Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing
From: Jordan Wiens <numatrix () UFL EDU>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 12:57:42 -0400
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
Current thread:
- New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Rodney Petersen (Aug 22)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Brad Judy (Aug 22)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Cal Frye (Aug 23)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Alan Amesbury (Aug 23)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Rizzo, James (Aug 23)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Chris Green (Aug 23)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Chris Green (Aug 23)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing H. Morrow Long (Aug 23)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Nate Johnson (Aug 25)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing George C. Russ (Aug 25)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Jordan Wiens (Aug 25)
- Re: New Video Educates Students on Illegal File Sharing Jordan Wiens (Aug 25)