Everyday Copyright Violations

Schneier has pointed out a great law review article about the problems with copyright. The author takes a look at normal daily practices and how many commonplace actions actually result in what can be considered copyright violations. "By the end of the day, John has infringed the copyrights of twenty emails, three legal articles, an architectural rendering, a poem, five photographs, an animated character, a musical composition, a painting, and fifty notes and drawings. All told, he has committed at least eighty-three acts of infringement and faces liability in the amount of $12.45 million (to say nothing of potential criminal charges). There is nothing particularly extraordinary about John's activities. Yet if copyright holders were inclined to enforce their rights to the maximum extent allowed by law, he would be indisputably liable for a mind-boggling $4.544 billion in potential damages each year. And, surprisingly, he has not even committed a single act of infringement through P2P file sharing."

Comments

Re:Yay for something everyone hear already knows!

[Mex]

Is it too much to ask of people to stop confusing "Hear" and "Here"?

I'm not even a native english speaker and this sort of stuff grates me.

Re:Imminent destruction!

[Anonymous Coward]

More statements along those lines:

Killing somebody in self-defense is completely justified.

My apologies for even addressing this stupid statement, but if you are honestly telling me that you think defending yourself in such a manner that results in the death of your attacker when you are in fear for your life or that of your loved ones is never completely justified, you sir are one messed up dude.