Have a pre-release movie on your computer?

[SNGX1275]

Appears now legislators are trying to send you to jail for 3 years.

A copy of the bill seen by CNET News.com, marked "Discussion Draft," represents one of the fiercest attacks yet on peer-to-peer networks from copyright holders' allies on Capitol Hill.

The threat of a three-year prison term kicks in when anyone makes an illicit copy of a movie "available on a computer network accessible to members of the public," when the film "was intended for commercial distribution but had not been so distributed at the time."

Source: CNET News
While I agree that its wrong to have pre-releases if you aren't an Academy Award Judge, I think going to jail for 3 years is a bit harsh.
Take the money it costs taxpayers to lock someone up for 3 years and use that money to go to the source of the problem, the people doing the leaking of prereleases. There are much fewer of them than there are of people that can obtain access to it once iits leaked.

 

[vassil3427]

Good point SNGX

 

[Phantasm66]

Although I CAN see this law being passed, I CAN'T see many people being jailed for it.

Some people, however, will be. Its impossible to prosecute everyone but some people will be caught and jailed as a warning to others.

I know someone who stabbed someone else with a meat cleaver, and he was only sent to jail for 18 months, and got out after 9 for good behaviour. Are we to send file swapper to jail for 4 times as long? Surely not.

 

[Hodsocks]

Well they do say the law is an ***, and this sort of thing just proves it.
The whole business of sentencing needs a major overhaul, but will it happen?......I doubt it.

 

[vassil3427]

Hey our Goverment and law may not be perfect by any stretch of the imagination...but it is far better than any other country in the world...

 

[somekid007]

Originally posted by vassil3427
Hey our Goverment and law may not be perfect by any stretch of the imagination...but it is far better than any other country in the world...

<ahem>... canada? its not even a misdemeanor here to carry 30 grams of weed <g>

 

[Rick]

Originally posted by vassil3427
Hey our Goverment and law may not be perfect by any stretch of the imagination...but it is far better than any other country in the world...

You have a lot of brass to say that...

The best law is no law. If we could take care of ourselves without having to be punished, things would go a lot smoother.

I don't think anything in the galaxy can work like that though.

 

[Overmind1984]

Not that I agree with Vassil, but anarchism is definitely not the way to go. Anarchy is as impossible as a Utopia. When faced with any society, man’s most basic want is power. From this want of power, men will strive to be a leader of many. The only way to lead is by the use of laws and rules.

Anyways, say we did live in an anarchistic society; this topic would be trivial as computers would most likely never be invented.

 

[XtR-X]

Rick you sound like Thoreau