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Very interesting. j-whitt987 Send a noteboard - 19/01/2011 10:28:35 PM
There are certain "wrongful" acts that are crimes, i.e. if you do them the police can come after you and you can be prosecuted by the state. There are others which are torts, such as breaching a contract, trespassing on somebody's land, or causing somebody injury due to negligence (as opposed to on purpose or recklessly). Here, the state does not get involved except to provide a forum for resolving the dispute. You cannot be arrested or prosecuted for committing a tort, but the person harmed can take you to court, usually for an award of damages (i.e. monetary compensation) and/or an injunction (a court order not to do something). Tort is a private law area while crime is a public law area.

(Of course, many things are both crimes and torts, such as assault. If you do this you can be prosecuted and sued. But these will be separate cases, brought by different parties, and with different standards of proof.)

Copyright infringement is principally a tort, which means the production company can sue you for any loss they believe they have suffered as a result of your violations. There may be circumstances in which it is also a crime, but this is probably only the case (a) in a few countries, and (b) if you're making lots of money from it.

If you download the odd movie, the police will not come knocking on your door. A production company is also very unlikely to sue you unless you are a big-time distributor of files.

In the law I'm studying (Scots), pure information cannot be stolen, because the definition of theft involves (a) physical property, and (b) intentionally depriving the owner of its use. If you steal a DVD from a shop, you are taking something physical away from its owner, who then cannot use it. Neither of these is the case if you download a video file of the film. So the annoying adverts equating downloading with theft are simply wrong. I can't speak for other countries, but I bet that at least one of these requirements for theft applies pretty much everywhere, which would preclude unauthorised downloading from being theft.


I didn't even know that tort was a word. Now I can use it in my next game of Scrabble if I get those tiles. Thanks.
Kirk: Spock, you want to know something? Everybody’s human.
Spock: I find that remark…insulting.
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Why is downloading "illegally" really illegal? j-whitt987 - 19/01/2011 03:30:57 PM 1549 Views
Hmmm Dark Knight - 19/01/2011 05:00:16 PM 1202 Views
I think Camilla - 19/01/2011 05:11:56 PM 1116 Views
you can't legally record and distribute TV shows random thoughts - 19/01/2011 05:21:06 PM 1191 Views
Re: you can't legally record and distribute TV shows j-whitt987 - 19/01/2011 09:52:48 PM 1283 Views
Many shows (especially sports) forbid the duplication of said show in a statement or the credits. everynametaken - 20/01/2011 03:22:10 AM 1149 Views
I haven't been able to read the credits for TV shows in years. j-whitt987 - 20/01/2011 03:51:40 AM 1014 Views
Ignorance of the law is not a valid defence *NM* Stephen - 21/01/2011 01:21:25 PM 560 Views
How do you figure that? j-whitt987 - 21/01/2011 02:08:13 PM 1101 Views
Re: How do you figure that? Bergioyn - 21/01/2011 09:09:19 PM 1167 Views
Re: How do you figure that? j-whitt987 - 21/01/2011 09:19:46 PM 1030 Views
Re: How do you figure that? Brian - 22/01/2011 08:33:04 PM 1534 Views
What is an imaginary island? The_Muted_Grimaud - 23/01/2011 04:47:40 AM 1153 Views
In some places it's exactly that Brian - 23/01/2011 07:35:32 AM 1385 Views
A lot of it's volume. Palatine - 19/01/2011 05:32:03 PM 1084 Views
Your argument lacks merit. jh - 19/01/2011 05:50:11 PM 1093 Views
Agreed. Camilla - 19/01/2011 06:01:13 PM 970 Views
Both terms lack accuracy in this case really. Jacob - 19/01/2011 06:37:29 PM 1361 Views
That's what I mean right there. j-whitt987 - 19/01/2011 06:48:38 PM 1138 Views
The punishable crime is Jacob - 21/01/2011 01:57:54 PM 1298 Views
Re: Your argument lacks merit. Palatine - 20/01/2011 03:40:20 PM 1048 Views
In my opinion Bergioyn - 19/01/2011 09:22:29 PM 1091 Views
The battle is over, the internet won ironclad - 19/01/2011 10:12:50 PM 1074 Views
We need to distinguish between a crime and a tort. Tim - 19/01/2011 10:17:30 PM 1197 Views
Very interesting. j-whitt987 - 19/01/2011 10:28:35 PM 1232 Views
Another scrabble word for you is "delict". That's what we call tort in Scotland. Tim - 19/01/2011 10:37:08 PM 1138 Views
I saw. j-whitt987 - 19/01/2011 10:41:27 PM 1026 Views
It won't get you very many points. Rebekah - 19/01/2011 10:37:26 PM 989 Views
I would set me up for tortellini. j-whitt987 - 19/01/2011 10:40:45 PM 1011 Views
Also in most circumstances you could use "trot" instead. *NM* Tim - 19/01/2011 10:42:26 PM 626 Views
Very nice legal overview, also I like Scotland's approach a lot newyorkersedai - 19/01/2011 11:21:47 PM 1048 Views
The case that decided information can't be stolen dates from 1987. Tim - 20/01/2011 09:35:31 AM 1828 Views
Unfortunately, damages can result in thousands of dollars for one song soilent brad - 22/01/2011 08:19:40 PM 981 Views
Here's the US answer on the VCR thing, and how it relates to today's copyright problems newyorkersedai - 19/01/2011 11:35:31 PM 1155 Views
Re: Here's the US answer on the VCR thing, and how it relates to today's copyright problems *NM* newyorkersedai - 19/01/2011 11:37:56 PM 555 Views
Re: Here's the US answer on the VCR thing, and how it relates to today's copyright problems j-whitt987 - 20/01/2011 12:49:55 AM 1370 Views
I look at it both ways, like crossing the street newyorkersedai - 20/01/2011 05:37:30 AM 1215 Views
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