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Originally Posted by bill_mchale
With respect, in the United States, if you knowingly take possession of stolen property, in most areas, you have committed a crime.
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When will people stop this nonsense?
Taking possession of stolen property has nothing to do with copyright infringement. Copyright infringed material is NOT stolen property. It's the perpetuation of idiocy like this that gets so many people confused about copyright law in the first place.
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Of course it makes sense. You are taking possession of a book (or tune or movie) that you have not paid for and have no right to use; why should that be legal.
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That's ridiculous. You just said that giving away things for free is illegal. I guess Baen is breaking the law every time they distribute material for free. How about downloading PD material?
Do you seriously expect the downloader to research the copyright status on every link they click on? People read copyrighted material all the time on the internet. There is no way that they can be responsible for deciding what is legal and what isn't. Not only would it be a tremendous burden, but in many cases it would be impossible. The responsibility is on the distributor, which is what the law actually says.
Unfortunately, many people have fallen for the lies that are spread by the content industry in a deliberate attempt to create confusion.