US ISPs become 'copyright cops' starting July 12

[Alan Cox]

On Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:14:39 -0500
Steve Berg <sberg at mississippi.com> wrote:

> On 03/17/2012 12:45 PM, Dave Ihnat wrote:
> > Well, playing_Advocatus Diaboli_, what if some moneyed software company
> > claims Open Source software being hosted for download is violating their
> > copyrights, and uses this excuse to shut down archives?
> Wouldn't that be similar to folks wanting to shut down Smith & Wesson 
> because a S&W gun was used in a crime?

Software is actually probably one its easiest to get right. There are not
too many ways they get adjusted and changed around that lead to fuzzy
matching.

The bigger problem is lack of licensing clarity. You might be living
dangerously by downloading the Nvidia driver if someone then does decide
to settle the module licensing issue. That kind of thing then impacting
end downloaders is dumb - just as visiting a news site that accidentally
includes a nicked photo (something news companies seem to be doing a lot)
should hardly reflect on an end user.

Alan