The details of the current case make it clear that this is in no way a “commercial-scale” operation—it was run by three people not for personal gain, but to serve the needs of fellow karaoke enthusiasts that were not being met by music publishers.
Well, clearly, if they were meeting these needs better than the commercial entities then of course it’s “commercial-scale”!
When everything you do is for money, you can’t imagine that other people would do anything without a similar profit motive.
Right… depriving commercial rightsholders of potential income. In US courts I’m pretty sure you have to show actual loss, not just hypothetical.
This bears repeating: You Are A Computer Criminal! (Yes, You!). I’ve actually got this cartoon stuck on my door, which, for all I know is also illegal.
“British Phonographic Industry’s (BPI)”
Any one else read that as “Pornographic”, or am I just damned to Hell?
As a hormonally-addled teenager, there were certain activities I did in the bathroom that would probably qualify as “commercial-scale.”
There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.
Robert A Heinlein, Life-Line (1939)
Thank [$DEITY] they stopped this evil organization! Think of the damage they could have caused!!
Wait.
They didn’t sell the files? They didn’t make any money off of it? They were just trying to help other karaoke fans? In that case and in the words of NWA!
FUCK THA POLICE!!
Well, they are obscene…
We all know about your MIDI fetish… We don’t need to know everything about your MIDI fetish!
I am seriously conflicted about this.
One one hand, as a right-thinking civil libertarian who thinks that IP laws are seriously broken and in need of an overhall, I am appalled.
On the other hand… karaoke.
Guilty of non corporate-intermediated culture!!!
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