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Originally Posted by Shaggy
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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True, and as such, when one is using material one has a right to use, then there are no issues (They would, I imagine, fall under the concept of fair use). But we are specifically talking about people who are infringing on copyright.
What we are specifically talking about here is someone downloading a copyrighted file that they do not have the rights to. You have argued that the downloader is merely a passive recipient and therefore is not guilty of infringement. I am pointing out that they are not merely receiving a copy, but creating a copy of their own. Essentially it would be like if the book store clerk put the book on the copy machine for you but required that you actually hit the copy button.
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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.
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Goes back to your earlier point, but with the addition, that if the rights holder for a work has placed it on a webserver, then it is reasonable to assume that they meant it for general and free distribution (assuming the site is not password protected). That being said, its one thing for me to download a temporary copy to view a web page, it is quite another (legally speaking) for me to make a copy of that web page to store on my computer indefinitely.
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Bill