"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote in message
news:49ecaa1a$1@news.povray.org...
> somebody wrote:

> > First, kudos to the Swedish court for following
> > the spirit, and not the letter of the law:

> I think it's a slippery slope. I'd rather see the case fail (since they
> aren't distributing copyrighted information and the prosecution was lame)
> and have the legislature clarify the situation.

What more clarification is needed when their raison d'etre is openly and
publicly stated as to facilitate media and software piracy? They are called
"the PIRATE bay". Almost all their traffic is targeted towards piracy. What
clarification do you need?

Sometimes, the law needs to stop playing dumb and recognize that if it
smells like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, that it is indeed
a duck without needing gazillions of DNA analyses.

> As it stands, nobody can
> really be sure now whether it's safe to run a search engine without
> massively lawyering up first.

I don't buy slippery slope arguments like this. Which legitimate search
engine is being shut down by RIAA? It's a non-issue until it happens.

> People will bitch up a storm when the RIAA shuts down a Linux torrent
server
> because the RIAA didn't bother to check whether it was actually
distributing
> something copyrighted.

There are recourses for mistakes within the confines of legal system. If
RIAA does that, *THEN* they can be counter sued for damages. That's what the
courts are for. The possibility of mistakes is never an excuse for not
taking positive action. Or else, we would never give scalpels to doctors.
What if they don't bother to check if what they are severing is the aorta or
not? Sure, let's all sit on our hands because anything we can do can lead to
mistakes or abuses. Right.

> > I wish Canadians could have done the same with captured pirates:

> I'm not sure it's all as clear-cut as the media might imply:
> http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates/

Two wrongs do not make a right. And even if intentions are noble at the
beginning (doubtful), money corrupts. It's romanticly appealing to think the
pirates are acting on ideological grounds, but nobody extorting millions of
dollars will remain an idealist when they see the green.

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