READ THE HATCH STORY ALL THE WAY TO THE END, PEOPLE

Everyone's justifiably outraged that Sen. Orrin Hatch said companies should be empowered to unilaterally invade your home and wreck your computer if you engage in file-sharing. He said it, and there's absolutely no defending it. But if you read the story about his remarks all the way to the end, you'll also see that Hatch isn't alone.

Last year, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ignited a firestorm across the Internet over a proposal to give the entertainment industry new powers to disrupt downloads of pirated music and movies. It would have lifted civil and criminal penalties against entertainment companies for disabling, diverting or blocking the trading of pirated songs and movies on the Internet.

But Berman, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary panel on the Internet and intellectual property, always has maintained that his proposal wouldn't permit hacker-style attacks by the industry on Internet users.

What Hatch said is worse--it goes beyond earlier proposals--but it's hardly unique. This isn't a partisan issue, as members of both parties are acting like elitist oligarchs as opposed to representatives of the people. So those of you who want to tar the GOP with this, don't bother. Just tar the offenders in both parties and be done with it.

UPDATE: Glenn I like ya, but sheesh--this is beneath you (and VodkaPundit too). The Dems are much more in bed with big media, via Hollywood, the artists and musicians themselves, etc, then the GOP can ever be. You guys know this. You just want to proclaim for the millionth time "Why I'm not a Republican" and act superior. How about some "Why I'm not a Democrat" posts and whack them on minor stuff like, you know, the war.

MORE: Fellow JYBer Chris Regan reminded me that Sen. Hatch is, in addition to being a somewhat flakey individual, a musician. With his own recordings, marketing effort, etc. Might he be using his bully pulpit in the Senate to speak on behalf of musicians as opposed to, say, representing any particular ideology? I'd say that he is--that he's trying to protect his intellectual property and by extension the intellectual property of his fellow artists. There's no ideology here, and thus no manifestation of some wicked GOP plot to destroy individuals' computers. That doesn't make his remarks any less sinister or any less worthy of our collective scorn and rejection, but does shade their intent a bit, no?

EVEN MORE: The Curmudeonly Clerk offers up a Hatch defense that's balanced and interesting. He's right that file-sharers are pirates and law-breakers, and that the RIAA is legally and morally in the right in trying to protect its property. It's their tactics and remarks in their defense, such as Hatch's nonsense, that earn them the blogosphere's ire. The RIAA and its defenders tend to come off as rich, powerful, smug and heavy-handed, while file-sharers tend to come off as little guys sticking it to "the man." It certainly doesn't hurt that many bloggers are also file-sharers and have no sympathy for the RIAA. Having said all that, Hatch should know better than to offer up such draconian ideas even to enforce laws that should be enforced. He deserves the backlash, but conservatives as a whole do not, as we don't share his view.