Off Topic — The Rise of the Machines: Should it be criminal to abuse a machine?

I think it is safe to say that everyone agrees that abuse of humans and animals is criminal conduct.  But, what about the abuse of a machine?

As machines, such as the toy Tickle Me Elmo, take on human characteristics, there is a growing movement to criminalize acts to a machine that would be criminal if done to a human or animal.  For a disturbing video showing Elmo being abused, see Torture Me Elmo, YouTube.com.

In fact, according to Daniel Roth, Do Humanlike Machines Deserve Human Rights?, Wired, Feb. 2009, at 23:

It’s already being considered overseas. In 2007, a South Korean politician declared that his country would be the first to draw up legal guidelines on how to treat robots; the UK has also looked into the area (though nothing substantial has come of it anywhere). “As our products become more aware, there are things you probably shouldn’t do to them,” says John Sosoka, CTO of Ugobe, which makes the eerily lifelike robot dinosaur Pleo.

The article also explains:

As technology develops animal-like sophistication, finding the thin metallic line between what’s safe to treat as an object and what’s not will be tricky. “It’s going to be a tougher and tougher argument to say that technology doesn’t deserve the same protection as animals,” says Clifford Nass, a Stanford professor who directs a program called the Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media Lab. “One could say life is special—whatever that means. And so, either we get tougher on technology abuse or it undermines laws about abuse of animals.”