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Justice Dept. Raids Homes of File Swappers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the reasonable-suspicion dept.

Cryofan writes "Reuters is reporting that the Justice Dept. has raided the homes of 5 people in several states for trading music on p2p networks. The traders were, however, not arrested. 'P2P does not stand for 'permission to pilfer,' Ashcroft said. The Reuters story says that the 5 'were people operating hubs in a file-sharing network based on Direct Connect software,' and who had provided between 'one and 100 gigabytes of material to trade, or up to 250,000 songs.' 'They are clearly directing and operating an enterprise which countenances illegal activity and makes as a condition of membership the willingness to make available material to be stolen,' said Ashcroft."

4 of 1,173 comments (clear)

  1. Thank you DOJ & Ashcroft!!! by winkydink · · Score: 0, Redundant
    I don't have time to keep up with all of the new emerging p2p sites.

    Thanks for turning me on to this one! Remember, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  2. Pentabyte? by uberdave · · Score: 0, Redundant

    PENTAbyte? What is that, like, five bytes?

    --
    "I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
  3. Re:Worth noting.... by rkrabath · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Could we PLEASE put Asscroft in jial for that?


    PLEASE?!?!?!?!?!?!

    --
    Who do I have to blackmail to get some representation around here!?!?!?!?
  4. Re:Doesn't the DOJ have better things to do... by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Futhermore, you clearly have something that you did not have before, and have not rendered payment in return for the information. You have entered into an uneven, unwilling transaction with the person who has the rights to distribute the material as they see fit.

    You seem to think that if someone says it's not theft that they are also saying it's not wrong. The issue of right or wrong is a separate one. But its is clearly not theft. Your own argument is not a definition of theft.

    But here is a question for you:

    You see a nice car. Let's say it's a Ferrari. And you're given a magic wand that when you wave it will magically give you your own Ferrari. Do you wave it? If you do, is it stealing?