The Truth Laid Bear: Violating Federal Law for Fun and … well, for Fun.
article from Newsforge (found via Metafilter) points out a little fact that everybody should have noticed earlier (including me): that anyone who ran the story about how to defeat Sony’s CD copy protection may be in violation of the dreaded Digital Millennium Copyright Act (cue ominous organ music).
But wait! Looks like TTLB may get off the hook, ’cause Newsforge is kind enough to include the following text of the bill:
“Any person who violates section 1201 or 1202 willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain … shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, for the first offense …”
Aha! I can safely say that their ain’t no “commercial advantage” or “financial gain” going down here at TTLB. I’m still waiting for Mickey to give me a ride on the Boeing, let alone raking in any of the mega-shekels Andy might be seeing.
But I’ll keep you posted — I may just have to throw up one of those Amazon donation widgets for my legal defense fund…