Orrin Grant Hatch (born March 22, 1934) is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States Senator for Utah who has been the President pro tempore of the United States Senate since 2015. Having been a senator since 1977, Hatch is the longest-serving Republican Senator in U.S. history. Hatch served as either the chair or ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1993 to 2005. He previously served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from 1981 to 1987 and currently serves as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee as well as serving on the board of directors for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Hatch has long been a proponent of expanding intellectual property rights, and introduced the Senate version of the Copyright Term Extension Act in 1997. Hatch believes intellectual property laws should, in general, more closely mirror real property laws, and offer greater protections to authors and creators.  Hatch caused an overnight controversy on June 17, 2003 by proposing that copyright owners should be able to destroy the computer equipment and information of those suspected of copyright infringement, including file sharing, he stated that "This may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights." In the face of criticism, especially from technology and privacy advocates, Hatch withdrew his suggestion days later, after it was discovered that Sen. Hatch's official website was using an unlicensed JavaScript menu from United Kingdom-based software developer Milonic Solutions. Milonic founder Andy Woolley stated that "We've had no contact with them. They are in breach of our licensing terms." Shortly after the publication of that story in Wired magazine, the company that runs Hatch's website contacted Milonic to start registration.  One year later, he proposed the controversial INDUCE Act that attempted to make illegal all tools that could be used for copyright infringement if said tools were intentionally used for illegal copyright infringement.  On September 20, 2010, Hatch once again attempted to outlaw websites which could be used for trademark and copyright infringement through the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA). This bill would authorize the United States Department of Justice to blacklist and censor all websites that the department deemed to be dedicated to "infringing activities".

How was the bill received?