Re: Guerilla Internet Service Providers (fwd)

["Brian A. LaMacchia" <bal@martigny.ai.mit.edu>]

   Date: Mon, 01 Jan 1996 20:27:23 -0800
   From: Felix Lee <flee@teleport.com>
   Sender: owner-cypherpunks@toad.com
   Precedence: bulk

   compare with software piracy.  when was the last time a kid in your
   neighborhood was busted for unlicensed copying of software?  and
   software is big business, lots of suits and $$$.  

Look for this to change if the copyright "high-protectionists" succeed
in getting Congress to criminalize every act of copyright infringement,
which is what the Leahy-Feingold "Criminal Copyright Improvement Act of
1995" (S.1122) will do if it becomes law.  Under current copyright law
infringements that are not committed wilfully and "for purposes of
commercial advantage or private financial gain" are not criminal.  Such
non-profit/noncommercial infringements are still civil infringements,
and copyright holders may sue for actual and/or statutory damages, but
since the typical kid has net assets less than $39.95 it's not worth the
effort.  If S.1122 becomes law, though, the software companies (or other
copyright holders) will be able to get the Feds to prosecute such cases
criminally (so we, as taxpayers, get to foot the bill for those
prosecutions that are not monetarily attractive to the copyright
holders).

					--bal