Important.
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)Posted by: mike kkm
If you've ever used a peer-to-peer network and swapped copyrighted files, chances are pretty good you're guilty of a federal felony.
It doesn't matter if you've forsworn Napster, uninstalled Kazaa and now are eagerly padding the record industry's bottom line by snapping up $15.99 CDs by the cartload.
Be warned--you're what prosecutors like to think of as an unindicted federal felon.
I'm not joking. A obscure law called the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act that former U.S. President Bill Clinton signed in 1997 makes peer-to-peer (P2P) pirates liable for $250,000 in fines and subject to prison terms of up to three years. (You may want to read it, since you'll likely be hearing more about it soon.)
That's a long time to spend cooling your heels in Club Fed.
Yet something strange is going on here. So far the Justice Department has made precisely zero prosecutions of peer-to-peer users under the NET Act.
This odd delay is not because peer-to-peer piracy is legal. It's not. The NET Act covers people who willfully participate in the "reproduction or distribution" of copyrighted works without permission, when that activity is not covered by fair use rights.
The law even grants copyright holders the right to hand a "victim impact statement" to the judge at your trial, meaning you can expect an appearance from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) or the Business Software Alliance (BSA), depending on what kind of files were on your hard drive. You'll no longer have it, of course, because it'll have been seized by the FBI, and you'll be in jail.
Fretting that not enough peer-to-peer pirates are already there, a band of congressmen asked Attorney General John Ashcroft last July to begin some NET Act prosecutions, pronto. Their letter complained of "a staggering increase in the amount of intellectual property pirated over the Internet through peer-to-peer systems." The 19 politicos--including Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.--urged Ashcroft "to prosecute individuals who intentionally allow mass copying from their computer over peer-to-peer neworks."
It didn't take long for the Justice Department to respond. A few weeks later, John Malcolm, a deputy assistant attorney general, said to expect some NET Act prosecutions. "There does have to be some kind of a public message that stealing is stealing is stealing," said Malcolm, who oversees the arm of the Justice Department that prosecutes copyright and computer crime cases.
Since then, however, there's been nothing but silence. The Justice Department has been tight-lipped about its plans, and did not reply to a request for comment on Friday.
Read the rest of this story over at ZDNet
Posted by: Yanks0826
Here we go again.......and the bad thing....it isn't a NOOB!
Posted by: Razz
Originally posted by Yanks0826@28 January 2003 - 01:18
Here we go again.......and the bad thing....it isn't a NOOB!
Since you are i dont think you have any right to criticise :D
Razz
edit: jking mate
But seriously i know FC has been crying like a baby for a sticky for this kind of news and what not :lol:
Posted by: Shinigami_[R.I.P.]
Originally posted by Razz+27 January 2003 - 17:25--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Razz @ 27 January 2003 - 17:25)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin--Yanks0826@28 January 2003 - 01:18
Here we go again.......and the bad thing....it isn't a NOOB!
Since you are i dont think you have any right to criticise :D
Razz[/b][/quote]
LOL ^^^^ ^_^ ^^^^
but i've learned through all these kinds of posts that he posted in the filesharing section where we're suppose to talk about filesharing in general and this is about filesharing :unsure: Besides, its all just concern, i think... :) :blink:
Posted by: mike kkm
this is filesharing in general and as Shinigami said it's just a concern