"Attempted" Copyright Infringement may be illegal soon.

[Matthew Copple]

On 9/1/07, Leo Mauler <webgiant at yahoo.com> wrote:

> > Exporting pirated material would also become
> > a crime and the bill would grant the feds
> > wiretapping authority, which it currently
> > lacks. The "attempt" provision, stipulating
> > that mere intent constitutes a crime, means
> > that the law could conceivably be expanded
> > to interpret a computer full of music next
> > to a spindle of blank CDs as an act of
> > piracy.

If it can be conceived by the mind of a politically ambitious federal
attorney, it will be done. Already, criminal statutes designed to be
used to fight terrorism are now being used to pile charges on to
unrelated criminal cases.

Regretfully, we are approaching a point in our democracy where our
leaders tend to feel the best way to resolve any social problem is to
criminalize it. The rule is that if we can't medicate it, we should
jail it.


-- 
Matthew Copple
mcopple at gmail.com

"Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the
arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage
of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world
do not have."

-- President Ronald Reagan