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Re: Argh

Hmm. Interesting. None of the copyright-absolutists seem to have
any argument with what I said; they only seem to want to argue
with the copyright-pragmatists.

Ruby, technically, copyright law is criminal law; violations are
classed as thefts, and can be prosecuted in criminal court. This
can mean fines and/or even imprisonment. Again, though, the task
is to find a prosecutor willing to expend the effort to try the
case if the victim is not pressing charges. It's even worse when
the victim cannot even be located. You'd probably have to push
the landmark aspect of it in order to stir interest -- appealing
it all the way to the Supreme Court, getting one's name in the
paper or at least the legal journals....

Personally, I think that five years is a bit too short; what
would you say to eight years from publication or ten years from
creation, whichever is shorter?

The absolutists are right, we *shouldn't* pick and choose which
laws we're going to obey; however, we all do. In point of fact,
there are laws on the books in some places against such things
as wearing a red dress. And yes, that law is from right here in
the USA, not a Moslem-dominated nation. Now, it doesn't hurt me
to obey that law; I rarely wear dresses, and I don't look very
good in red. But I also think it would be ridiculous to
prosecute a violator of that law.

Some might say that I'm splitting hairs -- that wearing a red
dress is not the same sort of offense as a copyright violation.
You're right. A copyright violation may well be an offense that
merits prosecution, based on the harm it causes to the copyright
holder. But it's difficult to say that a violation is harmful
when the party to whom the harm is caused doesn't care, and even
more difficult when the harmed party can't even be positively
identified. That's why it is necessary under many criminal laws
to have charges brought, before a violation can be prosecuted.
It doesn't mean that no crime has been committed; it means that
without an aggrieved party, it is difficult to realize any
benefit from the prosecution.


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