Dear karthic-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
I am legally, personally and professionally prohibited from discussing
any potential loopholes or “work-arounds” for you to consider with
regard to this issue, so I can only address your question from the
hypothetical, “what if”, standpoint.
To begin with, if you are a US citizen, living in the US, and you
conspire to commit any crime while on US soil, you can be prosecuted
by the US regardless of where the actual crime took place, even if the
offense is not illegal in the jurisdiction where is was committed. For
example, let’s say you are sitting in your living room and you
suddenly get the brilliant idea to start a factory in Zimbabwe that
will produce, market and distribute music CD’s in direct violation of
US copyright laws. Even though the government of Zimbabwe may not
recognize those US laws and consider your “business” legitimate, you
can still be prosecuted in the US. Why? Because the conspiracy to
commit the crime was hatched by you, a US citizen, in your US living
room and the illegal proceeds (which incidentally also opens the door
to tax evasion, wire fraud, money laundering and prosecution under the
RICO Act) we’re received by a US citizen. This alone establishes
ownership, or at the very least, control and/or involvement. If
convicted for software piracy alone you would face up to 5 years in
prison, up to $250,000 in fines, or both. In a civil action you could
be held liable for infringement damages up to $150,000 for EACH
OFFENSE!
Now all this may sound a bit overboard to you, and in fact you may
even assert that you were not providing warez, cracks, codes or keys
to anyone for illegal purposes. Your argument may be that you just
wanted to catalog these things for posterity sake; for people to come
and visit. You’re simply creating a collection of historical examples
for visitors (man of them US citizens themselves) to examine as if
they were coming to some sort of cyber museum. The real question here
is whether or not a jury would buy that excuse, and my guess is this
would be a very short trial. After a few years in Federal prison and a
several thousand (if not hundred thousand) dollar fine (not to mention
the never ending civil actions that could be brought against you by
the program manufacturers and the seizure of your property and assets
by the government) I think you’d agree that it probably wasn’t the
wisest decision to make. Even if it did prove to be wildly profitable
– which, by the way, it isn’t.
Is there a law that says you can’t do this even if you are not
physically doing it in the US? You bet there is! Is there a law that
says I can’t make these cracks, codes, serials and keys available to
others with the expressed statement that they are for entertainment or
examination purposes only, and that they cannot use them to break the
law? You’d better believe it! Is there a law that says I cannot
possess or distribute unauthorized codes to other people’s
intellectual property? Yep…it’s called the “Digital Millennium
Copyright Act” (which not only covers musical recordings but all types
of digital media and other electronic intellectual property) and it’s
a whopping 59 pages long! What this Act doesn’t address, provided that
it’s even possible for a law that huge to miss anything, the "Digital
Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2002" covers.
You would be well advised to read the articles below…take your time
and really "think" about what you are reading vs. what you are asking.
If these guys even remotely suspected that they were going to be
arrested, do you really think they would have committed all these
crimes? Certainly not. Like you, possibly, they thought "they" were
just a bunch of little fish in a big ocean too – just a handful of the
many diligent, hardworking, low profile people who were only “bending”
the law a little bit - you know - just to make ends meet. After all,
it isn’t as if they were actually STEALING from people or anything, is
it…or isn’t it?
Hmm-Good question! Let’s read the articles and see what the FBI and
the NHCTU thought, shall we:
“FBI CRACKS DOWN ON GLOBAL PIRACY RINGS”
“POLICE ARREST SIX in GLOBAL CYBERPIRACY PROBE”
http://cryptome.org/fbi121101.htm
(In these two examples you will note that these articles refer to
people who are creating and distributing “warez”, however, in the
legal world, this term encompasses all means technological copyright
infringement such as codes, cracks, serials, and keys.)
These are not isolated incidents either. See “Intellectual Property
Documents”
http://www.cybercrime.gov/ipdocs.htm.
As you can clearly see, legal sensitivity to this issue is increasing
dramatically and blind tolerance is on its way out. The far-reaching
arm of the FBI, and the Department of Justice (in particular, the
DOJ’s new Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS)
especially in light of recent events, is a great deal longer than it
once was. Countries who do not share our legal position on such
issues, and who once harbored those who conspired to commit US crimes
abroad, are now quite willing to deliver you to the authorities on
demand in order to give the world the impression that they too are
civilized, law abiding societies. Here you can see an expansive list
of countries that will enforce US laws on their soil at the request of
the United States http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38a.pdf.
(Incidentally, Zimbabwe also happens to be one of them). In Britain,
it is even more serious an issue. That government has now established
the “National Hi-Tech Crime Unit” (NHCTU) that is not above conducting
raids in foreign countries. Australia, Canada, Finland and Norway just
to name a recent few.
Britain’s noble attempt to protect people’s intellectual property is
huge but pales in comparison to the grand scale of that of the WORLDS
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION based in Switzerland
http://www.wipo.org/index.html.en, which boasts an annual budget of
500 million dollars, an international membership of 179 governments
http://www.wipo.org/members/members/index.html, an 859 man full-time
staff in 86 countries, and recognizes 23 individual international
treaties http://www.wipo.org/treaties/sitemap/a-z.html. This
organization would truly prove to be an unavoidable beast for even the
most experienced and best-organized criminal to hide from or to
contend with.
After considering all this, the idea now seems rather trivial and
fleeting doesn’t it? It should. The truth of the matter is that anyone
who allows or provides a means for others to steal (and that, after
all, is basically what copyright infringement is) can also be
prosecuted as a thief. NO matter how many people you employ, hire, or
use as go-betweens, it will all boil down to who is running the show.
Rarely does anyone in the chain of events receive a more severe
punishment than the leader and mastermind of a criminal enterprise.
Remember, law enforcement agencies have established a long reputation
of allowing the rest of “the snake” go free in order to kill its
“head”. In addition, you never know which seemingly trustworthy people
in your ranks would readily “walk and talk” if given the proper
incentive. As the authorities allow everyone in your organization to
walk away from you with a mere slap on the wrist, you can bet that
they’ll also be pointing at you. The idea behind allowing a hundred to
go free in order to capture the leader is that if you kill “the head”,
the rest of the “snake” will automatically die. Besides, it’s a risky
proposition to deal with people you don’t really know. You’d be asking
yourself every day, who among you really isn’t what he or she seems?
How do I know that I am not being set up? Have I covered all my bases
and all my tracks? This would be a pretty stressful life to live in
exchange for the small rewards you’d get from it and extraordinary
risk you’d be taking.
How do I know all this for certain? Because I’ve been in law
enforcement myself for the past 22 years now – or haven’t you already
guessed that by now? See what I mean? Ya’ just never know…
…Do you?
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
* INFORMATION SOURCES *
FBI CRACKS DOWN ON GLOBAL PIRACY RINGS
http://cryptome.org/fbi121101.htm
“DOJ Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS)”
“Intellectual Property Documents”
http://www.cybercrime.gov/ipdocs.htm
“Digital Millennium Copyright Act”
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=105_cong_bills&docid=f:h2281enr.txt.pdf
“Digital Millennium Copyright Act”
http://www.educause.edu/issues/dmca.html
“Digital Millennium Copyright Act” - Status and Analysis
http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/dmca.html
"Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2002"
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_bills&docid=f:h5522ih.txt.pdf
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38a.pdf
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT BASICS
http://www.law.duke.edu/copyright/face/inatl/index.htm
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl100.html
BUSINESS SOFTWARE ALLIANCE
“Software Piracy and the Law”
http://www.bsa.org/usa/antipiracy/law/Piracy_Law03.pdf
* SEARCH STRATEGY *
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
Prosecuted cracks overseas "web site"
Copyright infringement “intellectual property”
Copyright infringement laws
“Intellectual property” laws
International law Copyright infringement
“Intellectual property” International law
“Digital Millennium Copyright Act”
"Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2002" |
