FC: Weekly column: Be a P2P pirate, go to jail? Could happen soon...

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2010-1071-982121.html

   Perspective: The new jailbird jinglee
   By Declan McCullagh
   January 27, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

   WASHINGTON--If you've ever used a peer-to-peer network and swapped
   copyrighted files, chances are pretty good you're guilty of a federal
   felony.
   
   It doesn't matter if you've forsworn Napster, uninstalled Kazaa and
   now are eagerly padding the record industry's bottom line by snapping
   up $15.99 CDs by the cartload.
   
   Be warned--you're what prosecutors like to think of as an unindicted
   federal felon.
   
   I'm not joking. A obscure law called the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act
   that former U.S. President Bill Clinton signed in 1997 makes
   peer-to-peer (P2P) pirates liable for $250,000 in fines and subject to
   prison terms of up to three years. (You may want to read it, since
   you'll likely be hearing more about it soon.)
   
   That's a long time to spend cooling your heels in Club Fed.
   
   Yet something strange is going on here. So far the Justice Department
   has made precisely zero prosecutions of peer-to-peer users under the
   NET Act.

   [rest snipped, available at  http://news.com.com/2010-1071-982121.html ]



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