[148671] in North American Network Operators' Group
"Illegal content" (Re: Megaupload.com seized)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Carsten Bormann)
Fri Jan 20 05:49:31 2012
From: Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org>
In-Reply-To: <201201201025.q0KAPdM5040190@mail.r-bonomi.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:48:36 +0100
To: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Jan 20, 2012, at 11:25, Robert Bonomi wrote:
> Public distribution without the permission of the copyright owner is
> illegal.
This is veering off the purpose of this list, but maybe it is =
operationally significant to be able to use the right terms when a law =
enforcement officer is standing in the door.
Mark Andrews was pointing out that content being file-shared is rarely =
illegal. By itself. Examples of "illegal content" might be hate =
speech, child pornography, l=E8se-majest=E9, blasphemy, with the meaning =
of these terms depending on your jurisdiction.
What you are pointing out is that distribution of content may be =
illegal. That does not make the content itself illegal. The legality =
of transfer under copyright is bound to many legal issues, such as fair =
use, right to personal copies, and of course licensing, again depending =
on your jurisdiction. But all this is divorced from the content. =
Content is never illegal with respect to copyright. (It might have been =
copied illegally, but once it's sitting somewhere, it's not illegal by =
itself. A license would suddenly make it legal.)
The point is important because a lot of idiots are running around =
shouting "he had all this copyrighted material on his computer!". Of =
course he had! There are very few computers that don't carry =
copyrighted material, starting from the BIOS. Without examining the =
legal context, such as purchasing histories, supreme court decisions =
etc., it is sometime really hard to say whether all of it got there in a =
legal way, and its presence may be an indication of previous illegal =
activity. But (at least wrt copyright law) it is never illegal while =
sitting somewhere on a computer.
So the next time somebody says "illegal content", think "hate speech" or =
"child pornography", "l=E8se-majest=E9" or "blasphemy", not copyrighted =
content. Almost everything on a computer is copyrighted.
Now let's return to the impact of this heist on network utilization...
Gr=FC=DFe, Carsten
