Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing

[Jordan Wiens <numatrix () UFL EDU>]

H. Morrow Long wrote:
> I'm no lawyer either, but that has never stopped me from playing one...

Don't we all.  ;-)

> 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.

See the honeypot community discussions -- whatever that behavior would
be called, it wouldn't be called entrapment unless you're talking about
a law enforcement officer.  If I park my car out on the street, leave it
running, open the door, and hide behind bushes with a video camera and
someone steals my car, they can't claim entrapment because that only
applies to law enforcement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment
http://www.slate.com/id/1003657/

Notice they're all about law-enforcement.  Nothing about citizens
"enticing" folks.  Besides, I think you'd be hard pressed to claim
entrapment anyway in this situation even if law enforcement agencies
suddenly became so bored with real crimes that they decided to pursue
this.  You don't usually advertise what you're hosting on most p2p
networks -- someone has to actually search for whatever you're hosting
and then you serve it up.  Of course, this isn't quite true with most
BitTorrent trackers, so maybe in that environment you could make the case.

The (RIAA|MPAA) will tell you downloading copyrighted works is illegal,
just like they'll now tell you (after changing their minds by trying to
 re-interpret their own earlier Supreme Court testimony) that ripping
an unencrypted CD for your own personal use isn't legal.  Still, they
can claim it all they want, but I'm not sure they're brave enough to
actually try that one in court yet since it could easily go either way.

> 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.

Actually, no, that's not how they've been calculating damages.  As far
as I know, they have NEVER presented statistics of the actual amount of
folks who downloaded from the individual because in most cases of folks
they're suing, the numbers would be relatively small.  They always go
for the maximum amount based on what's technically possible (as the DMCA
allows them to do).

> 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).

Yup.  See the need for the so-called "Anti-DMCA" legislation that's been
kicking around for a while that would re-establish more firmly the
concept of personal fair use in relation to the anti-circumvention
aspects of the DMCA.

--
Jordan Wiens, CISSP
UF Network Security Engineer
(352)392-2061