Prison for piracy - better than walking the plank?

TomDunne

I just came across this link originally via Slashdot:

http://news.com.com/Prison+terms+on+tap+for+prerelease+pirates/2100-1028_3-5677232.html?tag=st.prev

To quote the pertinent first two paragraphs:

"File-swappers who distribute a single copy of a prerelease movie on the Internet can be imprisoned for up to three years, under a bill that's slated to become the most dramatic expansion of online piracy penalties in years.

The bill, approved by Congress on Tuesday, is written so broadly it could make a federal felon of anyone who has even one copy of a film, software program or music file in a shared folder and should have known the copyrighted work had not been commercially released. Stiff fines of up to $250,000 can also be levied. Penalties would apply regardless of whether any downloading took place."

I'm personally a bit torn on this issue. On the one hand, as a creator of digital content, I know I wouldn't want anyone benefitting from my work without paying for it. That sucks, and I expect most/all of you who have published games agree. On the other hand, I have to wonder what punishment really fits this crime (we know the laws are being backed not by a desire for justice as much as big bucks from media lobbies, and that also chaps my ass a bit, too.) I don't download anything I can reasonably obtain through legitimate means, but I admit I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't pulled a copy of Max 1.2 off of Usenet back in 1997, either. It seems to me a fine line between wanting to protect a creator's rights (and wealth) but balance that with an idealisticly free distribution of information.

The warez argument has been had dozens of times, but I don't think I've seen anyone really debate what a proper penalty should be. Three years in federal prison... does anyone think that's just?

Ryno

Seeing as how I knew people get less time for armed robbery, it seems a little stiff.

But then again, with the way file swapping was going, if it had kept up, it would have probably put half of us out of work. Our career options and future lifestyle would be hugely impacted for the rest of our lives.

Punishment was due, but this may be a bit much, except for the most prolific swappers that do the bulk of warez trade.

ElysiumGX

The prisons are already packed with murders, rapists, and pedophiles. Now lets fill it with 14 yr old file-swappers. Sounds like a way to encourage our youth, doesn't it? How about they find a better way to prevent file-swapping, instead of imprisonment. Prison should be reserved for those who cannot function within our society without causing great harm. File-swapping is only hurting someone's wallet. Give them a couple months of community service, and put them on some sort of internet probation or something. Order them to work for a movie studio production team without pay for a year. That way the industry profits from their stupidity. They're trying to build a prison , for you and me to live in.

RageUnleashed

Why don't they just allow the internet in prison then? Because the vast majority of people on it have participated in piracy in one form or another at least once. As much as piracy is a bad thing, so is the commercialization and profiteering of these art forms.

For the longest time I vehemently argued with people about piracy, then I noticed several articles where big time artists stated they don't worry about piracy. The simple fact of the matter is piracy is for too widespread and well backed that it will never cease to exist no matter how strict the laws are. The funds needed to enforce such laws and put people in jail, as well as those who will be poor from paying the huge amounts of money, will not add up.

If they really wish to enforce such copyright laws, they need to stop harassing the average 13 year old with a few mp3s and such, and focus A LOT more on shutting down the distributors of such pirated goods.

gauss

Digital piracy hits people/corporations/etc. in the purse--you didn't pay for the album, game, movie that you're pirating. Yes, the whole pre-release business complicates thing, but I fail to see how stiff fines wouldn't be the best and most even-handed solution to this problem? Yes, threat of a prison term is good and scary, but as has been pointed out, we've got enough people in prison and the system is strained. We all pay to put and keep people in prison.

You take money away from others, you have to pay money? Is that just too obvious or what?

hawken

I only ever got videos from the 80's, tv that I can't see any more, albums that I had sold, and computer games that have a sellby date of 1992... from file sharing networks.

If they really want to stop piracy of films, they should stop showing them in asian countries.

Justin Meisse

Yarrrr, they can throw me in the brig but nobody's touchin' my booty!

Moz

well, the major problem with mp3 trading is that the music industry is putting out such complete garbage it's not worth buying things. File sharing isn't ruining the income, fucking horrible music is.

KDR_11k

[ QUOTE ]
If they really wish to enforce such copyright laws, they need to stop harassing the average 13 year old with a few mp3s and such, and focus A LOT more on shutting down the distributors of such pirated goods.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, what do you think this law is about? Distribution of unreleased movies!

RageUnleashed

[ QUOTE ]
Well, what do you think this law is about? Distribution of unreleased movies!

[/ QUOTE ]

Not just that...

[ QUOTE ]
The bill, approved by Congress on Tuesday, is written so broadly it could make a federal felon of anyone who has even one copy of a film, software program or music file in a shared folder and should have known the copyrighted work had not been commercially released. Stiff fines of up to $250,000 can also be levied. Penalties would apply regardless of whether any downloading took place."

[/ QUOTE ]

hawken

well they are set to make an awful lot of money and plunge 1/2 of america into debt then...

the music industry is making more money then ever, people are starting to see that mp3 isn't a legitimate arguement.

Weiser_Cain

What a shit law. No movie or anything that can be stored on a harddrive short of launch codes is worth ruining someone's life over. There is no way to apply this law fairly.

KDR_11k

Rage: If you put something into a shared folder chance is you're on a network where other people grab stuff from your shared folders. Unless they include the admin shares under Win2k it's not unreasonable to call sharing a file distribution. You can simply unshare the folder or something, if you insist on keeping it shared you ARE distributing.

Notice how computer related crimes tend to get punishments much harsher than reasonable? Hacking gets you 15 years (!) and 250k fine on a single count, a spammer got sentenced 9 years, now this... What are they trying, make the computer police state terrirtory before the acceptance is so great that civil liberties groups will actually care? So they grow up into a hostile environment and are used to being executed for pick-pocketing?

frosty

Somebody get a rope.

Soccerman18

I took a criminology class back in college, and one thing we talked about in crime prevention is the swiftness, certainty, and severety of punishment. If you knew that you were going to be caught and quickly punished severely, you probably would do it. But the problem is that it's hard to catch someone, and with the judicial system as it is, it takes a long time before someone gets convited and sentanced. So the only aspect that they have any control over is the severety, so they make punishment as severe as they can hoping to stop people, but in reality it doesn't work. It's the same with drug laws, unless people are really stupid about it, it's gonna be hard to catch someone, so they make the punishment very severe.

KDR_11k

Hehe, I love this headline...