quote:Law enforcement officials have been given some guidelines to follow when determining if a crime is covered by the statute. For example if a person beats someone to death with a hammer they would just face murder charges in a state court. However, if a person beats someone to death with a hammer while yelling "You Linux using bastard," then they would be charged under the hate crimes statute and face trial in a Federal court.Many oppose the law, because they feel that it is unfairly targeted at one particular group. "This makes it near impossible to do our job properly without breaking the law," said Microsoft PR representative Bailey McClain, "the Feds are taking away one of our most useful tools."