[geeks] [rescue] BIOS update for Sun Fire v40z?

der Mouse mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG
Wed Aug 18 20:40:50 CDT 2010


[moved from rescue@ by listowner request]

>>>> [...using "steal" to refer to copyright infringement...]
>>> Since [...], you unintentional did exactly that.
>> Um, no.  Copyright violation is not theft.
> It depends upon where you are,

I don't know of any jurisdiction where what I said is not true.  Do you?

> In the US copyright violation is both a criminal and civil offense.

Indeed.  And neither one of them is theft.  Nor robbery, nor any other
offense for which "steal" is an appropriate verb.

> I am not familar with Canadian law, but what research a friend of
> mine did when someone stole his copyrighted work, the RCMP would have
> a very different opinion.

I doubt it.  The question-begging inherent in your use of "stole"
aside, I expect they know the difference between copyright infringement
and theft.  Canada, like most jurisdictions, has separate law for
copyright infringement and for theft.  If copyright infringement _were_
theft, there'd be no need for separate law.

Unless you mean that a physical artifact embodying a copyrighted work
was stolen (like, say, a painting), but that *is* theft and is *not*
copyright violation.

Make no mistake.  I do not mean to imply that copyright violation is
acceptable, or ignorable, or any such.  Simply that conflating (or,
worse, confusing) two very different distinct offenses (theft and
copyright violation) does not help anyone.  (Well, possibly excepting
those who profit from confusion, such as some branches of the legal
profession.)

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