Copyright Laws In UK Become More Stringent
from the copying-an-MP3-now-equivalent-of-conspiracy-to-defraud dept
It seems it's not just the US that is legislating at the whim of the entertainment industry with little thought towards the actual consequences of their actions. In the UK, a new law provides stiffer penalties for copyright violations, which can put you in jail for up to 10 years (it used to be 2). This now makes violating copyright laws the equivalent of "conspiracy to defraud". From the article here, however, the scarier part is that this new longer sentence will apply to anyone who makes an "unauthorized" decoder. In other words, say you can't watch legally purchased DVDs on a Linux box because no one happens to have an "authorized" decoder, and you write your own. No copyright violation has occured, but you're now looking at ten years in jail, it seems.
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