Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
I do not get it. First do you not have intention as a requirement for something to be illegal? If you thought that you downloaded it legally and had no reason to suspect otherwise how could it be illegal? But even if you downloaded them illegally how does that makes it illegal to have them? Is it because the downloading action it is illegal? If you had found them on the street thrown away would it have been illegal to have them then?
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Steve's a little mistaken here.
Here in the U.S. it is not illegal to
download content. It's only illegal to make such content available for others to download (of course, if you use BitTorrent, you are making the content available for others).
It is not illegal to have unauthorized content on your PC.
It is not illegal to use unauthorized content.
The analogy is that if Fred takes a paper book, makes a copy of it, and then sells you that copy (at that point, it's a copyright violation), then Fred - not you - is the one who will be charged.
Also, we are talking about "copyright violation" not "theft". So your local law enforcement can't do anything about it until someone representing the copyright holder shows up and asks them to do something to you.