It is tough to unseat an incumbent, but Orrin Hatch is worth the effort. Hatch is as bad as it gets when it comes to shafting the public on copyright and technology policy. This is the guy who wants Hollywood's hackers to blow up computers that are used for unauthorized downloading. He championed a policy that authorizes jail time for sharing a single song on the Internet. Hatch also wrote 2004's ill-fated INDUCE Act. All of this support for Hollywood cartels might seem strange coming from a Utah Senator, but then you notice that entertainment companies have given Hatch hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That's why we're supporting his opponent, and we think you should too. Hatch will face Democrat Pete Ashdown in the November general election. Pete is the president of a Utah's oldest Internet service provider, and he has lived and worked in Utah his whole life. In order to represent the state, he's even encouraging the public to help him craft his platform over the web. Pete also publicly supports balanced copyright and technology policy, and he has signed IPac's statement of principles. If you don't want Hollywood's boot on American innovation and free expression, the newest U.S. Senator from Utah should be Pete Ashdown.
Pete has an uphill climb ahead, but if we can get Hatch to answer for his actions it's a step in the right direction. If we can get Hatch to spend a little money defending his indefensible ties to Hollywood cartels we've made a large impact on the election. And if we can close the gap between his 2000 reelection numbers, we've scored a tremendous victory for American information policy by holding our representatives accountable.
Click here to help us Fire Hatch in 2006.