Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Perhaps it's so self-evident that it doesn't need saying? I'm sure that the overwhelming majority of us are against piracy.
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"Against piracy" is not the same as "people who download a couple of songs or an ebook should be prosecuted." And I was speaking of the wider coverage... I see news articles & blogs about the Megaupload case, arguing whether the servers should-or-should-not be returned, over whether bad paperwork nullifies the case, and so on, but even on the blogs and news-ish sites that say "piracy is EVIL; throw them in prison and we'll sort out whether there's legal evidence later," aren't saying, "the FBI/CIA should be going through Megaupload's servers, tracking every U.S.-based user who ever downloaded a movie or song, and throwing them in jail."
There is *zero* interest in going after the end users who made Megaupload profitable. There is zero interest in going after advertisers who paid for ads on those sites. There's interest in shutting down the site, and a couple of similar sites... I haven't seen any movement to find out who the "power users" were, and making a "no web list" of people who, like the no-fly list, are considered too dangerous to the public to allow internet access.
That, of course, would be ridiculously draconian. But considering some of the punishments I see recommended for other crimes, I wouldn't be surprised to see it *suggested.* I am surprised not to see any public demands for punishment of the people who were directly using MU to infringe copyrights, rather than punishment for the people who facilitated the process.