"ACCOPS" - post a newspaper column, go to jail?
The draconian copyright topic of the day is an absurdity called ``Author, Consumer, and Computer Owner Protection and Security (ACCOPS) Act. The key part is short and not-so-sweet:
Section 506(a) of title 17, United States Code, is amended-- ...
``For purposes of section 2319(b) of title 18, the placing of a copyrighted work, without the authorization of the copyright owner, on a computer network accessible to members of the public who are able to copy the work through such access shall be considered to be the distribution, during a 180-day period, of at least 10 copies of that work with a retail value of more than $2,500.''.
This is ludicrous. It has to be grandstanding like last year's proposed Hollings copy-control mandate.
Dereferencing the above, "section 2319(b) of title 18" is "Criminal infringement of a copyright". So the above paragraph then parses out to:
Section 506(a) of title 17, United States Code, is amended-- ...
``For purposes of [ Criminal infringement of a copyright ] the [unauthorized] placing of a copyrighted work, on a computer network accessible to members of the public who are able to copy the work through such access shall be considered to [worth up to five years in jail or excessive fines]
Post a newspaper column to your blog, go to jail?
By Seth Finkelstein | posted in copyblight | on July 17, 2003 08:24 PM (Infothought permalink) | Followups
