Next, the cops will be told to destroy your car's engine if you speed

Senator Orin Hatch of Utah is quoted in zdnet.com.com (amongst many other places) as being in favour of remotely destroying a computer used to download copyrighted materials. Noting that the laws would have to be changed to allow such a radical approach to enforcing the unenforceable, Hatch is the epitome of the Western world's ignorant and rights-tromping rulers.

Using technology similar to the Chernobyl virus, a virus that zaps the BIOS of an infected computer to the point where many (with the BIOS chip soldered in) had to have new mother boards in order to work again, the Feds would wreak the vengeance of the publishers on you remotely, without having to step through any of those messy legal institutions such as due process, trial by peers, and appeal.

The technology to kill your car's engine fairly permanently - or at least badly enough that it would cost you a significant amount to get it working again also exists in the form of an EMF weapon - large amounts of electromagnetism applied to the vehicle such that the electronic brains are scrambled. Most cars today have so much electronics (more than any PC does) that such a method would be swift and sure. Go through a speed trap and coast slowly to a stop alongside the road - no need for the officer to write a ticket, or you to present your driver's license or any of those other nasty, time consuming processes.

Hmmm... there's something wrong with this scenario.

I guess Sen. Hatch (and a goodly number of other legislators from various levels of government) doesn't see the parallels in this type of draconian law. Maybe this note will show the absurdity of such legislation.