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Originally Posted by bill_mchale
Actually the more I think about the more I realize I forgot a key part of the equation. When you download, you just don't receive the file. When someone downloads, three copies are involved.
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Courts have already ruled that incidental copies such as between memory/drive/etc do not count with regards to copyright. Computers are constantly making copies of data in order to use them, that's what computers do. If what you say were true, then everybody who turned on a computer would automatically be guilty of infringement.
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Now, as to your last argument. Yes, it might not be possible to prove Mens Rea. Particularly if someone only had a few illegally downloaded files on their computer system. That being said, if someone had downloaded hundreds or thousands of file, it becomes harder to argue that the person really believes that they were downloading from authorized sources.
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Everything you download from the internet is most likely copyrighted. Every time you click on a website your computer is downloading copyrighted content. I'm sure you've downloaded hundreds or thousands of copyrighted files yourself, just by using the internet.