---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 05:47:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu Subject: LaMacchia's Revenge, from The Netly News http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1107,00.html The Netly News Network June 25, 1997 LaMacchia's Revenge by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) David LaMacchia's pirate warez site once hummed quietly along on a DECstation 5000 just down the hall from the study lounge on the top floor of MIT's Stratton Student Center. LaMacchia claims its original purpose was to let visiting netizens exchange software. But soon -- either inevitably or intentionally, depending on whom you believe -- more and more copyrighted programs began to appear. This was enough to prompt the federal government to charge the MIT undergraduate in April 1994 with the crime of wire fraud. The indictment argued that his FTP-like site permitted "on an international scale, the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted software, without payment of software licensing fees." Yet a federal judge dismissed the case that December, ruling that while LaMacchia was wrong -- and could be sued in civil court -- the aspiring computer scientist was not guilty as charged. Judge Richard Stearns said, "It is not clear that making criminals of a large number of consumers of computer software is a result that even the software industry would consider desirable." Guess again. A group of software companies, including Microsoft and Adobe, yesterday requested new laws to eliminate what they termed the "LaMacchia decision" problem. When a warez site operates for free -- as most do -- companies currently must sue for damages in a civil court. In other words, giving that copy of Quake to your dad is not -- yet -- a federal felony. [...]