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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 ..."
And hence no more copyleft/creative commons in california..
Oh, and that just made Magnatune.com illegal for californians as well... (or is it californianasswell)
-if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
The people may not be dying by guns (since you can't have them) but that doesn't mean you're any safer.
Are you being serious or humorous? Virtually every single gun has at least one safety on it to prevent accidental discharges. These include drop safeties to prevent the hammer from falling if the gun is dropped, a manual safety to lock the hammer/sear in the cocked position and prevent the trigger from being pulled, grip safeties to ensure that the trigger can only be pulled if the pistol is being held properly, trigger safeties (such as on Glocks) to ensure that the trigger can only be pulled if the entire trigger face is pressed, and not just snagged, loaded chamber indicators, disconnectors to keep the firearm from going full-auto, and so on and so on. Multiple mechanical devices have to fail for a firearm to accidentally fire.
Note that there is a fine distinction between Accidental Discharges and Negligent Discharges. Accidental Discharges occur when the mechanical devices do fail, and the firearm fires when no shot was intended. Some SKS's were notorious for inadvertantly going full-auto when the sear catch failed, and the rifle slam-fired. Negligent Discharges occurs when a person violates a basic rule of firearm handling, and fires a shot when s/he did not intend to. 99.9% of the time, this is what happened when "the gun just went off!" - the person had their finger on the trigger and pulled it when they were not paying attention.
Your invention would have to read the user's mind - what if I want to shoot that mugger coming at me with a lead pipe?
I'm not intending to start a RKBA debate here, I merely wanted to educate.
and the death throes are a thrilling spectacle
there is a divide between those who understand the true implications of p2p and those who don't
and the fight is between those ignorant of the implications, and those who get it
every new technology changes society- the gun, the printing press, the atom bomb, currency, etc.
technology doesn't change morality, but it does require that morality be rephrased to fit in with a new reality, as the old shortcuts don't apply anymore
"stealing is bad" is such a mental shorthand
but does the concept "stealing" philosophically apply to infinite effortless copying of electrons?
no, it doesn't
it really, really doesn't
and you either get that, or you don't
morality hasn't changed, there is no increase in lawlessness, there is only a conflict between those who understand how a new technology changes society, and those who don't, and in fact, in defense of dying ways, the dinosaurs are the ones who commit the real moral infractions in their struggle to maintain a dead era: media distribution via concrete media
cds and lps and cassettes cost something to make, there is an economics to them: supply and demand
but p2p is infinite supply, and infinite demand: there are no traditional economics to it
and across that divide of understanding the dinosaur of the old reality struggles to survive, but is only fighting inevitability
with each new, desperate and hysterical grasping at straws that i hear of such as this stupid law from california now, i only begin to feel more and more pity, and disgust for the dying dinosaur
just die already you ignorant fools
you can't fight progress
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Not to further-fuel the endless RKBA debate, but can anyone here imagine ANY product besides guns *not* being forced to adopt "silencers" (actually suppressors, but let's stick with the ignorant Hollyweird-terminology for now!) in the USA if invented yesterday? Instead, getting a silencer in the USA is *much* harder than getting a normal, Title one weapon, and costs $200 along with all the hassle. I can tell everyone who hasn't tried one, suppressors make shooting a LOT more-fun (and safer). And no, plinking with a suppressor didn't magically transform me into a mobster bent on murder.
Does this rarely-questioned policy reduce crime? Dubious (in Finland, you can buy suppressors in a hardware store, and I haven't heard of any crime-wave there.)! Across much of Europe it's actually illegal to shoot WITHOUT suppressors, because of all the noise guns make). Europe muddles along anyway. Does it increase government-control of law-abiding citizen-units while NOT affecting criminals (who'll by-definition break the law!)? Absolutely -- and that's the only purpose of 99.99% of gun-laws, whether or not their authors (who are normally safety-Nazis, at least when it comes to issues like industrial noise-levels being generated in more-politically-correct ways!) will ever directly admit it.
But this particular law, as populations get more-dense, also has the pernicious effect of slowly getting rid of guns & accurate shooting as a hobby due to the noise. Hiram Maxim, who invented both the machinegun and the suppressor back when the USA was a much-freeer country, would probably be mystified today at our politicians' useless anti-fun/anti-gun antics. The NRA, which is supposedly so-powerful, does NOT represent machinegun or "silencer" users because the media will beat them up as representing mobsters rather than looking at the hearing-safety issue. This is because the news media in general are ignorant, bigoted, and biased against individual firearms owners who tell it like it is (ie me). I don't blame them, since I destroy their arguments (see above) I must be unpleasant, so flame-away, leftist-ACs.
I still know I'm right.
JMR
Try e-gold - (contact me). I'm NOT e-
Nader is nothing more than a self-aggrandizing sell out. Vote for your dog before you vote for Nader. At least with Bush and Kerry you knew that you were getting baldly arrogant and ambitious men who would sell themselves to anyone with a big checkbook. Nader's activities in the runup to the last US presidential election were despicable.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I read it. Did you read the "may also" ?
Doesn't look to me like redistribution is required, or that it is required to be enabled by the same software (trivial to avoid otherwise - use separate client & server).
Once an internet user has used a web browser to aquire "an identical copy of the file on his or her computer" they clearly may also diseminate the file to other users connected to the network - they may just email it.
Now look at usenet. Definitely a peer-to-peer file distribution system, by any standard. In over 20 years and who knows how many thousands of lines of nntp server code, no one has figured out a resonable way to prevent warez etc. trading on it.
This bill is sponsored/written by the same guy that brought us SB1506 which has been approved by California Senate & Assembly and Governor Arnold and became law 19 days ago.
To the non-technical (who don't understand that the entire internet is p2p and ftp is just as guilty as Morpheus), that bill was more bizzare than SB 96, so expect it to pass unless strongly opposed.
It took SB1506 from Feb 9 to Sept 21 2004 to work its way through the CA Legislature.
Bills need three readings & one month after the first before they can move too far. Feb 17th is the earliest that this one can be heard in committee.
SB 1506 went to the Sen. committees on Judiciary and Public Safety first. SB 96 is currently in Rules, but all bills go there for re-assignment.
I'll write to my reps Simitian and Laird today. They stream RealAudio of the hearings.
This one got caught early. Let's work to kill it NOW.
The fact that your post has been modded 5, Insightful shows that many Slashdotters could use a basic civics lesson.
The bill was introduced by a California senator to be entered as a state law. Each state has its own set of laws, from everything as mundane as importing produce, to combatting spam. Each state generally has its own set of laws regarding things relating to cars, such as emissions, speed limits, and traffic laws.
To be perfectly clear:
To fight unfair laws, we must understand them. We must also make clear and coherent arguments if we are to defeat them. Statements such as " I take it this idiot senator believes all the world's coders live in the US, right?" are, sadly, not helpful.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.