Re: [freenet-chat] Legal Issues of Freenet for Law School paper

[Aaron P Ingebrigtsen]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1   Perhaps the good and bad of Copyright might be a good topic.  I mean, look at abandonware for instance.  It is illegal to provide someone with a piece of software that is no longer being copied, distributed, or sold in any way shape or form by the copyright owners.  So it was illegal for me to obtain a replacement copy of Cybercon III by U.S. Gold Ltd., to replace the totaly damaged and unrepairable copy I purchased years ago from some store somewhere.  And I tried and tried to find the company and couldn't.  As far as I know the company doesn't even exist anymore, and the copyright exists in some kind of limbo, or was transferred to some other company or individual or something.  I have no idea.  And even if I were able to get hold of the company, they most likely wouldn't be willing to sell me a new copy of the old game, and wouldn't even be willing to search for the data in their old data storage media.  In fact, most companies destroy data that old, and the media that they are stored on.  So please, someone, explain to me how I am hurting anyone anywhere in the entire freaking world by downloading an old game for a Freaking Atari wich can also be played on an old Tandi machine with a freaking 286 or 386 processor!   According to copyright law I commited a crime, either directly by downloading the data, or indirectly by accepting the file from someone else who commited a crime by makeing it available to me.  How is this so incredibly wrong that anyone should be punished?  Who is being hurt?  How is anyone being hurt?!  I tell you here and now that Copyright law does more harm than good, and efforts to enforce it threaten to totaly destroy all of the rights that our ancestors fought and died for.  How can anyone justify current Copyright law in any way?  To me, they can't.   How about the idea that privacy is not important, nor expected?  The idea that if you have something to hide from public knowledge, you MUST therefore be commiting some horrible crime.  I say that privacy is one of the fundamental rights that all human beings deserve to have if they choose to have it.  And I say that any efforts to invade one's privacy must be strictly controlled so that it can only occur if there is an extreme reason for suspicion.  This is called probable cause.   I'm not a law student, and I haven't completed very much education beyond High School.  At least, not officialy. :)   I may not know a whole lot about the law, or how it works, but I do know that people are being hurt every day by the laws and the justice systems of the US and it's states.  And I do know that I will do anything to help change that.   On Sat, 14 Apr 2001 19:00:49 -0500 "Chad Phillips" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Hi,   I am a third year law student and a computer programmer. I am doing an independant study over Intellectual Property.  I haven't picked a specific topic yet.  Does anyone have any ideas on topics for an Intellectual Property paper that would concern Freenet.  Some ideas I was tossing around are : legal liablity of node operators, who the RIAA might could sue (could they go after the programmers?) etc.   Any ideas would be appreciated.   thanks chad phillips   -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 7.0.3 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>   iQA/AwUBOtwEJib1Cbdz0HdeEQJH0ACeJshf7r73HexNwA6pDT0lLgLSMFoAoKer Cb+zHfcRFvPzsPLzaBBJk7Bz =9w6H -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----