Let’s say our friend from New York, Thomas, travels widely and frequently.

He now wants to take advantage of his travels to Spain to download music while there, after all, downloading is legal there, just like smoking havana cigars is.

But in what other countries can he download songs legally?

And is the possesion of the downloaded files legal upon entering the USA?

Will the state Department publish the guide? Or will the Copyright Office do it? Or will the Department of Justice do it? Or will they have an anti-turf war so as to avoid the responsibility? And what will congress do about it? Finally, will Bush threaten to invade the “criminal” countries such as Spain, for not jailing the Americans that go to Spain to bypass American laws?

Poor Thomas. He will probably be acused as a criminal by the cartel lawyers because no one would explain the rules to him.

My advise to Thomas: Stay in Spain.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com

I have made, on behalf of my wealthy benefactors, some very
large contributions to the justice minister and the culture minister.
We now have a clear understanding

A person does what a judge (presumably a lawyer too) thinks is legal and some heatless corporations want him in jail for what he did.

This simple situation raises many questions about music sharing. Some are….

1. Is a common person expected to find and read the copyright law and all related jurisprudence and interpret all that before copying anything on the web to his computer? Who is it that expets that?

Answer: Only a malevolent corporate profit hungry jerk would expect such a thing.

2. If a non common person, such as a copyright lawyer, reached the same conclusion as the judge, that not for profit sharing is legal, and then does some sharing, should he go to jail because he made the wrong interpretation of the law?

Answer: Only a malevolent corporate profit hungry jerkwould expect such a thing.

3. As to the argument, “ignorance of the law is no excuse” is it dead?

Answer: Answer: Only a malevolent corporate profit hungry jerk and some obsolete judges believe in such a backward concept. Laws are so confusing (a worldwide plague created on purpuse or because of legislator’s incopetence) that everyone is ignorant of the law, even lawyers and judges, the proof being this case, where the judge and the acusing lawyers disagree on what should be a simple question, is not for profit sharing legal?

4. The music (over 500 songs) of my family has been, in the USA, stolen (copyright registeerd and all) by major music publishers and recorded without authorization (meaning no licence and no payment of royalties) by major record companies (Sony alone 24 or more records) and no one has been sent to jail for one day. Why should a spaniard go to jail for two years for not for profit sharing songs? when large American and intenational corporations can get away with for-profit large scale copyright (real) theft? Is it not the USA the leader in pushing severe punishment ($150,000 per infringed song, say the lawbook)?

Answer: None of this makes any sense and we are being taken for suckers by the cartels and their copyright lawyers, who are not right about anything.

Does anyone want a two year sentence for savings web pages without the copyright holder’s authorization using the browser’s “file-save as” function?

Answer: I wouldlike to see a cartel copyright lawyer be consistent and say yes to this question. He will be the laughingstock and most sinister of lawyers. Well, actually they already are, except that the destruction of lives of sued, or worse, prosecuted (as in the current case in Spain) file sharers is no laughing matter.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com