on other websites that use his
menu system.

"It looks like it's trying to cover something up, as though they got a
license," he said.

A spokesman in Hatch's office on Wednesday responded, "That's ironic"
before declining to put Wired News in contact with the site's webmaster.
He deferred comment on the senator's statement to the Senate Judiciary
Committee, which did not return calls.

The apparent violation was discovered by Laurence Simon, an unemployed
system administrator from Houston, who was poking around Hatch's site
after becoming outraged by his comments.

Milonic's Woolley said the senator's unlicensed use of his software was
just "the tip of the iceberg." He said he knows of at least two other
senators using unlicensed copies of his software, and many big
companies.

Continental Airlines, for example, one of the largest airlines in the
United States, uses Woolley's system throughout its Continental.com
website. Woolley said the airline has not paid for the software. Worse,
the copyright notices in the source code have been removed.

"That really pisses me off," he said.

A spokesman for Continental said the airline would look into the matter.

Woolley makes his living from his software. Like a lot of independent
programmers, he struggles to get people to conform to his licensing
terms, let alone pay for his software.

"We don't want blood," he said. "We just want payment for the hard work
we do. We work very, very hard. If they're not prepared to pay, they're
software pirates." 


-- 
Sunil Abraham, sunil at mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org
MAHITI Infotech Pvt. Ltd.'Reducing the cost and complexity of ICTs'
314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 4150580. Mobile: 98455 12611
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