jackofallgeeks | Proposed Crime of the Century: Attempted Copyright Infringement

This frightens me.

In short, there's a bill in congress trying to make it into law which would not only increase the penalties for copyright infringement to property seizure and lifetime imprisonment, but also make attempted copyright infringement a federal offense.

So, why does that frighten me? If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear, right? I don't buy it, not generally and certainly not here. Does anyone know what constitutes copyright infringement any more? It's non-intuitive. What's the line between infringement and fair use? What about the 235-odd patents that Microsoft claims open source software violates? What about the claim that posting a hex number violates the DMCA?

It really boils down to the simple fact that regular people will not know if they've committed a crime. It's non-intuitive. And that frightens me.

(And the whole thing with patents and copyrights angers me. What purpose does it serve? Who does it protect? Musicians don't see any benefit when a company makes claims on copyright. A friend of mine has received three or four patents for work she did in software algorithms, and all she got was a pat on the back from the company. And now you're going to make it a federal offense? Pardon me if I sound cynical, but this isn't a law to protect the citizenry, it's meant to appease the corporations and that disgusts me. Make a claim about protecting the economy, go ahead; I dispute that even several million dollars' loss isn't meaningful to multi-billion dollar corporations.)