Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate?

By Leander Kahney | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1

11:56 AM Jun. 19, 2003 PT

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.
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The senator's site makes extensive use of a java***script 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' java***script 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."