Quote:
Originally Posted by Harmon
I have to wonder how deeply a court would look into the "mechanics" of the process. It strikes me that the uploader is just the better target, and will necessarily be involved with a greater exposure to statuory damages, because more copies will be involved.
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The law doesn't really care (and shouldn't) whether the product is physical or digital. The technical details of how a computer works probably don't matter. With a physical bootlegger, it's obvious that the bootlegger is the one committing unauthorized copying/distribution. Nobody would say that the person buying an unauthorized DVD from a flea market is the one who "makes" the DVD. They go after uploaders for the same reason.
There are basically two reasons that people get confused about who commits infringement in the digital world.
(1) The mechanics are more convoluted.
(2) The media industry is actively trying to create the impression that downloading is illegal. It's difficult to prosecute the ones who are really violating the law (uploaders), so they try to intimidate everyone else into not downloading. They want you to
think you will get into trouble for just downloading, regardless of whether or not you actually will.