Although the expressive aspect of the conduct alleged here – the posting of copyrighted movies to BitTorrent – is somewhat minimal, that does not mean that discovery to identify the anonymous user without adequate initial evidence that individual Doe Defendants committed the alleged infringement.
Methinks a verb went missing there, although from context it's pretty clear what they meant.
As opposed to crawling out from under a rock and posting on Techdirt? Your post shows how little you actually understand the legal reality of what happened...
BTW, the most important thing he did (which you missed --- perhaps because of a blind spot?) was probably this: he made a lot of friends (not necessarily close personal ones) and gained a lot of respect.
MPAA is a member of HypAA (Hypocritial Assoc of America)
What's even more disingenuous about the MPAA's brief is that it argues that deciding if material is infringing is "too much work" for rightsholders, while we all know that they have argued in other cases that deciding if material is infringing isn't "too much work" for others (e.g., Google).
I have the distinct impression that uninvited amicus briefs are hardly ever "impartial" in the colloquial sense of "disinterested" (I suppose Lord Justice Salmon meant the word in a different, legal sense, as in "not sharing a direct interest with either party of the case").
Er, Gina (if that is really you)... PACER seems to indicate that the MPAA filed for permission to file that amicus brief on 10-May-2013. So you seem to be getting ahead of yourself.
I'm waiting patiently to see that brief (and hopefully be the first one to upload it to RECAP).
The guy who supposedly proposed the "Don't be evil" motto was an engineer, who, in my opinion, meant it to include a good wallop of pragmatism and humor.
Calling it "Do no evil" totally misrepresents the elegance of the actual phrase...
> that would be stupid if it wasn't fruit of sheer corruption from the MAFIAA.
I think you meant to say "that is stupid because it is the fruit of sheer corruption from the MAFIAA". Just because we all understand why it's stupid, doesn't make it less stupid.
That's not what the dissent in Aereo says, Mike. Judge Chin said that Aereo was different than Cablevision such that Aereo couldn't seek safe harbor in the Cablevision decision.
Unfortunately true. Chin makes the probably correct point that Congress, in its lobby-blinded cluelessness, went out of its way to define "transmit" to "include all conceivable forms and combinations of wires and wireless communications media, including but by no means limited to radio and television broadcasting as we know them".
> The fact that that makes no sense should tell you that it's wrong.
I agree with you there, probably because the things that we are thinking are wrong are totally different. You didn't mean "copyright law", by any chance?
In the first-sale rights ruling, the judge ruled that it's perfectly OK to sell your digital download along with the storage media to which you originally saved. Unfortunately, it is trivial, when you decide to resell your content, to copy the file or files you want to sell to any sufficiently old flash drive or card, in such a way that the resulting media is indistinguishable from the result of having downloaded those files directly to the media.
Hey, suddenly all those old, relatively-tiny-capacity flash drives will become useful again!
> BUT must be done in a professional, methodical way
Unfortunately, just being accused of possessing child porn is more or less a social "game over". It's a shame that most people aren't technologically adept enough to understand that in this era of ubiquitous computing (and therefore, ubiquitous vulnerabilities), almost everyone could end up being (wrongly) accused. Personally, I'd back legislation that requires all investigations of such crimes to be "under seal", and which would severely limit the punishment for the crime if "somehow" this required secrecy was botched during the investigation (yes, I know that's not optimal, but I cannot think of any other way to motivate law enforcement properly).
The fact that fair use is only a defense, combined with the high cost of getting to (Federal) court, is already a bigger show-stopper in my eyes than the vagueness. Because of the high value of precedent in common law, I disagree that there's "virtually no way to know" the probability that the court system will rule for or against --- eventually (and here there is a second, totally independent way in which the high cost of getting a case to court puts a stumbling block in front of the blindfolded Justice) inspecting the consensus of rulings could give someone a good idea where he stands.
Unfortunately, the more innovative the artist, the less likely that would work... so you do seem to have a stronger point there than I originally thought.
The whole strength of the legal system is that judges are human and are largely free to use their, er, judgment to try to help the court system to, at least on average, dole out decisions which seem just.
That doesn't mean that other features of the system (e.g., the ridiculously high cost of even getting to court; laws being passed without the public's wellbeing in mind rather than that of lobbying special interest groups; ...) don't cause distortions and shouldn't be reformed. It just means that one of the things you criticize isn't, in the final analysis, all that bad.
I can just see this Purrington dude reading this article, seeing the section where the Wayback Machine stash of his old website is mentioned, and him getting so frothed up that he asks them to delete it immediately...
On the post: US Uses Special 301 To Bully Ukraine, Likely Violating WTO
Re:
Laws? Probably. Enforcement? Unlikely.
On the post: NZ Supreme Court Will Review Kim Dotcom's Extradition Case
Re: Too bad for Him
> Kim when it comes to facing the US courts.
Ah, so you admit that the US court system is so corrupt that the outcome is determined even before trial? How forthright of you!
On the post: Appeal Over Former RIAA Lobbyist Judge Allowing Prenda To Get Info On Over 1,000 John Does Moves Forward
Missing verb
On the post: Appeal Over Former RIAA Lobbyist Judge Allowing Prenda To Get Info On Over 1,000 John Does Moves Forward
Re:
In this particular case, neither is significant, given the circus surrounding Prenda, and the preponderance of decisions against joinder.
On the post: Aaron Swartz's Last Project: Open Source System To Securely & Anonymously Submit Documents To The Press
Re: Far easier ways...
On the post: Aaron Swartz's Last Project: Open Source System To Securely & Anonymously Submit Documents To The Press
Re:
BTW, the most important thing he did (which you missed --- perhaps because of a blind spot?) was probably this: he made a lot of friends (not necessarily close personal ones) and gained a lot of respect.
On the post: Aaron Swartz's Last Project: Open Source System To Securely & Anonymously Submit Documents To The Press
Re: Deadrop
Of course he thought it was real (as in, currently a legal reality), why do you think he was so careful not to infringe?
> and physical
Now you're letting your stupidity show.
On the post: MPAA Freaks Out: Insists That Having To Consider Fair Use Before Filing A DMCA Takedown Would Be Crazy
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Key Legal Fight Shaping Up Over The Legality Of DMCA Abuses
ooops
Its brief, as expected, is chock full of hypocrisy.
On the post: Key Legal Fight Shaping Up Over The Legality Of DMCA Abuses
MPAA is a member of HypAA (Hypocritial Assoc of America)
On the post: Key Legal Fight Shaping Up Over The Legality Of DMCA Abuses
"Impartially"?
On the post: Key Legal Fight Shaping Up Over The Legality Of DMCA Abuses
Re:
I'm waiting patiently to see that brief (and hopefully be the first one to upload it to RECAP).
On the post: Appeals Court In Google Book Scanning Case Clearly Leaning Towards Fair Use Ruling
"Don't be evil", not "Do no evil"
Calling it "Do no evil" totally misrepresents the elegance of the actual phrase...
On the post: How Key Decisions In Copyright Cases Can Impact The Pace Of Technological Innovation
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I think you meant to say "that is stupid because it is the fruit of sheer corruption from the MAFIAA". Just because we all understand why it's stupid, doesn't make it less stupid.
On the post: How Key Decisions In Copyright Cases Can Impact The Pace Of Technological Innovation
Re:
Unfortunately true. Chin makes the probably correct point that Congress, in its lobby-blinded cluelessness, went out of its way to define "transmit" to "include all conceivable forms and combinations of wires and wireless communications media, including but by no means limited to radio and television broadcasting as we know them".
> The fact that that makes no sense should tell you that it's wrong.
I agree with you there, probably because the things that we are thinking are wrong are totally different. You didn't mean "copyright law", by any chance?
On the post: Supreme Court Says Out Of State Residents Have No Constitutional Right To Virginia's FOIA Law
These kinds of judgments seem to be the new rage
This judgment reminds me of this other recent one. Both of them are trivial to tracelessly workaround.
In the first-sale rights ruling, the judge ruled that it's perfectly OK to sell your digital download along with the storage media to which you originally saved. Unfortunately, it is trivial, when you decide to resell your content, to copy the file or files you want to sell to any sufficiently old flash drive or card, in such a way that the resulting media is indistinguishable from the result of having downloaded those files directly to the media.
Hey, suddenly all those old, relatively-tiny-capacity flash drives will become useful again!
On the post: Judge Says Giving Up Your Password May Be A 5th Amendment Violation
Re: Re:
Unfortunately, just being accused of possessing child porn is more or less a social "game over". It's a shame that most people aren't technologically adept enough to understand that in this era of ubiquitous computing (and therefore, ubiquitous vulnerabilities), almost everyone could end up being (wrongly) accused. Personally, I'd back legislation that requires all investigations of such crimes to be "under seal", and which would severely limit the punishment for the crime if "somehow" this required secrecy was botched during the investigation (yes, I know that's not optimal, but I cannot think of any other way to motivate law enforcement properly).
On the post: Appeals Court Overturns Richard Prince Ruling In Victory For Fair Use & Appropriation Art
Re: Re: Feature, not bug
Unfortunately, the more innovative the artist, the less likely that would work... so you do seem to have a stronger point there than I originally thought.
On the post: Appeals Court Overturns Richard Prince Ruling In Victory For Fair Use & Appropriation Art
Feature, not bug
That doesn't mean that other features of the system (e.g., the ridiculously high cost of even getting to court; laws being passed without the public's wellbeing in mind rather than that of lobbying special interest groups; ...) don't cause distortions and shouldn't be reformed. It just means that one of the things you criticize isn't, in the final analysis, all that bad.
On the post: Organization That Plagiarized Guide On Making Science Posters Has Pricey Lawyer Threaten Original Creator With Copyright Claim
What? The Internet Archive copied my work?
Oops, there goes the best evidence he has...
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