‘Piracy worse than child pornography’
Society’s new perspectives
from The Inquirer
THE NEW look Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) seems to be giving the world an unusual moral code.
Details of the upgraded act, which has the blessing of the music and film industry and the Bush administration, are now coming to light. It appears that the DMCA will have a maximum sentence of ten years inside for the crime of software and music piracy. It will also give the FBI the powers to wiretap suspected pirates.
Although sentencing varies in the US, the new law does send a very strange message as to what the government considers ‘bad’ in the 21st century.
For example assaulting a police officer will get you five years, downloading child porn will get you seven years, assaulting without a weapon will get you ten years and aggravated assault six years.
So in other words if you copy a Disney CD and sell it you will be in the same league as a paedophile who is distributing pictures of sexual attacks on children.
If you copy Craig David’s CD you get ten years, but if you punch him in the face and pummel him into a seven day coma you will only get six. You are more likely to get the respect of the prison population with your six year sentence as well.