Your looking for 17 USC 506
---
To quote the US Copyright Law
(a) Criminal Infringement. —
(1) In general. — Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed —
(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;
(B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000;
It would seem to me the key parts of that are "Any person who willfully infringes a copyright", "for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain", and "reproduction or distribution... during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies... copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000"
---
So, to actually infringe a copyright you have to
(a) "wilfull" act of infringing
(b) make money from it, or
(c) the number of copies times the product price is greater then $1,000
Note that for (c), it would be up to the court to decide how much an individual song from an album, or a number of megabytes uploaded verse size of entire file, is worth.
Again, this is why hosts and such are targeted and not actual downloaders. Its hard to prove that a single person infringed upon a copy right by downloading something for personal, non commercial uses, but a host that provided copyrighted material to hundreds, if not thousands, of people shows a willfull intent to violate the copyright.
The reason no indiviual has been prosecuted is the fact that its kind of hard, and pointless, for a single person to download $1,000+ worth of a single digital product. If a person did manage to break clause (c) then whether or not they got convicted would depend on the judge's attitude and how good your lawyer is at argueing you had no "wilfull" intent.
I can't remember a single instance of any media provider lowering their price because alot of people bought a product. The only time I've seen a price go down is when no one is buying it.
I know plenty of people that download all their media, I know alot of people the buy all their media, and I even know some people the download -> try -> buy if good, but I can't say I know anyone that downloads content instead of buying it.
Basicly, most people are going to buy a product if they can, and if they are going to pirate it then they wern't ever going to buy. Obviously not true for all people, but true for the most part and either way, no one is losing any money because of it.
Slashdot Mirror
Your looking for 17 USC 506 --- To quote the US Copyright Law (a) Criminal Infringement. — (1) In general. — Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed — (A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain; (B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; It would seem to me the key parts of that are "Any person who willfully infringes a copyright", "for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain", and "reproduction or distribution ... during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies ... copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000"
---
So, to actually infringe a copyright you have to
(a) "wilfull" act of infringing
(b) make money from it, or
(c) the number of copies times the product price is greater then $1,000
Note that for (c), it would be up to the court to decide how much an individual song from an album, or a number of megabytes uploaded verse size of entire file, is worth.
Again, this is why hosts and such are targeted and not actual downloaders. Its hard to prove that a single person infringed upon a copy right by downloading something for personal, non commercial uses, but a host that provided copyrighted material to hundreds, if not thousands, of people shows a willfull intent to violate the copyright.
The reason no indiviual has been prosecuted is the fact that its kind of hard, and pointless, for a single person to download $1,000+ worth of a single digital product. If a person did manage to break clause (c) then whether or not they got convicted would depend on the judge's attitude and how good your lawyer is at argueing you had no "wilfull" intent.
I can't remember a single instance of any media provider lowering their price because alot of people bought a product. The only time I've seen a price go down is when no one is buying it. I know plenty of people that download all their media, I know alot of people the buy all their media, and I even know some people the download -> try -> buy if good, but I can't say I know anyone that downloads content instead of buying it. Basicly, most people are going to buy a product if they can, and if they are going to pirate it then they wern't ever going to buy. Obviously not true for all people, but true for the most part and either way, no one is losing any money because of it.