[148679] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: "Illegal content" (Re: Megaupload.com seized)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Marshall Eubanks)
Fri Jan 20 06:48:18 2012
In-Reply-To: <9DDC84D5-D802-431A-8267-5E8557EE41D7@tzi.org>
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:47:33 -0500
From: Marshall Eubanks <marshall.eubanks@gmail.com>
To: Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 5:48 AM, Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org> wrote:
> On Jan 20, 2012, at 11:25, Robert Bonomi wrote:
>
>> =A0Public distribution without the permission of the copyright owner is
>> =A0illegal.
>
> This is veering off the purpose of this list, but maybe it is operational=
ly significant to be able to use the right terms when a law enforcement off=
icer is standing in the door.
>
>
> Mark Andrews was pointing out that content being file-shared is rarely il=
legal. =A0By itself. =A0Examples 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.=
=A0That does not make the content itself illegal. =A0The legality of trans=
fer under copyright is bound to many legal issues, such as fair use, right =
to personal copies, and of course licensing, again depending on your jurisd=
iction. =A0But all this is divorced from the content. =A0Content is never i=
llegal with respect to copyright. =A0(It might have been copied illegally, =
but once it's sitting somewhere, it's not illegal by itself. =A0A license w=
ould suddenly make it legal.)
>
> The point is important because a lot of idiots are running around shoutin=
g "he had all this copyrighted material on his computer!". =A0Of course he =
had! =A0There are very few computers that don't carry copyrighted material,=
starting from the BIOS. =A0Without examining the legal context, such as pu=
rchasing histories, supreme court decisions etc., it is sometime really har=
d to say whether all of it got there in a legal way, and its presence may b=
e an indication of previous illegal activity. =A0But (at least wrt copyrigh=
t 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 con=
tent. =A0Almost everything on a computer is copyrighted.
>
There is a lot of disinformation in this area, with loaded words with
no legal meaning being used to make political points
or engender desired reactions. I am not a lawyer, and this is
certainly not legal advice, but in the US copyright infringement is
not theft, the shear possession of infringing material is not illegal,
nor is listening / watching / reading such material in private, and
the terms "piracy" and "intellectual property" are not to be found in
US copyright law. That you would not know this reading the press
releases is a feature, not a bug. And, since 1976, registration is not
required for copyright and almost everything written, sung, videoed,
etc., including these emails, is copyrighted from the time it is
created.
But, indeed, this is far the purpose of this mail list.
Regards
Marshall
>
> Now let's return to the impact of this heist on network utilization...
>
> Gr=FC=DFe, Carsten
>
>
