Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
There doesn't have to be an intention to commit a particular crime in order to use common endeavour; there simply has to be demonstrable lack of any action to prevent a crime which you are aware is being committed.
In the case of a shared family computer which "someone" is using to download illegal material onto, it seems very likely that the other family members are aware of the downloading even if they are not actively participating in it (eg if they are all watching the downloaded movies). That seems like a reasonable candidate for a common endeavour prosecution to me.
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You really think the legal system should encourage family members to turn on each other in order to avoid prosecution for IP theft?
In my mind, and perhaps I'm alone, downloading pirated material is at most a misdemeanor, uploading and making it available, on the other hand, is a felony.
When I was a kid some of us would record some new Beatles or Rolling Stones album on cassette tape and spread it among our closest friends, the unspoken rule was that when the next album appeared someone else had to buy it and record it for the others. That way we would all have access to more music than we could afford. Pirating? Most likely, from a strict legal view point. However, the authorities soon realized that they didn't want to overcrowd juvenile delinquent centers with music crazed teenagers, nor would they like the police to go searching homes for tapes (who knew what was recorded by whom). The solution was an added tax on music tapes, the proceed going to STIM (music copyright license distribution) that would distribute that income according to album sales.
Obviously, right now there is a problem doing the same thing with digital content since there is no product to tax. USB memories are used for other things than distributing copyrighted material.