DMCA UCITA, where's the beef? (off topic)

[Greg Broiles]

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 at parrhesia.com -- PGP 0x26E4488c or 0x94245961
5000 dead in NYC? National tragedy.
1000 detained incommunicado without trial, expanded surveillance? National 
disgrace.