As others have pointed out, this is a bad analogy. Without passing judgment on whether or not RapidShare's conduct rose to this level, a better analogy (as much as I cringe at bringing murder into a conversation about copyright infringement) would be aiding and abetting in a murder. In copyright law, this is called secondary liability. Essentially, secondary liability requires some showing that on party has facilitated, induced, or is otherwise responsible for another parties' infringement of a copyright. The party does not have to directly infringe someone's copyright, similar to way a person aiding or abetting in a murder does not actually commit the murder.
Whether or not you agree with holding parties secondarily liable (and the DMCA has provided safe harbor mechanisms for many of the situations you probably wouldn't want service providers to be held liable), many cases have used the theory to hold parties liable that did not "originate the content" (remember Napster?).
On the other hand, I just graduated from the UT with a degree in Computer Science, went through many of the same experiences you just described, and couldn't be more thankful for the approach taken by the department. If you thought Computer Science was learning to program, you, frankly, were just wrong.
You are right that there wasn't a strong focus on specific programming skills, but the impetus behind the theoretical approach is that programming languages, development platforms, etc. are constantly changing, and a theoretical understanding of computation and logic just might serve you better and give you the ability to think and adapt. I didn't go into Computer Science because I wanted to be a professional programmer (I'm going to law school next year, in fact), I did computer science because I love math and computers, and it was a perfect fit for me. If all you want to do was learn to program, computer science isn't really for you, and it would really be a waste of time when there are trade schools for that requiring a lot less time and money.
And yeah, the entry level classes are taught in huge halls with seemingly disinterested professors...welcome to a large public university with weed-out courses. I, however, found the upper division professors extremely engaging and helpful, and the things I have learned have already been invaluable to me in the work I do now.
That's not entirely true, a patent also gives the owner the right to prevent others from importing the patented invention, as the parent was questioning, so it has some effect outside the US in that regard.
As far as content owners are concerned, I'm not sure how this would harm them anymore than something like Netflix. The same making a copy and sending it back is just as easy if not easier with their service.
Slashdot Mirror
As others have pointed out, this is a bad analogy. Without passing judgment on whether or not RapidShare's conduct rose to this level, a better analogy (as much as I cringe at bringing murder into a conversation about copyright infringement) would be aiding and abetting in a murder. In copyright law, this is called secondary liability. Essentially, secondary liability requires some showing that on party has facilitated, induced, or is otherwise responsible for another parties' infringement of a copyright. The party does not have to directly infringe someone's copyright, similar to way a person aiding or abetting in a murder does not actually commit the murder.
Whether or not you agree with holding parties secondarily liable (and the DMCA has provided safe harbor mechanisms for many of the situations you probably wouldn't want service providers to be held liable), many cases have used the theory to hold parties liable that did not "originate the content" (remember Napster?).
On the other hand, I just graduated from the UT with a degree in Computer Science, went through many of the same experiences you just described, and couldn't be more thankful for the approach taken by the department. If you thought Computer Science was learning to program, you, frankly, were just wrong.
You are right that there wasn't a strong focus on specific programming skills, but the impetus behind the theoretical approach is that programming languages, development platforms, etc. are constantly changing, and a theoretical understanding of computation and logic just might serve you better and give you the ability to think and adapt. I didn't go into Computer Science because I wanted to be a professional programmer (I'm going to law school next year, in fact), I did computer science because I love math and computers, and it was a perfect fit for me. If all you want to do was learn to program, computer science isn't really for you, and it would really be a waste of time when there are trade schools for that requiring a lot less time and money.
And yeah, the entry level classes are taught in huge halls with seemingly disinterested professors...welcome to a large public university with weed-out courses. I, however, found the upper division professors extremely engaging and helpful, and the things I have learned have already been invaluable to me in the work I do now.
Eric
That's not entirely true, a patent also gives the owner the right to prevent others from importing the patented invention, as the parent was questioning, so it has some effect outside the US in that regard.
As far as content owners are concerned, I'm not sure how this would harm them anymore than something like Netflix. The same making a copy and sending it back is just as easy if not easier with their service.