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

prhodes at vdsinc.com prhodes at vdsinc.com
Thu Jul 17 11:18:52 EDT 2003








> NO!  IT does NOT!   Did you _read_ the bill?
> It refers specifically to COPYRIGHTED material.

Yes, I forgot to make that distinction in my original post,
Obviously you can post material which you own the copyright
to, or have permission to distribute.

It's the severity of the punishment that boggles my imagination.
That and the fact that we do not need the federal government passing
more and more increasingly draconian laws, especially when (as you
pointed out) there are already laws on the books covering the subject
at hand.

> Incidentally, the bill also makes it illegal to register a domain name
with
> false identity information.  IMO, that's a good thing.

It might make the fight against spam a little easier, but otherwise I'm
ambivalent about that part.

TTYL,

Phil




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