Re: [dvd-discuss] Geeks in government: A good idea?

["Michael A Rolenz" <Michael.A.Rolenz(at)aero.org>]

I doubt that Ashcroft will understand this but those who swear out false 
criminal complaints should be (or used to be) subject to prosecution 
themselves. Adobe should be prosecuted




Kurt Hockenbury <khockenb@stevens-tech.edu>
Sent by: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
08/22/2002 07:17 AM
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        Subject:        Re: [dvd-discuss] Geeks in government: A good idea?


On Thu, 22 Aug 2002, Dean Sanchez wrote:

> Once people start getting prosecuted for swapping files, how many of the
> supposed 70 million p2p users will continue?  I seem to remember someone
> making the argument here that people didn't have anything to worry about
> because the IP industry couldn't go after every individual user.  They 
don't
> have to, they just get the government to do it for them.  They also have 
a
> way of sidestepping the public's backlash by saying "we didn't do 
anything,
> the Justice Department is just enforcing the law".

As I've said before, this is possibly the worst part of the DMCA.  By 
shifting
copyright infringement from civil to criminal, corporations force 
taxpayers to
pay for the prosecution, and as we've seen with Adobe, can even "recant"
after they've turned someone in, if there is a public-relations issue.