At 07:24 AM 11/1/2001 -0500, cubic-dog wrote: >Aside from Dimitry,
(who *hasn't* been successfully prosecuted yet, just arrested - that distinction may continue to be meaningful for another few weeks so I'm sentimental about it .. ) >Has any "person" been successfully prosecuted under >the DMCA? or under UCITA? or any other of these >anti-piracy laws in the US? I'm not sure what you mean when you put person in quotes like that. Yes, there have been some successful criminal cases against copyright infringers - the legislation of particular interest was called the "No Electronic Theft Act" (UCITA is mostly concerned with licensing details, not piracy per se). A self-congratulatory press release from the US DOJ after the first NETA prosecution in 1999 can be found at <http://www.cybercrime.gov/netconv.htm>; there have been other arrests, which, like most federal prosecutions (and, indeed, most prosecutions) were resolved with guilty pleas, not trials, so there weren't exciting Slashdot stories to read. >Operation Sundevil took place a relatively long >time ago. We all hear dire warnings relative to >software piracy and rumors of the Secret Service >showing up and shutting a company down for bootleg >M$ Office products and such things. But has anything >like this actually happened? Yes. See <http://www.techtv.com/news/hackingandsecurity/story/0,24195,3341992,00.html> <http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases/2000-02-08.196.phtml> for examples if you're talking about professional pirates - if what you mean is "Will I get arrested if I install the same copy of Microsoft Office on 3 or 4 computers?" the answer is "No", but if those 3 or 4 computers are at a workplace, and employees learn of the copying and are later laid off or fired or otherwise become disgruntled, there's a modest chance that they'll exact some revenge by reporting the company to the SPA/BSA, who send grouchy letters and threaten audits, and actually do them once in awhile, which tend to be embarassing and disruptive and expensive. -- Greg Broiles -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- PGP 0x26E4488c or 0x94245961 5000 dead in NYC? National tragedy. 1000 detained incommunicado without trial, expanded surveillance? National disgrace.
