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Teen Sued for /Linking/ to MP3s
Alex T-B writes "A 17-year old Swede has been
sued by the IFPI for having links to MP3s from his homepage. The tracks weren't actually located on his system. How does this bode for future suing practices - can anybody get sued for just linking to stuff someone somewhere considers to be 'bad'? Der Artikel ist auf Deutsch - use babelfish. " MP3s or not, lawsuits over links scare me.
So, who wants to raise a billion from an IPO and use it to set up a real off-shore data haven? Maybe set up in the Cayman Islands or somesuch, run a few fat pipes in, and give the finger to all those in the world who would deny you access to information.
As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free access to information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, while the free nation gradually constricting its grip on free discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism.
Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Actually, the God clause is not traditional. The original pledge of allegiance read as following:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
The phrase "under god" was added in the McCarthyist 1950s as an attempt to distinguish the United States from "godless Communism," a convenient excuse for the religious conservatives then in power. It is not part of the original Pledge, and hence does not reflect any opinions our founding fathers may or may not have had. It just reflects the opinions of the McCarthyists.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Now I don't actually have any knowledge of sweden so I can't comment on that particular instance, however, I would like to point out some differences between the freedoms offered by the united states and that offered by many european countries.
Many european countries have much less puritanical cultures than the united states hence as a matter of fact they end up allowing many more things than the united states. For instance various sorts of drug use, nudity etc..
However, the united states, despite outlawing many things has much greater protections in the system for those who are extremyl at odds with society than many european countries. Sure, the culture may be much more lax there but if you fall outside (preech hate speech in germany, engage in sadomasochistic homosexual play in england etc..) the line or the will of the country changes in its attitude towards freedom you are much more at risk.
While I would much prefer to live in a liberal culture I must argue that the american system is better *as a political system* not necesserily in the niceness of living there. Sure in the short term freedom is nice b/c it lets you do things but this is not the real point of allowing personal liberties.
Free speech stops the flow of ideas in the society from stagnating due to conformity. It keeps society alive by presenting disenting opionions (hence freedoms which let you digress from the mainstream are much more important than freedoms that let you do things). Secondly freedoms serve their main political purpose when the government/society starts to turn bad. Hence the insulation of freedoms from the will of the majority is also an important system.
It is sort of a free beer/free speech issue. One kind of freedom gives you nice things to do and makes you happy. The other protects you against a rainy day and is better for philosophical reasons.
Marriage is the "pseudo-ethics" that cloaks the messy truth of sexuality in the raiment of propriety -- it's "Don't Ask,
The difference is that a printed bibliography does not give you access to the material (of course, this is one of the benefits of an electronic bibliography). As an example, suppose "Huckleberry Finn" (or "Origin of Species") is outlawed in your state. Including "Huckleberry Finn" in your bibliography is fine, but including contact information for the underground library is another matter.
But this brings up an interesting thought. If it's illegal to include a hyperlink to (hypothetically) http://joes_music.com/like_a_virgin.mp3, then can you get around this problem by printing the URL as plain text?
Christopher A. Bohn
cb
Oooh! What does this button do!?
17-year old Swede sued
A Swedish teenager has to go to court because his website contains links to copyright-protected music. The Swedish recording industry is trying to create a precedent with this suit.
Stockholm - The 17-year old Swede Tommy Olsson is being accused of providing copyright-protected music for free download on his webpage. The suit has been brought by the Swedish branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) consisting of 53 record companies. Olssons webpage contained links to the music files. His attorney Per Olof Almer argued that Olsson didn't create, copy or transfer the files himself. "He only spread the information on where to find them".
This is the first case of its kind in Europe said the attorney for the recording industry, Magnus Maartenson. The Swedish IFPI has moved against approximately 1000 websites for copyright violations in the last two years. Tommy Olsson though is the first person who has to appear in court because of his website. The music industry quite obviously is trying to create a legal precedent with this case: "It's not about the whole recording industry pushing on one 17-year old" emphasized Maartensson.
Olsson made only a few hundred dollars from advertisements on his webpage said Maartensson. If found guilty, he will have to pay a fine of 150 to 250 Dollars. This amount will not be enough to deter others said Maartensson. "But if he is found guilty, we can sue him for damages and that will be a much bigger amount." The sentence is expected for next Wednesday.
Will "Der Spiegel" now sue me for copyright infringement ? Things are getting crazy on the web
Ok, so no one took me to court, sued me, or tried to bring civil charges against me. But my original college hosted web site was unfairly banned because of a link.
I was one of (if not the) first person to have a web page at Ohio University. My page was up before the guy who setup our first web server had his up. So to try and show what was possible I created a site (on OU's first linux box) to host local area artists. I had a few of my photos, a few of my bosses paintings, and a link to a CS student's "body art" page.
On his body art page he had photos of his..."Prince Albert" go look it up if you don't know, all I'll say is ouch! So my homepage linked to my art site which in turn linked to the "Body art" page which linked to its creators photos of his own personal body art.
Well finally my college within the university (Visual Communications) gets with the program and creates their own website including a list of links to student created pages. (A bunch done for a "web design" class that taught to create large imagemaps in photoshop and called them webpages, and a few independly created pages). I asked for months to get listed on the indepent student pages.
Finally after nearly a year I got an answer why. Apparantly the head of VisCom and visited my site and declared that it contained pornography. Amazed I scheduled an appointment with him to find out where he found porn on my site!
He then explained how he found the photos of the "Prince Albert". Needless to say I was amazed. After nearly two hours of arguing he finally agreed to link to my site only because the linux box that hosted the art site was being taken down because the CS department coulden't find anyone in their college to take over as sysadmin once the original sysadmin graduated and went to work for a local ISP.
Ain't college great?
--- Juggle juggle@hitesman.com
Seriously, what are the limits? If I create a Geocities site and put some "illegal" content on there, and link to it from my site, I think most people would realize that it's part of the same logical site. But what if I link to a site run by someone else?
Remember that in most countries it's illegal to give someone help in breaking the law. If I link to a site where someone can break the law, isn't that the same as helping them break the law?
The real issue here is that the courts don't understand the technology, and as such will make stupid rulings.
Gates' Law: Every 18 months, the speed of software halves.
http ://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,91180- 144345-1010275-0,00.html
The best remedy to this type of harassment suit has been debated for years, and (IIRC) the current suggestions are:
With an affirmative defense, the suit is dismissed immediately once the defendent objects and claims this defense. You don't like the fact that my personal car is red instead of blue? You even filed a suit against me, claiming it's against the neighborhood covenents? Tough, that's not something the courts will enforce. (They might enforce restrictions on *where* I park the car, especially if it's a business vehicle, but not the details of any personal vehicle.)
This idea isn't without controvery. What happens to a homeowner who files suit over a legitimate grievance, but who simply can't afford to push the case against a multi-million dollar company?
In this case, I am 100% certain that the suit will be quietly dropped within a short time because there is no fscking way they could win. (Their worst nightmare is actually *winning* the case and facing the backlash of their affluent, young market.) However they will consider it a victory since it will put a bit of doubt into the back of the minds of other people who may want to put up links or content.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Personal freedom isnt dead in Sweden. There hasnt been a verdict yet (he'll be freed, imho), only a report in a german mag. where they probably dont know anything about swedish law.
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Either you don't live here or you are blind. Bar the far east, Sweden has one of the most collective value systems in the world. There has never been individual freedom here, which is why we thrived for a while (50s-60s-70s) and then went right to the shitter today. Same reason places like SIngapore can thrive now, but are heading straight for the shitter tomorrow.
Say what you want about the American regime, but until now America has had better individual freedom then we do - by a long run. American kids may be forced to say the pledge of allegance in the morning, but that is nothing compared to silent indoctrination into the social (-ist) system that goes on from the the very start here.
Since my childhood was split evenly between the two countries, for once I do know what I am talking about.
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Hmmm. Lots of pages generate links, and many allow links to be added by others. Search engines tend to be in this category... does that mean that they are liable, since they'll spit out pages with links to pirated material? Personal auction/trading sites also tend to be of this category, although sites like E-bay are trying to clamp down on people offering anything they consider contraband or controversial.
If it's restricted to obvious, conscious intent (like specifically describing the content. Were one to link to a free hosted page, ala Geocities, and then that page lapsed and the address got re-used for somebody brazenly and stupidly distributing "w4r3z"... that doesn't seem like it should be prosecuted as long as ignorance is plausible.
Since the person in question was specifically and knowingly pointing to pirated content, however, that's more like a go-between faciltating a transaction between a junkie and a dealer. He might not touch the drugs himself, ever, nor necessarily the money, but he's certainly a willing accomplice, and part of the racket; and I'm pretty sure most places would bust 'im.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.