US ISPs become 'copyright cops' starting July 12

[夜神 岩男]

--- On Sun, 2012/3/18, 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?

Ridiculous, but... This is also an issue currently under review in various US courts, but not a popular enough subject to bring much public attention. The general consensus is that this is ridiculous, but some industrial harms claims and tort suits have set necessary precedents.

Review some of the legal discussions and decisions related to Ralph Nader's public campaigns against inflexible hood/bonnet adornments in the 70's and 80's (tip of the iceberg, but you have to begin somewhere).

Anyway, suffice to say that there *is* legal support for this argument, at least in precedent, whether or not it tramples the Constitution (which clearly doesn't matter these days anyway). That open source folk aren't paying attention to this idea is almost comical -- but perhaps is just a testament to the success of it. Open source has (so far) been so successful that those involved in it today largely aren't the same as the ones who remember the initial legal issues or what the idea was really about in the first place (or how scary the alternatives are).