Chilean lawyer Guillermo Frêne is having a bit of a bad hair day after it was revealed that draft legislation (http://sil.senado.cl/cgi-bin/sil_proyectos.pl?6280-19) aimed at cutting the internet connections of illegal downloading ne'er-do-wells was presented in .doc format written on pirated software.

The full outrage was exposed here (http://www.elfrancotirador.cl/2008/12/26/%C2%BFy-como-andamos-por-the-houze/), which shows that the firm of attorneys responsible for the document goes by the rather unusual name of "The houze":

According to the exposé, "many modified (and illegal) copies of Microsoft Office are identified as belonging to 'The houze!'", and that the program forms part of a "Windows Unattended Edition".

Frêne, meanwhile, has responded (http://www.fayerwayer.com/2008/12/guillermo-frene-aclara-su-participacion-en-ley-sobre-propiedad-intelectual/) (in Spanish, natch) that he was "never involved in drafting the said legislation".

He admits he doesn't know how his name came to be on the document, but explains he worked as a parliamenary adviser between 2007-8 and suspects it was based on some file from the personal computer he used at that time. ®

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