----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Bonomi" <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com>
Mark Andrews <marka@isc.org> wrote:
I suspect most file sharing site don't have illegal content. Most would have some content that is there without the permission of the copyright holder. These are different things.
<nitpick> "Without the permission of the copyright holder" _is_ contrary to statute, and thus 'against the law'. As such 'illegal' is _not_ an incorrect term to apply to the situation.
It may not be a _criminal_ violation, but it is still proscribed by law.
"Illegal" and "criminal" -- _these_ are different things.
<nitpick level="2"> The *act of making the copy (available)* may be contrary to law (and whether the law should make this particular category of copyright infringement a criminal offense, rather than the civil one it's been for over a century is a completely different topic :-)... but whether the *contents of the file themselves* contravene some law is, I think, the issue that Mark was talking about, and clearly we all agree, a copy of Gigli, while a crime against nature, is not inherently criminal, in the way that a Traci Lords film is. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA http://photo.imageinc.us +1 727 647 1274