What is Hatch's Hit List? Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has introduced the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act (IICA, née INDUCE Act) in the Senate. The bill would make it illegal to "intentionally induce" copyright infringement, but is worded so broadly that it would have all sorts of unintended consequences, one of which is to severely limit, cripple or kill innovation in many different fields. Hatch's Hit List is a daily exploration of some of the technologies and fields that the bill would likely affect. See also, Introducing Hatch's Hit List and the Hatch's Hit List Archives. Send list suggestions to ernest.miller 8T aya.yale.edu.
Today on Hatch's Hit List: SourceForge
SourceForge.net is the "world's largest Open Source software development website, with the largest repository of Open Source code and applications available on the Internet. SourceForge.net provides free services to Open Source developers."
SourceForge hosts the code and provides some important tools for maintaining and developing projects ... and all for free! They certainly aid and abet those whose projects they host. I wonder if any of the 85,000+ projects they host would violate the INDUCE Act?
Well, at least five of the top ten downloads as of today are for P2P programs, which the INDUCE Act is allegedly targeted at. I wonder how much advertising revenue the site gets because people are downloading P2P programs? Could it be that hosting P2P programs makes SourceForge "commercially viable"?
The SourceForge people have to know that they are helping those who help infringers. How can they not be aware of what they are doing? And if they know what they are doing, doesn't that also mean they intend to help such infringers? Is not SourceForge inducement to make programs that induce?
And we all know that Open Source == communism, anarchy and disrespect for intellectual property, right? Doesn't SourceForge support and give succor to a philosophy that would result in "open source" music and movies? Isn't that what they really want?
Want to know more about the INDUCE Act?
Please see LawMeme's well-organized index to everything I've written on the topic, including Hatch's Hit List: The LawMeme Reader's Guide to Ernie Miller's Guide to the INDUCE Act.
Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues. Mr. Miller attended the U.S. Naval Academy before attending Yale Law School, where he was president and co-founder of the Law and Technology Society, and founded the technology law and policy news site LawMeme. He is a fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
Ernest Miller's blog postings can also be found @
