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Texas Rep Wants To Jail File Traders
kUnGf00m45t3r writes "There is an article on Wired about how Texas Rep. John Carter wants to jail some college students to scare people away from illegal file sharing. He says, "What these kids don't realize is that every time they pull up music and movies and make a copy, they are committing a felony under the United States code," Carter said in an interview. "If you were to prosecute someone and give them three years, I think this would act as a deterrent." Right..."
Can also be found here - why not drop him a line? :p
This demagogue ought to actually read the copyright Act before he starts making false accusations of criminal conduct against his fellow citizens. (He also better make sure his kids are clean.)
1) Even where infringement is present, it isn't necessarily criminal:
It isn't criminal unless willful, and it isn't willful merely because it was copied. Evidence of infringement doesn't suffice under the Copyright Act.
2) Even where willful infringement is present, it isn't necessarily criminal:
If not for commercial purposes or by taking a retail value exceeding $1,000 in a six-month period.
3) Even where willful infringement is criminal, it isn't necessarily a felony:
If not for commercial purposes, it is merely a midemeanor, in the sense that the maximum criminal sentence is limited to not more than a year. (Not sure if that is the relevant standard -- I'm not a criminal lawyer).
Then everyone who has ever copied a record or taped something off the telly, should give themselves up, and insist on the same treatment. This is called passive resistence path to law reform. If enough people do it all at once (ie organised), it will completely overwhelm the system.
...
In the mean time wouldn't it be nice if the "no felony" rule applied to more than the military. And is it true that some people get a choice of the army or jail in the USA?
(Doing the rounds on email - no idea if it is true or not):
Can you imagine working for a company that has a
little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:
* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad cheques
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year
Can you guess which organization this is?
Give up yet?
It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group of idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of USA proletariat in line !!
to mod or to post? posting wins. me, me, mod me, me
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
It was. Until the "No Electronic Theft Act" appeared, which altered the definition of "commercial" to cover file trading as well. So, if you're running Kazaa, WinMX or whatever except with an empty or disabled share at all times, that's (2) and (3) from the parent post covered. As for (1), are you going to claim you accidentally installed that file trading software? If not, NETA would seem to put you into the "felony" bracket as soon as you've traded a couple of dozen albums - or one copy of Win XP, it seems!
Run a P2P app deliberately, trade $1k worth (at retail prices) of material, and it's a misdemeanour (1 year, $100k fine). 10 or more copies, retailing for $2.5k, and it's a felony (3 years, $250k fine). Ouch!
And yes, it is a felony to commit criminal copyright infringement.
Yes, and this is one of the truly dangerous developments in the copyright cartel's assimilation of the United States government. Copyright violation was always, for more than two hundred years of American history, a CIVIL violation, not a CRIMINAL one. Redress for copyright violations was obtained through litigation in court, not the barrel of a government gun.
Unfortunately the copyright and media cartels of Hollywood bought legislation from our disgustingly corrupt public officials in Washington, and in the late 1990's turned copyright violation into a federal offense, i.e. a Felony.
A draconian police state and injustice we haven't seen since the American apartheid of the 1950's, a refusal to enforce an obscene law, or a repeal of those portions of the Sony Bono Copyright Extention Act and DMCA are really the only possible outcomes. Based on our experience with prohibition (creating two tremendous threats that have gutted our freedoms in the 20th century: the Mafia and the FBI) and its successor, the War on Drugs, I expect to see this law enforced widely, if haphazardly, with the result that our jail populations swell even more, and our country suffer social and economic fallout it will fail to recover from this obscenity for generations to come.
Welcome to the Corporate State. Bend over and take it like a man.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Anyway, those in the Austin, Round Rock area, call him: 512-246-1600 and politely express your opinion.