OT?: Legal question about p2p

[der.hans]

Am 31. May, 2005 schw=E4tzte Erik Bixby so:

> "Don't trade files you don't have permission to copy."
>
> Who said anything about trading files I don't have permission to copy?
>
> I strongly resent the insinuation that I trade illegal files.  I am
> just someone who is sick to death of reading the stories about the
> RIAA suing little, old ladies.

To be honest, you're the one who made the insinuation :). You could have
mentioned that you think it's bad that people need personal legal defense
funds just in case the RIAA and friends decide to sue them. You could have
mentioned that this is especially worrisome because people who haven't
done anything wrong are being attacked with the legal system and the RIAA
and friends have no evidence of wrongdoing.

Without those qualifiers it looked like you were trying to figure out how
to get away with something. Or at least taking that into account when
designing the system.

That said, there are definitely reasons for needing anonymous publishing
systems like freenet in this country. Ask the guy who almost got sued by a
Scottsdale-based business for pointing out that hitting shift circumvented
their 'security'.

Alan's admonition, while apparently misdirected, is still valid. We should
discourager rather than encourage illegal copying of copyrighted material.
A good way of doing that is by encouraging artists who play fair.

Magnatune looks interesting. We need plugins to it from our music players
:).

> At any rate, does anybody have a useful answer to my question?

I hope my other email was more directly useful :).

ciao,

der.hans
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