Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lake
Guys, I'm no fan of piracy in any measure. In fact, I actually preach pretty strongly against it. However, I also don't think the federal government has any authority to do what they're doing. The job of policing copyright is up to the corporations, not the federal government.
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Guess again.
Copyright laws were established in the Constitution; the Copyright Office is a federal agency; copyright laws are federal laws; copyright agreements between nations are handled by national governments. The US Copyright Act of 1976 explicitly references both civil remedies
and criminal penalties for infringement:
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92appg.pdf
And yes, references to criminal enforcement does go back to at least 1976, and most likely earlier laws:
http://www.copyright.gov/reports/guide-to-copyright.pdf
Sometimes the enforcement is local -- e.g. the NYPD occasionally busts counterfeiters. In other cases, the actions are private, e.g. the RIAA's lawsuits, or private companies working with eBay to shut down counterfeiters. None of this precludes federal enforcement of federal laws.
Apparently one file sharing site was nailed, namely "Torrent-Finder.Com". The owner cries that he had no notice or previous actions, but that's not required by any stretch of the imagination; all the government needs to do is collect evidence of infringement. The site clearly pulled all sorts of shenanigans to appear like a shell rather than what it is -- a pointer to infringing torrents. To pretend that it is doing anything else is, to put it mildly, disingenuous.
Since it appears that ICE/DHS has warrants, at least one judge, and legislators for almost 35 years, seem to agree that this is a legit move.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Steven Lake
Now if this was Baen or Warner Brothers or someone else shutting down those sites, I wouldn't say anything. But when the Fed steps into an area outside their jurisdiction, then I complain.
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Oh, really? So you never complained when the RIAA sued alleged file sharers? You sure about that?
