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What do they have in common? You guessed it! Illegal downloading of IP.
From The Register: RIAA orders US Navy to surrender. The Navy confiscated 100 computers alleged to contain illegal music from midshipmen, because the RIAA "reached out" with letters to 2,300 colleges and universities, including Annapolis, asking educators to assist in stopping piracy of copy protected materials. Punishment for the midshipmen could include "court martial to loss of leave and other restrictions."
Posted by Mary Hodder at November 24, 2002 07:37 PMThe RIAA demands a retraction from the Register with this letter about their Navy story.... "I am shocked by your factually inaccurate reporting." ~Amy Weiss, Senior VP, Communications, Recording Industry Association of America
Posted by: Mary Hodder on November 26, 2002 08:24 AMThe Register followed up with some "letters to the editor" too.
Posted by: Wah on November 26, 2002 10:29 AMWait a second; I'm unclear about something. If the midshipmen had stolen something else -- say, a computer from a computer store, or a crate of CDs from a music store -- wouldn't they face punishment? What makes this any different?
Posted by: Jason on November 26, 2002 02:44 PMJason, just the act of having an MP3 doesn't mean it is stolen. In a small tight community like that many could be traded, just like the CDs they came from, between everyone. If, somewhere on campus, one the cadets owns the CD that the MP3 comes from, no theft has taken place.
However, I don't think that's the case and I'm sure many of the MP3's were copiedwrongly straight from the Internet.
BTW, and just to keep the meme alive, theft of a physical object and "theft" (copying) of a digital object are hardly the same thing. When you take a CD off a store shelf it's not still on that store shelf. When you download a song from the Net, that song is still on the Net. I'm not sure how you folks call it on this site, but when drawing metaphors it's a good idea to keep that in mind.
Posted by: Wah on November 27, 2002 07:40 AMNavy knows what to do.
Posted by: Arber Sylejmani on May 2, 2003 03:02 PM