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Jail Time For P2P Developers?
Kjella writes "A Califorian bill introduced last week would, if passed, expose file-swapping software developers to fines of up to $2,500 per charge, or a year in jail, if they don't take 'reasonable care' to prevent their software from being used to commit crime. C|Net has the story, as well as a link to the actual bill. By the overly broad definition of P2P software, almost any piece of internet software could be liable. This browser is certainly able to download and upload files ('Save as ...' and upload forms). Are Microsoft, Opera and Mozilla.org taking 'reasonable care' to prevent me from exchanging anything illegal? Of course, I never go there, but a friend of my uncle's third cousin's brother told me warez download sites work just fine ..."
The new Craftsman X-25 flat #2 screwdriver: Bill SB-96 compliant. "We have taken precautions to ensure that this screwdriver meets the requirements of 'reasonable care' to ensure that it may not be used to committ a crime. The screwdriver head will spontaneously turn into molten steel if you do not call you local enforcement office an obtain a license for any of the following activities: jimmying, scraping, prying, lifting or plain old screwdriving. If you are not sure, please contact your local enforcement office. Note: Only works with sDRM-(screwDriver Rights Management) compliant screwheads.
What does "reasonable care in preventing the use of their software to swap copyrighted music or movies--or child pornography" mean?
In other words, if I were Bram Cohen (Bittorrent's author), what if's would I have to put in my code in order to detect those illegal uses?
BTW, this should only affect developers who live in California, right?
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
You're obviously an "anti-property rights" hippy. Hollywood bought and paid for the property rights to film-making, and your little hippy indy films cause a direct loss of revenue on their part. Stay where you are, you are surrounded.
How about the same thing for airplanes? :-/
-Peter
Your hippy rhetoric falls on deaf ears. We at the Starbucks Legislature (formerly California State Legislature) easily ignore those problems that would seem to invalidate our laws. Selective enforcement and a cultivated ignorance of technology, what more does a junior state senator need?
Does that mean Al Gore will ultimately go to prison since he invented the whole internet in the first place?
Nope, because just as with guns, if you outlaw P2P programs only criminals will have them. And you don't want the crackhead down the street having a bigger stack of DVDs than you do, right...?
Sorry, I had to.
P2P programs don't spread copyrighted works illegally, people spread copyrighted works illegally.
It's clear isn't it? People are the problem. Therefore people should be made illegal!
Just throw everyone in jail and the problem is solved.
Except lawyers, of course, since they don't belong to the class of people.
Well, guns only kill people
Guns don't kill people, rappers do.
My spoon is too big.
He'd be right about the Aussies though, wouldn't he?
If we put all programmers in jail, they'll be able to spend ALL of their time programming, instead of wasting their energy worrying about how to pay their bills. They already live in their parents basements, which are aesthetically similar enough that they probably won't even notice.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Give me liberty or...not.
-The New American War Cry
I don't get it.
Didn't you realize that the state routinely acts as the private police of the wealthy at their behest? Why, a state that doesn't defend its business interests to the total exclusion of the interests of its citizens is hardly a state at all!
Hmm, you know, I might have something there....
Another one bites the dust
Yeh, but if Bush bans one of the internets, what's to stop us from using all the others?
Silly me - I used greater than and less than as brackets around the "insert text here" lines, so slashdot thought they were bad html tags and filtered them. It should have read:
"To: (Insert DA here)
I hereby confess, while not under duress, and in the presence of witnesses, that I developed a web browser. I took no 'reasonable care' to prevent my software from being used to commit crime - like all of the major web browsers in use, it can download and upload any file at all, no questions asked, to and from almost any web server on the internet. This is in violation of (insert state code ref here)."
(signatures follow)
Jesus: "Son of a
Do we blame gun makers for gun deaths? No, they are tools.
We do however blame our congressmen, and they too are tools.
The gun should be able to detect human presence and not fire a round!
Excuse me for being naive, but isn't that the point of guns? (aside from hunting).
What'chu lookin' at Willis?