[148668] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Megaupload.com seized
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Bonomi)
Fri Jan 20 05:22:53 2012
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:25:39 -0600 (CST)
From: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com>
To: nanog@nanog.org
In-Reply-To: <20120120074202.35FB91BB355B@drugs.dv.isc.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
Mark Andrews <marka@isc.org> wrote:
>
> I suspect most file sharing site don't have illegal content. Most
> would have some content that is there without the permission of the
> copyright holder. These are different things.
<nitpick>
"Without the permission of the copyright holder" _is_ contrary to
statute, and thus 'against the law'. As such 'illegal' is _not_
an incorrect term to apply to the situation.
It may not be a _criminal_ violation, but it is still proscribed by law.
"Illegal" and "criminal" -- _these_ are different things.
Junk faxing is illegal, Telemarketing calls to cell phones are illegal,
Public distribution without the permission of the copyright owner is
illegal.
Except in special cases, none of those actions are _criminal_, but
they are all violations of law, and thus _illegal_.
Claiming that a thing is not 'illegal' if it is not 'criminal', is similar
to asserting "it's not a crime if you don't get caught".
</nitpick>
