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garagerock
Premium
join:2002-06-14
Louisville, KY
| Re: Ignorance of the Law.... I'm fairly certain I understand. If ignorance of the law is no excuse for 85 year old grannies who end up getting arrested for being drug mules, why would it not apply to this issue as well?
I'm not saying the penalty is fair; in fact, it is ridiculous. It is a copy of a crappy movie, whoopee! | |
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Kaltes
Premium
join:2002-12-04
Los Angeles, CA
| Re: Ignorance of the Law.... No I'm fairly certain you DON'T understand, this isn't an ignorance of the law issue, is an ignorance of the fact that you ARE IN VIOLATION of the law.
Usually both issues are the same, because for sane, normal laws people are usually only ignorant that they are breaking a law because they are ignorant of the law itself. This is a different case, however.
If you knew anything about the law I could just tell you to look at the difference between factual impossibility and legal impossibility to understand the distinction that you have managed to confuse, but since you don't know the law I will try to dumb it down to an analogy:
It would be VERY EASY for a hacker-type to take a compromised computer, cause that computer to violate the law, then clean up after himself and call in an anonymous tip. Then Joe Blow ignorant AOL user has police bust down his door before he can so much as sign on and hear "you've got mail". Mr. Blow DIDN'T KNOW he was in violation of the law, even though (thanks to MPAA commercials or something) he knew about the law itself. This law is effectively forcing the unwashed computer-illiterate masses to secure their own computers and vigilantly police their computers OR FACE FEDERAL PRISON. Guess what: THEY AREN'T CAPABLE.
Would this scenario be likely? Probably not, but the POTENTIAL FOR ABUSE inherent in this law is significant enough that the whole thing should be scrapped.
Besides, screw hollywood, they havent even proven that these crappy pre-release crappy camcorder rips even harm their business, and they already have corrupt senators lining up to throw Americans into federal prison for it??? | |
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AthlGrond
Premium,MVM
join:2002-04-25
Aurora, CO
 ·Comcast
| Re: Ignorance of the Law.... said by Kaltes  :
No I'm fairly certain you DON'T understand, this isn't an ignorance of the law issue, is an ignorance of the fact that you ARE IN VIOLATION of the law.
I'm aware that you are not aware that he is aware that they aren't aware.
Glad I could help clear that up. | |
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TheHelpful1
Premium
join:2002-01-11
Upper Marlboro, MD | Just HAD to do that huh? | |
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TheHelpful1
Premium
join:2002-01-11
Upper Marlboro, MD
| This reminds me of a worm story i read elsewhere. Over in britain i think, this guy and his wife were sitting in another room when the child-daughter comes from the computer room saying theres something weird on the screen.
Father comes in and theres kiddie porn on the monitor. Long story short - wife blames husband, takes daughter away, calls police on husband. Turns out a worm put on his computer through outlook left a backdoor open and someone was using his HDD to store their stuff. In the court case, a thorough review of his PC showed he was telling the truth. But his wife still doesnt believe him and he has to fight to rebuild his life because of a computer worm.
This is good that he was exonorated, but it opens a bad door for real pedophreaks. Same with this law. Illegal to have the file/movie, but what if you didnt put it there or even knew it was on your pc?
Question 1 - how likely is it that the hacker will put the file in the same shared directory that you have for kazaa/etc?
Question 2 - if he put it in another, unshared p2p folder and the media companies still found it - arent they guilty of hacking your network and compromising your secure data?
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"Not that you would, but you could" | |
| str7
join:2003-07-04
canada
| The difference is that in this case you can be in the know in regards of the law while not doing a single thing to be in infraction of the law, yet BE in infraction of the law.
Just look at the latest wave of virus and it's not hard to see how computers can get compromised (because of Windows flaws).
This would affect anyone that runs a server. Heck, even a big game company (Valve) got hacked by a mischievous hacker.
If the Nasa can be hacked, so can anyone.
The problem here is that someone can be unaware that an infringing movie sits on his computer. Even if that person knows the law, that person can't act lawfully since they do not know that the file is on their computer.
It got nothing to do with not knowing the law. | |
| | Desdinova
join:2003-01-26
Gaithersburg, MD
| Re: Ignorance of the Law.... It seems to me that it might be interesting for someone to hide a film or two (maybe 1984 or Brazil) on Valenti's and Ashcroft's computers and then see how everything turns out.
Of course I also wonder if Arlen Spector ever got a speeding ticket and how THAT was handled, but I clearly have too much time on my hands. *grin* | |
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