LaMacchia's Revenge, from The Netly News (fwd)

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 05:47:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: LaMacchia's Revenge, from The Netly News



http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1107,00.html

The Netly News Network
June 25, 1997

LaMacchia's Revenge
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)

 David LaMacchia's pirate warez site once hummed
quietly along on a DECstation 5000 just down the hall
from the study lounge on the top floor of MIT's
Stratton Student Center. LaMacchia claims its original
purpose was to let visiting netizens exchange
software. But soon -- either inevitably or
intentionally, depending on whom you believe -- more
and more copyrighted programs began to appear.

  This was enough to prompt the federal government
to charge the MIT undergraduate in April 1994 with the
crime of wire fraud. The indictment argued that his
FTP-like site permitted "on an international scale,
the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted
software, without payment of software licensing fees."
Yet a federal judge dismissed the case that December,
ruling that while LaMacchia was wrong -- and could be
sued in civil court -- the aspiring computer scientist
was not guilty as charged. Judge Richard Stearns said,
"It is not clear that making criminals of a large
number of consumers of computer software is a result
that even the software industry would consider
desirable."

  Guess again. A group of software companies,
including Microsoft and Adobe, yesterday requested new
laws to eliminate what they termed the "LaMacchia
decision" problem. When a warez site operates for free
-- as most do -- companies currently must sue for
damages in a civil court. In other words, giving that
copy of Quake to your dad is not -- yet -- a federal
felony.

[...]