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Originally Posted by Andrew H.
I know how popular it is among that subset. And yet juries have no problem imposing large fines on people who file share because they believe that it's wrong.
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Only because they can. The mere application by the RIAA of 75 trillion dollars damages to a judge proves that. In Australia, such an application would have been laughed out of court. It is to the presiding judges credit that he told those idiots to go back and take a smell of the real world.
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Originally Posted by Andrew H.
I actually do live on this planet, you know.
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No one is saying you are not. I was merely implying that file sharing has been going on for over 40 years in that form alone.
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Originally Posted by Andrew H.
Most people seem to think it's wrong based on the results of court cases.
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No, not really. A jury should never be considered to have the opinions of the vast majority of people. How can it? A mere selection of 12-15 (whatever number) selected jurists could never represent a true cross section of the community.
Locally, AFACT tried to get the court system to agree with their assertion that a major ISP was "encouraging and facilitating" piracy. They have lost both the initial court case and the first appeal. They want others to do the police work for them with little evidence provided. A classic case of guilty until proven innocent.
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Originally Posted by Andrew H.
No. Read for comprehension. Mr. Ploppy wants criminalization and prison terms (I believe because he is of the opinion that this would shock the public). I think that criminalization and prison terms are a really bad idea because people would actually convict file sharers with no more hesitation than they convict shoplifters, thieves, or people who commit fraud.
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Oh I comprehended that quite well thanks. This is why I would like to know how many prisons are going to be built to house the huge number of people convicted of such a "heinious" crime. Just like jailing kids for shoplifting, it will never stop the issue.
While it is possible for the industry frontpieces to sue for huge sums of money, it is a much more lucrative option than actually making changes that will prevent a good deal of file sharing from occurring. This has been proved by just how popular itunes is and the fact that the movie industry still made billions of dollars regardless of movies bein file shared.
Ask any ebook enthusiast who is geographic restricted from buying a ebook and having tried everything possible to buy that book, go down the darknet route because the ebook is simply available.
Until the attitudes of the entertainment, music and publishing change and evolve to meet the modern world, nothing is going to change. It does not stop there either with Disney being the worst of 'em. They all manipulate the copyright act to suit their own business practices and to protect their own profit margins. Disney even artificially restrict distribution of their product (Disney Vault), often for years, to manipulate the market.