Comments on: Sometimes it is piracy

By: Daniel Cornwall

Daniel Cornwall — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 18:39:04 +0000

I’m on DOJ’s side too. Can anyone here think of ANY non-infringing reason to camcorder an entire movie and upload it to a P2P network? Not me.

I could see doing a camcorder to a DVD at home of a small portion of a movie to include as a clip in an Internet-based review or podcast. But no reason to copy the entire movie.

By: walt

walt — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 16:26:56 +0000

Agreed. On the other hand, my “balance point” says that camcording a current-release picture and uploading it to a P2P network is unethical as well as illegal whether done for $profit or other reasons.

Without the commercial motive–which makes it pure piracy in my book–maybe there needs to be a third term (somewhere between casual infringement and commercial piracy), but even without the commercial motive, I have no problem with the MPAA and law enforcement going after this class of behavior.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 02:38:42 +0000

I think the most relevant part of the article is this:

“Law enforcement officials say most participants in warez networks are generally not motivated by profit. In this instance, Salisbury sought payment for the movies he uploaded, the Justice Department said.”

ASSUMING THIST IS TRUE – always a caveat to be kept in mind – then this was clearly a commercial infringement.