Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It is the uploaders who are the true criminals, not the downloaders. Let people rip their own CDs or scan their own books - that would be a perfectly reasonable extension of the UK's "Fair Use" laws, IMHO - but I believe that uploaders should be legally persued and prosecuted with the full severity of the law.
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As it happens, I believe the US legal system agrees with you. Certainly the RIAA does. They've been going after uploaders, not downloaders.
It would be interesting if there were a way to operate a system that could somehow verify ownership of a paper copy before allowing a download of the matching digital title. I suppose one could scan or type in the ISBN and click a check box affirming that one owns a copy of the work in question. It wouldn't be "proof" of ownership, but uploading to such a system might have a different legal status than uploading a torrent to a typical torrent tracking site, etc., because one could claim that one assumed that only those who were entitled to "fair use" copies would be able to legitimately download the files.
The point at which I do feel the legal system and ethics diverge is regarding out of print titles. I strongly feel that if a copyright owner refuses to exercise their copyright, they should lose the protection that copyright provides. Disney and the rest of the content cartel disagree with me on that one, though, and they have the funds to lobby to make sure the laws go their way.
