There is an interesting article in Wired, Copyright Bill to Kill Tech? The Senate Judiciary Committee will be considering a bill holding technology companies liable for any product they create which encourages or aids people to steal copyright materials.

Whoa! I am not a lawyer, I am a meer librarian, but from what I understand this redefines or nullifies previous laws and decisions made regarding this area. The article brings up the example of the Betamax decision.

(Good God is this all that Betamax now is going to be remembered for? How many kids today even know that there was an alternative to VHS)

Anyway, according to the article the Betamax decision said that companies could make products for people who wish to use them for legal reasons. If people used them for illegal reasons then it was the user's liability not the product manufacturers. This ruling led companies to develop all sorts of products such as DVDs, DVRs, etc.

This law they are debating is written too broadly and would essentially make tech companies fearful of creating a product that could be manipulated or used in any illegal activity.

This is other example of how law makers want to dumb down Americans. Apparently we are too stupid not to know that you can no go out and copy and swap Eminem's latest hit.

Hmm now that I say that maybe the law makers are right, we are too stupid. I am constantly appauled and amazed by today's youth and some of their parents. How do they not know that they are stealing when they download from music share servers? Do they not care?! How did the students of Christine Pelton's biology class not know that copying word for word or cut and pasting paragraphs or sentences from the internet was stealing and plagerism?!?! What is even worse is how did their parents support their offending children.

So yes I guess we are too stupid in America to know what is right and what is wrong. But does that mean we need government to hold our hands and create broad laws to teach us, thus risking the entire technology industry and the economy?