Quote:
Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash
A more likely scenario is this: Mary uses a computer but isn't technically inclined when it comes to fixing issues with it. When she has a problem, she has her grandson John or her nephew Bill fix it. Or that nice boy Andy that lives next door who's good with computers. After all, he was probably the one who helped her with her new gadget in the first place. Suddenly Mary's watermarked ebook collection is on the internet.
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I do not only advocate the freedom to do whatever we want with our media (including owning it for real). I also advocate responsibility for users. If Bill cannot be trusted, Mary should not trust him. If she does, she
has a responsibility in the illegal distribution of her file, along with Bill. Of course, when she receives a note from the police she could remember about Bill, and Bill could find out that what he did is not so fun after all. So maybe Bill
can be trusted ;-)
Is this unnecessarily harsh to Mary? i don't think so. If her neighbor gave to her the keys to his house, and she left them where Bill can take them an rob the neigbor, Mary has a responsibility in the robbing.
That said, the monstrous punishments that media companies now ask for "pirates" would be useless in presence of a system that actually allows identification of the source of illegally distributed files. If misbehaviour is
really punished, most of the times, there's no need for "exemplary punishments" to scare people: a reasonable fine should suffice.