[TriLUG] (Slightly OT)New Bill in Congress would make file-swapping a felony

[David A. Cafaro]

On Thu, 2003-07-17 at 17:39, Michael Thompson wrote:
> Many consumers will never be happy with anyone's business practices as 
> most businesses will charge for their services.  Pirates are not fighting
> a noble cause against the RIAA, those who would stop buying CD's and going
> to concerts in protest are the ones who should be heard, if they exist...

I have stopped buying new CD's, only used.. I still go to concerts since
that is the way many Artist actually make the money they do make (I've
read that many contract are horrible to the artists when it comes to
money from CD sales, and that most artists are left with touring to
bring in the money)


> 
> Just curious, anyone, what *should* the punishment be for piracy, if any?
> 

here's my uneducated ideas (simple example):

For sharing less than a CD's worth of songs
	First offense: Warning
	Second Offense: $250 fine
	Third and every day there after: Another $250
	After $2500 in fines: Felony charges begin

For Sharing Less than a dozen CD's worth of songs
	First Offense: Warning + $20 fine per song
	Second Offense: $20 fine per song/per day.
	After $2500 in fines: Felony charges begin

I'd call that fair (for the most part, I'm sure there will be exceptions
to it, and that's where courts and such come in), give a warning, then
start the fines, then the criminal proceedings.  I'm not a lawyer so no
idea how this would or could really work.  But I do think some of the
recent suggested laws are unusual punishment and don't fit the crimes. 
I also worry that when I see organizations pull stuff like this and
press for stupid laws that other's might try harder if it's
successfully.  Remember the RIAA and the movie association would love to
ban any computer system that doesn't go by their rules when it comes to
their content, even if you never use their content.  And that is an
endangerment to my computer use, and my choice of OS (Linux).  I know
this seems to be a little away from the original copyright issue of this
law, but it worries me that with any success in stupid laws like this,
that eventually something that does effect my choice of OS and how I
legitimately use my computer will come up (and then those threads will
become very on-topic, unless they are illegal to talk about ;-) ).

Cheers,
David
-- 
David A. Cafaro <dac(at)cafaro.net>
Sys Admin to User: "You did what?!?"