> However looking over the penalties for copyright infringement
> (www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/) you might be better off being
> charged with theft.
Agreed--and there's a good reason for that. Laws against theft
were written a long time ago by people interested in simple justice.
While the first copyright law (in 1790) was similarly simple, all
modern copyright laws have been written by lobbyists for publishing
companies interested in protecting a lucrative market (and not
necessarily the artists that created it). Whether or not that is
"just" is arguable.
That's the same reason why, for example, speeding in Nevada wil get
you a small fine, but not having insurance will get you a HUGE
fine--insurance companies have a bigger lobby.
-- "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:16 MDT