RIAA successfully sues illegal downloader; Owes 1.92 Million dollars

[Eerongal]

Wouldn't sharing illegal songs on the internet to anyone in the world count as "commerce over interstate lines?"

I've told most of my friends this, and now I'm telling you guys.

Downloading music, games, movies, via torrents or shareware programs is STUPID.

You've been caught.

It's not a case of if you are going to be caught, if you've used torrents, then you've already been caught. It just depends on if they decide to go after you or not.

Someone told me about this program that lets you see who is monitoring you. I mainly use torrents to download tv shows I miss, etc. After running this program (I wish I could remember the name of it) it showed me getting hit by several companies that all worked for RIAA or MPAA, etc. We are talking like hundreds a minute.

When you use a torrent you are basically posting your IP address to the entire internet and saying, "Hey, I downloaded this and let other people download it from me!"

Now newsgroups . . .  those are the bomb.

Best 11 bucks a month I spend.

Depends on how paranoid the sharer is. I'm sure most of the people they would REALLY want (People giving out gigs upon gigs of music) to stop are probably rocking programs like peer guardian, using proxy servers, etc. Also, newsgroups aren't totally secure either, if someone *WANTED* to dedicate the resources to finding even those who post illegal things anonymously on them, they could, however, they are *MUCH* more secure than standard file-sharing fare.

Also: the laws pertaining to "Interstate commerce" refers specifically to physical goods being shipped over state lines, and with data, this really isn't the case, since you aren't disrupting anyone's shipment of the song by downloading it

[Patriotic Kaz]

Hate to say it but Eerongal is right about the interstate commerce... but internet crimes like stalking are getting alot of intention so a whole new family of laws should emerge within the the nesxt couple of years

[Eerongal]

Hate to say it but Eerongal is right about the interstate commerce... but internet crimes like stalking are getting alot of intention so a whole new family of laws should emerge within the the nesxt couple of years

Yeah, that's the issue in courts, the current laws as written usually don't apply, and internet technology is moving way faster than congress EVER will when it comes to creating, passing, and approving laws. Really, yo me, it seems most of these sort of issues caught the courts/government/whatever by surprise.

[Renoard]

Copyright violation is a criminal act.  It should be prosecuted as one.  It should be prosecuted harshly.

The place you can prove criminal intent is with the sharer.  One who violates the copyright by publishing to the internet.  Going after the consumer has always resulted in miscarriage of justice, violation of civil rights and failure to actually reduce the incidents.  The only effective attack on consumption of illegal materials is to train people not to value them.  Criminal or civil penalties on the consumer doesn't accomplish this training.

[Eerongal]

Copyright violation is a criminal act.  It should be prosecuted as one.  It should be prosecuted harshly.

The place you can prove criminal intent is with the sharer.  One who violates the copyright by publishing to the internet.  Going after the consumer has always resulted in miscarriage of justice, violation of civil rights and failure to actually reduce the incidents.  The only effective attack on consumption of illegal materials is to train people not to value them.  Criminal or civil penalties on the consumer doesn't accomplish this training.

That's, honestly, how it should be done. Stop the supply, and you stop the downloading.

He who controls the spice (or in this case, digital media i guess) controls the universe!!

[The Jade Knight]

On a positive note, the Pirate Party got a seat in the EU...

[ryos]

Copyright violation is a criminal act.  It should be prosecuted as one.  It should be prosecuted harshly.

The place you can prove criminal intent is with the sharer.  One who violates the copyright by publishing to the internet.  Going after the consumer has always resulted in miscarriage of justice, violation of civil rights and failure to actually reduce the incidents.  The only effective attack on consumption of illegal materials is to train people not to value them.  Criminal or civil penalties on the consumer doesn't accomplish this training.

That's, honestly, how it should be done. Stop the supply, and you stop the downloading.

He who controls the spice (or in this case, digital media i guess) controls the universe!!

Except for the part where you have to, you know, actually stop the supply. I posit that even if they could, it wouldn't prove worth their while.

The best way to stop illegal downloading is legal downloading. No hamstringing either, like being stingy with the back catalog on Hulu. If the media companies were to get serious about digital distribution, I expect they'd gain a lot of customers back from the torrents.

[Miyabi]

This is our world now. The world of the electron and the switch; the beauty of the baud. We exist without nationality, skin color, or religious bias. You wage wars, murder, cheat, lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto." Huh? Right? Manifesto? "You may stop me, but you can't stop us all. - Agent Bob (Reading from The Hacker's Manifesto

[Eerongal]

the beauty of the baud.

I read this and thought "The lady of the lake for the modern day man!"

[Andrew the Great]

Miyabi pretty much just made the point I've been trying to make this whole time, but much more eloquently than I have. This really isn't productive. Now, I don't know what the best way to go about stopping illegal music downloading is, but there has to be something better than suing individuals.....

[Miyabi]

There really isn't a way to stop it.  You can discourage it.  I mean, I download music.  Generally I own the CD already and I'm too lazy to take it out of my car to put it on my computer.  OR if I download something I don't have it's to see if I like it.  If I like it I usually buy a CD, if I don't like it I delete it. *shrugs*  I guess it's all in how it's being used and how other people see it.

[Eerongal]

slightly related:
ASCAP wants to charge people per ring of their ringtones in a public place. They're claiming it's a public performance.

[ryos]

ASCAP generally lives up to its name. Or, at least, it would if the acronym had another 'S'.

[Chaos]

slightly related:
ASCAP wants to charge people per ring of their ringtones in a public place. They're claiming it's a public performance.

I weep for the future of mankind when stuff like this appears.

[Andrew the Great]

Well at least it doesn't appear likely that they'll actually get it. I won't worry about it too much until they actually do get awarded royalties for each time a cell phone rings. Or until they start winning lawsuits against phone companies for allowing us to have our phone ring without paying royalties.