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Originally posted by: bongloads
There is a number of ways to usurp the legalities in whichever country you reside
I don't think that's true. There's a lot of fancy-ass disclaimers that infringers put on stuff, but none of that crap can stop a copyright holder from suing your ass off. And winning. Fortunately (for the infringers) the infringement is often such small potatoes and the infringer relatively not made of money that it's not really worth the time and effort to sue them. But C&D letters do get sent by the truckload, and as the RIAA has proven, even small-time infringers might one day end up with the threat of legal action.
The reason duplication hardware is allowed is because any sane societal model needs to allow for the small-scale duplication of homemade stuff -- like multiple backups of corporate data, storage of photos you've taken, recordings of music you've played -- that sort of thing. This hardware is not being allowed simply to copy stuff other people hold copyrights on (although even that is supposedly legal under "fair use" provisions). But even old-style "fair use" is nebulous enough that you can be sued (and lose). In the US, even the concept of "fair use" itself is under some sort of question, with the recent Grokster suits. Under some of the more draconian legislation I've heard bandies about, even companies like Microsoft could be liable for infringement, for simply providing a piece of software (Windows) that can be used to enable infringement. Total bull, but that's what copyright holders are working towards.
Not to mention the fact that an anonymous post to newsgroups is completely untraceable to the originator, making you safer than an armoured car
There is a number of ways to usurp the legalities in whichever country you reside
I don't think that's true. There's a lot of fancy-ass disclaimers that infringers put on stuff, but none of that crap can stop a copyright holder from suing your ass off. And winning. Fortunately (for the infringers) the infringement is often such small potatoes and the infringer relatively not made of money that it's not really worth the time and effort to sue them. But C&D letters do get sent by the truckload, and as the RIAA has proven, even small-time infringers might one day end up with the threat of legal action.
hence they market duplication hardware in the first place.
The reason duplication hardware is allowed is because any sane societal model needs to allow for the small-scale duplication of homemade stuff -- like multiple backups of corporate data, storage of photos you've taken, recordings of music you've played -- that sort of thing. This hardware is not being allowed simply to copy stuff other people hold copyrights on (although even that is supposedly legal under "fair use" provisions). But even old-style "fair use" is nebulous enough that you can be sued (and lose). In the US, even the concept of "fair use" itself is under some sort of question, with the recent Grokster suits. Under some of the more draconian legislation I've heard bandies about, even companies like Microsoft could be liable for infringement, for simply providing a piece of software (Windows) that can be used to enable infringement. Total bull, but that's what copyright holders are working towards.
Not to mention the fact that an anonymous post to newsgroups is completely untraceable to the originator, making you safer than an armoured car
If you think anything you post to newsgroups can ever be done totally anonymously, then I believe you've got another think coming. With enough legal pressure applied, any ISP that wants to keep operating as a viable business will eventually cave and give up all the information needed to at least send a C&D letter.
I still maintain that the X0 Project should keep everything completely on the up-and-up. No need to tempt fate. Part of what I've enjoyed about the X0 Project so far is that the articles are so not capture-specific, or even hardware- or software-specific. You can make your own best cap (like I'm working on for myself), and use the ideas from the X0 site to improve your own work.
Hell, you could even take someone else's finished product and make it better on your own!
