Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing

["H. Morrow Long" <morrow.long () YALE EDU>]

I'm no lawyer either, but that has never stopped me from playing one...

1.      Generally DMCA complaints cite IP #s which are distributing
material on the
        Internet, naming the copyright titles of works & ask for the
material's distribution
        to cease.  As Alan said, complaints under DMCA are generally made
against
        illegal distribution (e.g. by someone without the permission of the
rights holder).

        It would also be much more technically difficult to go after
downloaders than
        distributers (you can just search for distributers on most P2P
filesharing nets)
        and the most efficient and effective method would involve entrapment
(set up
        your own P2P node/hub serving real copyright titles -- you couldn't
serve fake
        'honeyd' titles to trap downloaders as it would not be illegal to
possess titles
        which did not have real content).  Or you'd have to have access to
sniff network
        traffic or interject and spoof remote P2P network nodes/hubs/
directory-servers.

2.      When individuals have been sued for copyright infringement the amount
        they've  usually been sued for is calculated based on the # of
infringements
        (others who have downloaded from the individual (or John Doe at IP
#) being
        sued under copyright law.  Such penalty amounts can add  up quickly
depending
        on the # of copies downloaded and the individual(s) does/do not have
to profit
        from the distribution.

3.      There has been quite a lot of debate surrounding the making of
personal copies
        of commercial DVDs (both the legality and morality) -- primarily
settling on the
        question of whether or not it is "fair use" under the Copyright Act,
ripping DVDs
        you own would or could appear to be illegal under many
interpretations of the
        Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 as it "prohibits the
        circumvention of technical measures used to protect copyrighted
works against theft"
        (as most methods of copying also use software which reverse-
engineers or
         breaks the lock on the DVD standard CSS encryption used for DRM -
digital rights
        management -- rather than performing a strictly bit-by-bit copy of
the original DVD).

- H. Morrow Long, CISSP, CISM, CEH
  University Information Security Officer
  Director -- Information Security Office
  Yale University, ITS



On Aug 23, 2006, at 9:46 PM, Chris Green wrote:

> On 8/23/06 5:45 PM, "Alan Amesbury" <amesbury () OITSEC UMN EDU> wrote:
> > that *downloading* copyrighted material without the copyright
> > holder's
> > consent may be *legal*.
>
> I ain't a lawyer either ;)
>
> People make copies, not computers.   If you download something, one
> could
> view it as you are instructing the copy to be made.  Do people that
> get
> busted for making copies end up paying fees on the copies others
> got from
> them or from the ones in their possession?  I believe it's usually the
> latter.
> --
> Chris Green
> UAB Data Security, 5-0842