Sen Hatch Would Like To Destroy Filetraders' PCs

CBackSlash writes "Sen. Hatch is interested in technology to remotely destroy computers. But it would only be used if you're downloading copyrighted material, and only the copyright owner should be able to wield this awesome power, since having the feds do it would be against the law. Here is the AP story from Yahoo!."

Comments

Hatch has finally lost it

[dtolton]

That is just pure lunacy. Hatch has said some pretty crazy
things over the years, but this has to top the list.

I've been a supporter of Hatch for several years, even helping
with the election effort on several occasions. This takes the
cake though, it's time to get fresher blood into that office.

If you want to call his office and complain (as I will):
DC Office: 202.224.5251
SLC Office: 801.524.4380

here is his website:
http://www.senate.gov/~hatch/

Please call and voice your extreme antagonism to these types of
statements. Although the other Senators called him down, he
needs to know that we hear these statements and are against them
in the extreme.

I just got off the phone with the Salt Lake Office, and they had
no idea he had made statements of this nature. In fact she was
quite taken back to hear of them. Please call and let them know
how you feel about this. If they know their voters are against
this type of behavior, they will change it.

This is already possible - Grubbnix!

[beee]

Does anyone recall the code for Grubbnix? It was a quick hack in the early to mid 90s, but it worked quite well. Call it a cross-over between a bootloader and an OS, I suppose.

Anyways, the interesting part of Grubbnix was that it had a lot of capability and use when it came to flashing your BIOS (most major motherboard companies today still use a Grubbnix variant with their flashing utilities). I still remember one variant called Hucker (or something like that, maybe Huckey) that was spread around on disks to unsuspecting users. When you loaded it and left it running, it opened up your system enough so that someone via TCP/IP could execute commands, one of which was to completely shitfuck your BIOS, and sometimes even managed to cause damage to the CPU/motherboard by modifying threshold settings in the BIOS (depending on your model #).

It used to be passed out to "enemies" at HackerCons, who would then take it home, load it, and end up with a fucked PC.

Perhaps Senator Hatch needs to give the Cult of the Dead Cow an e-mail and see if they still have the source around somewhere ;-)

Re:Later in the discussion...

[Goldberg's Pants]

Incidentally, how are they going to verify the location of the individual? Despite the US governments wishes, only a small part of the planet is under their direct control and, ergo, their laws. Dubious legality of destruction not withstanding, they sure as hell have NO rights to destroy someones system in Sweden or wherever.

Plus, one would HOPE you get a warning before they nuke your system.

Wonder if Dell is behind this plan?;)

Re:Later in the discussion...

[Goldberg's Pants]

Erm... Remember the CIH virus that nuked your CMOS, and in many cases the outcome was requiring a new motherboard? You can backup all you like. Without your MOBO you ain't goin' nowhere...

Indirect consequences

[mcc]

Your anology is good. I will now stretch it to the point of being silly.

There are studies-- ones i can't remember the names of or links to, of course-- that show that spanking a child makes that child more likely to grow up to be a violent person. If I remember right, the claim was that people who had corporal punishment used on them as a child were more likely to grow up to be the kind of person who beat their wives or children.

The reason given for this, again if i remember right, was that by having violence used on them at such a sensitive age, the child grows up thinking violence is "normal", and application of violence is how you are expected to solve problems, and beating someone is an acceptable and normal way for one human to get another human to comply with a request.

So, here's my thought: what happens if the RIAA hacking and screwing up your computer if you've been filetrading becomes common? What happens to the children/teenagers who grow up under this kind of paradigm, and grow up seeing that the RIAA, this big important adult business thing that funds congressional campaigns and everything, reacts to people doing things it things are wrong by tracking them down and breaking their stuff?

If it works like spanking does, well, we may well wind up with a generation growing up thinking vigilante justice is normal. Or maybe growing up with a kind of "us vs them" mentality toward corporations; that corporations are some kind of big distant enemies who can do anything they like without the law applying. And you can't tell a kid that someone big is allowed to hit you and you can't hit back and have them believe you. They might wind up growing up thinking that terrorism by corporations against citizens, and terrorism against corporations by citizens, is normal, and the law considers such things acceptable enough they don't regulate them.. as long as one is doing the other doesn't like...

This is stretching, and of course, none of this will ever come to pass. But, just a thought.

Re:Later in the discussion...

[Ziest]

This is ridiculous. Wilful destruction of property is AGAINST THE LAW! Let's look at this another way. He's effectively saying that if you download copyrighted material, someone can be sent by the company that owns it to break both your legs.

I have a question for the Senator from Utah. Under the recently passed Patriot Act distruction of a computer system is considered an act of terrorism. Does the senators recent comments mean he is now supporting act of terrorism?