Slashdot Mirror
US Court Gives 15 Months' Jail, $415,900 Fine For Game Piracy
An anonymous reader writes "A Florida man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay US$415,900 in restitution for selling video game systems that were preloaded with more than 75 pirated copies of games." If that fine sounds a bit steep, note that his profits on the devices "exceeded $390,000."
Copyright is here to help creator to live from their arts not to go to in an early retirement after a few hits.
How, exactly, did you come up with that idea?
What if 10% of the people on the planet purchase a "unit" annually for the next hundred years? If you want to tie it to the lifetime of the artist, fine. But where do you get off deciding how much people are entitled to make from their work?
Because, sorry pal, there's tons of other people who can do the exact same thing. The thing with copyright is that it *supposedly* allows an artist to receive royalties for a unique, and, let's face it, nebulous object. There's a few reasons why you don't get a stipend.
1) Your creation is not unique (anyone could have made it)
2) Your creation is *not* art or a useful science, at least not in the strictest sense of the word 'art'.
3) You're a whiny bitch, and no one likes whiny bitches. Additionally, if getting a stipend is that important, negotiate it in your contract.
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is