Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Potentially as dangerous as patents
Author: Joshua Allen Posted: 8/16/2000; 2:28:21 PM Topic: Potentially as dangerous as patents Msg #: 19760 (In response to 19733) Prev/Next: 19759 / 19761
Wacky. Similarly wacky laws are already on the books. Federal statutes make it a felony to posess computer equipment which could be used in the commission of a crime. By a literal reading of that rule, owning a keyboard is a felony. There is nothing at all in the law that stipulates computer crime be the *primary* use of the device. We just trust the judges to apply the law only in cases where the device had computer crime as its only practical purpose (e.g. redboxes, etc.). Is napster "clearly" a tool primarily for piracy? If so, the law might stick despite its ability to be more broadly applied. Fining the VCs and programmers would be daft, though. IMO, there's alot more napster could do to make it much more difficult for prosecution to claim napster a tool used primarily for piracy, though.
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