Thread: Internet "cut off" date set for illegal downloaders
View Single Post
Old 28-10-2009, 23:25   #26
webcrawler2050
Inactive
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Swindon
Services: TiVo 110MB BB Phone Line
Posts: 3,087
webcrawler2050 has reached the bronze age
webcrawler2050 has reached the bronze agewebcrawler2050 has reached the bronze agewebcrawler2050 has reached the bronze agewebcrawler2050 has reached the bronze agewebcrawler2050 has reached the bronze agewebcrawler2050 has reached the bronze agewebcrawler2050 has reached the bronze age
Send a message via MSN to webcrawler2050
Re: Internet "cut off" date set for illegal downloaders
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDon View Post
It might be an American term, but the same principle exists in UK law. You cannot simply draw a straight line from "downloads from newsgroups" to "downloads copyright material", no reasonable person would say a crime was being commited just because someone was downloading from newsgroups.

Then there's the point that search warrants are only obtainable for criminal copyright infringement, that being making copies in the course of a business, or mass distribution, neither of which are applicable for people downloading from newsgroups. An end user downloading a copy is a civil case, and without reasonable proof of you infringing on a specific copyright work a civil case isn't going to get off the ground.

I'm also not aware of any newsgroup provider that explicitly advertises the fact that binary newsgroups carry copyright material. In fact I can guarantee they don't as then they'd lose their safe harbour provisions.
The problem is, Torrents are used for alot of Linux Distros and RPM's aswell. So how do they get around that?
webcrawler2050 is offline   Reply With Quote