Aside from Dimitry, Has any "person" been successfully prosecuted under the DMCA? or under UCITA? or any other of these anti-piracy laws in the US? 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, I hear folks go on and on about Steve Jackson Games, but I haven't seen anyone really concern themselves too much about the millions of bootlegs of M$ and Adon'tBee products in use in corporate america. Where lies the truth? anyone?
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 -- gbroiles@parrhesia.com -- PGP 0x26E4488c or 0x94245961 5000 dead in NYC? National tragedy. 1000 detained incommunicado without trial, expanded surveillance? National disgrace.
participants (2)
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cubic-dog -
Greg Broiles