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: Broadcatching
Combine RSS (w/enclosures) with BitTorrent and you get what I call "broadcatching." It is, in my view, a revolutionary method for multimedia publishing and distribution without gatekeepers.
Problem is, like email and http and ftp and p2p, anyone can post any sort of content in the enclosures and easily distribute it. In fact, undoubtedly, broadcatching will be used by many for infringement. People will share their favorite (and copyrighted) television programs and movies with others. And, if the RSS is private (aka a "darknet"), how will the RIAA or MPAA be able to find and punish the infringers?
The tools for using broadcatching will undoubtedly encourage people to use them for illicit purposes, such as with instructions that "any large file could be put into an enclosure" or something similar.
Clearly, the whole broadcatching thing is going to have to be strictly regulated. Perhaps we can require that all RSS feeds be registered, so that they can be monitored? Broadcatching software will definitely need dialog boxes that ask if the user is sure they want to add content to an enclosure, as it might be copyrighted. Newsreaders will need dialog boxes that ask subscribers whether they want to download the enclosures (they might be copyrighted).
Because broadcatching is a direct and immediate threat to the business models of Hollywood, it will certainly be a prime target for any lawsuits Hollywood can throw against it.
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 @
