I am extremely concerned with your quoted position on methods of controlling copyrighted information.

The following appeared in at washingtonpost.com on June 17, 2003.

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"If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we'd be interested in hearing about that," Hatch said. "If that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize" the seriousness of their actions, he said.

"There's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws," Hatch said.

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As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, your opinion on these matters carries more weight than many others and I find its naivet\ufffd disturbing from a man in your position.

What your position would require is the granting of exemptions in anti-hacking laws, severe violations of privacy and the development of entirely new software that would never be able to remain "secret". This software could easily then become the payload of a new generation of computer virus. Imagine a computer virus with the virility of "Code Red" that had a destructive payload of the type you espouse in the above quote.

In addition, it appears that the RIAA has also convinced you that music piracy has caused the downfall of their industry, costing them billions of dollars. For this I will give my personal opinion.

I have purchased, in my life, over three thousand copyrighted works in the form of vinyl LPs, compact discs and cassette tapes. Between the three, my collection is quite extensive. I have now gone into an almost complete boycott of the major recording labels for several reasons, which follow:

1) Prices - The cost of a new cd has reached nearly $18. It is common knowledge that the medium that it is printed on costs less than $.05. It is also common knowledge that most artists receive sometimes substantially less than $.25 per copy sold. The rest goes into the pockets of the recording industry executives. Cost of studio time and promotion is given as the reason for the remaining costs, costs that are ultimately controlled by the label and overstated to everyone involved.

Dan Rather interviewed the Dixie Chicks, one of the best selling acts in history. Following is a published excerpt:

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"Rather estimates that 17 million CDs sold at roughly $14 a throw comes to well over $200 million.

"You're depressing me, because we see so little of that," Robison says, laughing.

"Even before we got our deal, everyone said, 'Don't ever expect to make money with records. Records are a promotional tool that you use to be able to do live shows and make money elsewhere.'"

The hard truth of the music business is that selling a million records, or even 17 million, doesn't make you a millionaire. Distributors, record stores, lawyers, accountants, agents, managers - and, of course, the record company - all get a percentage.

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Jokingly, they referred to their lack of money in their existing Sony deal while Sony made multi-million dollar renovations to their offices in Nashville.

2) Technology Position - File sharing and peer to peer systems have amazing potential for good as well as detrimental use. In the end, the stated position of the RIAA is counterproductive to this technological advancement. Their money has been used to destroy this technology. The stated position of the US Judiciary in the Betamax case also runs counter to the RIAA's position and holds harmless the creator of the technology in favor of persecution of the individual violator. It also established several Fair Use doctrines that are now being trampled both by the RIAA and the DMCA.

The recording industry should be using this technological advancement to their benefit. For several years, many others and I have had the capability of receiving music via the internet, bypassing a very expensive distribution network. The industry should be using that to their advantage. This would allow them to better compensate artists and to search out new talent. Instead, they manufacture artists and continue to enslave those artists by paying them, in essence, nothing for control over their artistic creations. Most industry has been forced to utilize technology in order to survive in the new economy, why should the recording industry be any different.

A perfect example of the public's acceptance and desire for this new method of delivery is available right now, Apple Computer's new iTunes Music Store. Millions of songs sold in a very short period of time.

3) Customer Viewpoint - I have a high-speed Internet connection and a copy of a file-sharing program on my personal computer. Instead of being viewed as a customer, I am now viewed as a thief. Not exactly a company I want to supply with my hard earned dollar.

I have used, in the past, Napster and more recently Kazaa. The vast majority of that use has been to download music that I already own in another form, either on CD or vinyl LP. I could have created digital copies of these and been well within my rights under Fair Use. Does the fact that I received these copies from another purchaser of the copyright really violate that same Fair Use doctrine? I didn't steal anything. I had already paid for the right to listen to those songs at my leisure.

In other instances, I have downloaded music and later purchased the same music in CD form. The RIAA would lead you to believe that the music I originally downloaded was a "perfect digital copy". This is completely untrue. Any audiophile will tell you that the compression algorithms used to encode music lessen the quality of the copy, making these copies actually inferior to even a cassette tape copy.

College students have >always< copied music. If the kid in the dorm room bought a brand new album, the other kids on the floor bought a blank cassette. The behavior is no different, only the technology applied. Yet the RIAA would have you believe that this is some new phenomenon. Yet, if memory serves me correct, the industry already receives royalties from all manufactures of copy mediums.

In closing, I implore you to reassess your position on this matter. With the recent victory allowing the industry to acquire the identity of known file traders, the industry has all the tools it needs to battle the situation the way it need be battled, on a case-by-case basis; not by destroying someone\ufffds personal property but instead by a legal case being made, actual harm determined and a Judge or jury assessing the value of that harm and applying the appropriate punishment.

sent it in via his website.