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From: Kevin Gowen <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com>
Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan
Subject: Re: Scanlation
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 19:24:37 -0400
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Kevin Wayne Williams wrote:
 > Kevin Gowen wrote:
 >
 > > Eric Takabayashi wrote:
 > >
 > >
 > >>Kevin Gowen wrote:
 > > No, because treating file swapping as receiving stolen goods is a 
loser,
 > > since copyright infringement is not theft. Also, if I buy a 
CD/movie and
 > > then encode it and put it in my share directory, the people who 
download
 > > it are making a copy of a product that was legally purchased. For
 > > receiving stolen goods, first you need goods that have been stolen.
 > >
 > > The entertainment companies are being harsh to make examples of people.
 >
 > Which was the point I tripped over my own feet trying to make the last
 > time this topic came up. We don't treat most copyright infringement as a
 > criminal offense, which puts the entertainment industry in a really
 > nasty position. With shoplifting, the police at least pretend to care,
 > and will run the kid through the police station and try frighten him out
 > of repeating it. With major theft of physical goods, they will undertake
 > criminal prosecution, which makes winning the later civil case for
 > damages much easier. With file swapping, you get kids "infringing" a
 > half-million dollars in music, and nothing happening to them unless the
 > entertainment industry sues. With physical goods, little Johnny would be
 > on the rock-pile, and mom and dad would be locked up as accessories. We
 > have placed the burden of law-enforcement on private companies, who have
 > to finance the investigation and prosecution on their own behalf, and
 > then wonder why they act so ruthlessly. We haven't given them much of a
 > choice. The police aren't able to act, the criminal courts aren't able
 > to act, the legislatures won't pass corrective legislation to equate
 > copyright infringment with theft. Their only option is to press their
 > civil cases loud and hard, with as much publicity as possible and
 > seeking maximum damages.

Where do you get the idea that Mom and Dad are accessories when Johnny 
steals chattel?

- Kevin