04-06-2011, 09:24 AM | #1 | ||
Grand Sorcerer
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File-sharing case prompts push for copyright reform
An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses a recent file-sharing case in which Joel Tenenbaum was convicted of illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs. His original verdict was an award of $67,500 in damages to the music companies... a tenth what the jury voted to award the music companies, and an amount still under appeal by both sides.
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04-06-2011, 09:32 AM | #2 |
monkey on the fringe
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The moral of the story is to never share what you illegally download. Sharing is what upsets them and sharing is what will land you in court.
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04-06-2011, 10:08 AM | #3 | |
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>BRAAATT!< Oh, I'm sorry, the moral is that copyright needs to be reformed! But thanks for playing, here's a copy of the home game, bye-bye! |
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04-06-2011, 10:32 AM | #4 |
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I think the only way to avoid those sort of ridiculous punishments is to do away with civil damages cases completely. Make things like that a legal matter and hand out punishments that are approriate for the seriousness of the crime when there is enough evidence to prove guilt. Listening to music without authorisation getting a harsher punishment than mugging an old lady is just plain silly.
But I don't think it will stifle innovation. All the innovation of recent years has come from the pirate community initially, then been legitimised later. |
04-06-2011, 10:38 AM | #5 |
monkey on the fringe
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Yeah, it does. The penalties are too high. Outside of that, what else? You have no right to use someone else's work without their permission. How does that stifle innovation?
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04-06-2011, 10:42 AM | #6 | |
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04-06-2011, 11:05 AM | #7 | |
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As for the penalties, it's hard to argue their size. Penalties should be set according to the amount of "punishment" appropriate to the person and the crime... but it's a very subjective thing, since it's relatively impossible to assess actual damages done, or why a certain amount of "punishment" is not enough for one person and too much for another. The EFF and the advocates will have their hands full establishing standardized penalties and rules for setting them. |
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04-06-2011, 11:16 AM | #8 | |
monkey on the fringe
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04-06-2011, 11:25 AM | #9 | |
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04-06-2011, 12:50 PM | #10 | |
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More recently, Amazon's new Cloud Player service has been described as being like legalised murder, and there are already plans to squash it dead due to copyright concerns. |
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04-06-2011, 12:52 PM | #11 |
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Which is why it should be changed to a criminal case. Only then will the punishment be made appropriate for the crime. Until recently I would have also said they would then be eligible for Legal Aid, but that won't be the case any more.
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04-06-2011, 01:05 PM | #12 | |
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Storing my files on someone else's computers accessible by only me violates copyright how? They're barking up the wrong tree. |
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04-06-2011, 01:15 PM | #13 | |
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And I doubt there would be any legal ebooks now if it wasn't for the efforts of early pirates creating a demand for them. Their lawyers obviously think otherwise, because they are already taking steps to squash it. I know it would definitely be illegal in the UK, which will be why it is currently US only. |
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04-06-2011, 01:35 PM | #14 | |
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You did say, "You have no right to use someone else's work without their permission." By that logic, if they don't give you permission to copy it to Amazon's servers, then you don't have that right. (In reality: you do have the legal right to use someone else's work without their permission, within certain limitations. That's what fair use is all about. Advocates for Amazon's cloud storage will insist that these copies -- whole copies of entire songs, books, and movies -- are within the scope of fair use.) |
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04-06-2011, 02:00 PM | #15 |
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Copyright enforcement does drive innovation. Every time a medium of distribution is attacked, someone finds a way to make a new one that is even more difficult to find and stop, such as protocol obfuscation and trackerless torrents using distributed hash tables.
Sad, too, that the music compaines have to eat their $75,000,000,000,000 loss. |
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copyright reform, eff, file-sharing, legal |
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