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Hollywood Muscles Aussie ISPs Over Movie Downloading
Tenaka Kahn writes "Whirlpool is reporting that American movie companies are using a company (MediaForce) to try and muscle Aussie ISPs into disconnecting users who indulge in movie sharing."
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4. Profit!!! bad joke aside.. excess consumption would have to be part of it. 1 billion - that is sad.
Now, they can't prove yet (i think) how many times a work is transferred
well, one of the great things about law is that they still leave a lot of room for people to break the law in privacy. it's called intent to distribute, and when it doesn't exist, penalties are much lower than when it does. in the case of copyright, without intent to distribute, you'll do pretty OK under the umbrella of fair use. the problem here is that you're making the work available for distribution, instantly making a case for intent to distribute. even if nobody downloads it from you, you've still stepped outside of fair use.
the copyright owner doesn't need to prove you've distributed because you made it available for distribution. the minute a bootleg vendor extends the legs on his card table to set up shop on the street, he's breaking the law.
as for the power of copying/lending in terms of promotion, that's an entirely other conversation. are we discussing what the law is, or what the law should be?