> On 14/01/2013 11:59 PM, Warp wrote:
>> They don't have to convince any judge or jury because the law says so.
>> It doesn't matter *how* you get the software, if you don't have a legal
>> license, you can't legally use it.
>
>> It doesn't matter what they think. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
>
> I am not a lawyer, however... I've seen plenty of systems which have
> written all over them "this is a secure system for use by authorised
> employees of [company X] only". Apparently this is legally required so
> that if somebody hacks in, they can't say "oh, I didn't know it was
> restricted".
>

No, it's not.  It's a fairy tale told to scare Pointy-haired-bosses. 
Even if your doormat says "Welcome", people who break into your house 
are still commiting a crime.

Likewise, leaving the door unlocked (or leaving the FTP site open) does 
not give people permission to steal your furniture (your 8 year old 
software).

Adobe has officially said that people were not allowed to download this, 
it was only offered as a service to legal owners of CS2 because their 
authentication server was no longer online.

This is exactly like my car dealer who offers free coffee and pastries 
while I get my car serviced.  It doesn't mean that all the neighborhood 
hobos are allowed to come in and eat for free.

[Cool Story Bro]
A long, long time ago, I was able to install a complete, working X 
Windows package for OS/2 Warp simply by downloading a cumulative patch 
for it.  It was only missing rsh.exe and rgb.txt.  The latter I was able 
to copy from a Solaris machine, and I had no use of the former.  This 
didn't mean my copy was legal.
[/Cool Story Bro]

> So yes, apparently ignorance /is/ a valid defence. At least under UK
> law; I imagine this varies wildly by country.

No, it's not.  Even if the law is in a filing cabinet in an unused 
lavatory in an unlit basement, with no stairs and a sign on the door 
that says "beware the leopard!"

>
> (Next fun question: What law does the Internet operate under?)

Usually, the law of the country/state/province/country/city where the 
company is located.  Sometimes, also the laws of the 
country/state/province/county/city where the servers are located.  Or 
even the laws of the country/state/province/county/city where the end 
users are located (e.g. Even though Amazon is a US company, they can't 
sell Nazi memorabilia in Germany).  It really depends on how the law is 
written.

The fun part is when laws of two jurisdictions actually contradict one 
another.
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