“Continuing congressional confusion on copyrights,”:http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002015.shtml or “Why The Induce Act Sucks.”

bq. Word has it that the regulators in Washington are enamored of Professor (in the School of Computing) Hollaar’s recent paper, “Sony Revisited”:http://digital-law-online.info/papers/lah/sony-revisited.pdf (PDF), and that it is in part responsible for Congress’ current infatuation with the “Induce Act”:http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001988.shtml. Professor Hollaar is a smart guy, and his paper is an interesting and well-researched examination of secondary liability in the context of copyright law. But if Congress thinks this justifies the Induce Act, then there is some deep confusion somewhere.

Basically what this means is that (should this be passed) copyright holders could potentially sue any company that developed a device that had even the slightest ability to circumvent copyright, even if it had many legal uses. Think iPod, VCR, Walkman, etc. Read the article.

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