Law Not On P2P's Side

[MagicMorpheus]

DOJ vs. the American Public
On July 25, 2002, 19 lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft. The letter had asked that the Department of Justice to play a greater role in the enforcement of copyright laws in light of the recent surge in P2P networking. Initially, the DOJ kept a low profile on the issue, refraining from any type of comment.

At last, the DOJ has spoken, and it doesn't bode well for the P2P community. Speaking at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual technology and politics summit, John Malcolm, a deputy assistant attorney general, make it quite clear that the US government was not on the side of the file-sharing community.

From News.com: Malcolm said the Internet has become "the world's largest copy machine" and that criminal prosecutions of copyright offenders are now necessary to preserve the viability of America's content industries. "There does have to be some kind of a public message that stealing is stealing is stealing," said Malcolm, who oversees the arm of the Justice Department that prosecutes copyright and computer crime cases.

While this may sound like bad news, it's not critical as it may sound. If and when the department of justice does prosecute, they will be doing so under the guidelines of the NET Act. Under this law, it is a federal crime to share copies of copyrighted products such as software, movies or music with anyone, even friends or family members, if the value of the work exceeds $1,000. Violations are punishable by one year in prison, or if the value tops $2,500, "not more than five years" in prison.

In reality, few people share enough, or are dumb enough, to be prosecuted under this act. For example, lets say an individual shares 200 mp3's. In trying to calculate the value of this sum, lets assume that an average CD has 10 tracks on it. Therefore, 200 mp3's divided by 10 tracks equals 20 CD's. Now, even if every one of those CD's cost $18, the total value of all those shared mp3's would only approximate to be $360 (20 CD's multiplied by $18 ) - way below the $1,000 minimum required by the NET act. In addition, an individual would have to share over 40 DVD quality movies ($1000 minimum divided by the average DVD price of $22) in order to be prosecuted.

So does the average file-swapper have anything to worry about? Probably not. The RIAA/MPAA are more interested in making example out of those who share copious amount of files. If individuals keep their shared folders on the modest size, say anything below 500 mp3's, then you're in the clear. It's important to realize that the DOJ, if and when the prosecute, will be facing whirlwind of criticism from the public as well as the media. Much like the war on drugs, it is doubtful that the forces that be will successfully create and example out of a few individuals. Instead, it will only enrage and encourage others to participate, making any further efforts to crush P2P networking futile.

You can read more on this story here