Kevin Wayne Williams wrote:
> necoandjeff wrote:
>
>> Paul Blay wrote:
>>
>>> "necoandjeff" <spam@schrepfer.com> wrote ...
>>>
>>>> Bittorrent is not a hassle at all and it's completely free. And it
>>>> is lightning fast, particularly if you are downloading a popular
>>>> file (like a TV show shortly after it has been aired.) Within 5 to
>>>> 6 hours after a show has aired it can be found on any bittorrent
>>>> search service. An hour show (generally 350MB) can be downloaded in
>>>> a little more than half an hour usually.
>>>
>>> Aren't you supposed to say "or so I have heard." or something at the
>>> end there?
>>
>>
>> If I were still in the U.S., I might have.
> And that would matter because?
> KWW

1. By downloading a television show that was broadcast over the free airways
in the U.S. and viewing it in my home, it is far from clear that I'm
violating any copyright laws. It isn't terribly different from the "time
shifting" that is achieved by Tivo or any VCR that has been in use for the
last 20-30 years. It's quite different, however, from downloading movies or
CDs that one would normally have to pay for, which I do not do. I could just
as easily be arrested for all the videotapes of various television shows
that I made while living in the U.S. and brought with me to Japan, or if I
enlisted my parents to videotape shows and mail them to me here in Japan as
an alternative.

2. Even if the MPAA (or whoever the organization is that represents TV
studios) did want to test the law out on some poor unsuspecting downloader,
there are thousands of people to choose from in the U.S. who are quite
easily reachable by the jurisdiction of federal couts. No need for them to
go to all the trouble to enlist the aid of the Japanese authorities, have me
arrested and extradited back to the U.S., particularly for a legal theory
that hasn't even been thoroughly tested yet. Bittorrent has begun to attract
the ire of copyrightholders but the only people who are upset that I know of
are movie studios, music companies and software makers.

Jeff