The Conspiracy Against Common Sense
From Slashdot:
"The 23 year old Grant Stanley has been sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of home detention, and a $3000 fine for his role in the private BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents. This ruling is the first BitTorrent related conviction in the US. Stanley pleaded guilty earlier this year to 'conspiracy to commit copyright infringement' and 'criminal copyright infringement.' He is one of the three defendants in the Elitetorrents operation better known as 'Operation D-Elite.'"
Basically, this man has been sent to jail for providing the means for others to infringe copyrights.
Lets look at some others who provide these "means":
VCR manufacturers give people the means to record television programmes without the permission of the copyright holders (or, if the UN has its way, the broadcaster's permission).
Web browser publishers give people the means to download copyrighted text, images and video from websites.
Manufacturers of CD players with integrated cassette recorders give people the means to make unauthorised copies of music (my old machine, tucked away in a cupboard now, even has an 'Easy CD Rec' button!). The same is true of those who produce radios with integrated cassette recorders (which begs the question: if these are actually legal then why is Creative retroactively stripping the radio recording functions from its Zen series of digital audio devices?).
Still camera manufacturers give people the means to duplicate artworks and other photographs without the creators' permission.
Video camera manufacturers allow people to record movies in cinemas entirely contrary to those threatening notices we are presented with at each visit.
I was going to suggest that we should also be locking up photocopier manufactures, but clearly it is the manufacturers of all printing equipment, from desktop to office-floor to full-scale printing presses who are guilty of providing the means to make unauthorised copies of printed works.
Hell, pencil manufacturers offer people a means to (very slowly) duplicate a literary work without the author's consent.
All manufacturers of computers, CDR and DVDR media, CD\DVD writing drives, HDs, thumb drives, video cassettes, digital video recorders, dictaphones, independent cassette recorders, all network interface cards, microphones, telephones, dial-up services, broadband services, carbon paper, paints and other art materials...
At this rate there will be no room in the prisons for all those murderers and rapists.
All facetiousness aside, it feels like we are approaching the end of something here...
"The 23 year old Grant Stanley has been sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of home detention, and a $3000 fine for his role in the private BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents. This ruling is the first BitTorrent related conviction in the US. Stanley pleaded guilty earlier this year to 'conspiracy to commit copyright infringement' and 'criminal copyright infringement.' He is one of the three defendants in the Elitetorrents operation better known as 'Operation D-Elite.'"
Basically, this man has been sent to jail for providing the means for others to infringe copyrights.
Lets look at some others who provide these "means":
VCR manufacturers give people the means to record television programmes without the permission of the copyright holders (or, if the UN has its way, the broadcaster's permission).
Web browser publishers give people the means to download copyrighted text, images and video from websites.
Manufacturers of CD players with integrated cassette recorders give people the means to make unauthorised copies of music (my old machine, tucked away in a cupboard now, even has an 'Easy CD Rec' button!). The same is true of those who produce radios with integrated cassette recorders (which begs the question: if these are actually legal then why is Creative retroactively stripping the radio recording functions from its Zen series of digital audio devices?).
Still camera manufacturers give people the means to duplicate artworks and other photographs without the creators' permission.
Video camera manufacturers allow people to record movies in cinemas entirely contrary to those threatening notices we are presented with at each visit.
I was going to suggest that we should also be locking up photocopier manufactures, but clearly it is the manufacturers of all printing equipment, from desktop to office-floor to full-scale printing presses who are guilty of providing the means to make unauthorised copies of printed works.
Hell, pencil manufacturers offer people a means to (very slowly) duplicate a literary work without the author's consent.
All manufacturers of computers, CDR and DVDR media, CD\DVD writing drives, HDs, thumb drives, video cassettes, digital video recorders, dictaphones, independent cassette recorders, all network interface cards, microphones, telephones, dial-up services, broadband services, carbon paper, paints and other art materials...
At this rate there will be no room in the prisons for all those murderers and rapists.
All facetiousness aside, it feels like we are approaching the end of something here...