Senator Patrick Leahy, supporter of the Inducing Infringements of Copyright Act (IICA) introduced yesterday, defended the bill against widespread alarm that it could make nearly all technologies illegal:

"The makers of electronic equipment, the software vendors who sell e-mail and other programs, the Internet service providers who facilitate access to the Web—all of these entities have nothing to fear from this bill," Leahy said. "So long as they do not conduct their businesses with the intention of inducing others to break the law—and I certainly have not heard from anyone who makes that claim—they should rest easy."

Leahy is a condescending fool to offer such a glib reassurance. Copyright law should be radically revised because he hasn't heard that the consequences would get out of hand? Besides Leahy's eye-popping arrogance, he misses the point. With the so-called Induce Act as law, no technology company in the country would dare innovate new products such as TiVo or MP3 players. The bill would place the future of technology directly in the hands of content companies like Disney and Warner Brothers Music, who could (and certainly would) slam lawsuits into any new service or consumer electronics product that threatened their status quo.