Digital Copyright Penalties
I’m not sure if this is good, or not…
I tend to think it’s not good, but, then again, as someone who would like to make their living at producing copyrighted works, I like the protection it would give me. According to this article on Wired News, a pair of Democrats, Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), have introduced a bill that would land a person in prison for up to five years and impose a fine of up to $250,000 for uploading a single file to a peer-to-peer network.
At first look, this seems a little harsh, but that’s been the penalty for illegally copying software for a really long time. And, while it seems like a nasty penalty for something that so many people seem to be doing, violating copyright is illegal. I guess my problem with it is that there seems to be some issues involved here that haven’t been completely addressed. Things like, when I buy a CD, what do I really own? Is it the right to listen to the music? Or have I bought a license to the music, or the CD? Anyway, it’s a little bothersome, to me, that they don’t seem to have worked out all the details of what is really legal, but they’re already stumping for really big penalties.
This is one to watch, folks.
