[dan1son]

Um, that isn't what happens with Usenet. Usenet downloaders share nothing. Its not like a torrent. That is why torrenters have been targeted- the uploading of seeding, not the downloading. It has never been tested in court that downloading is illegal. Maybe a civil offense, but not illegal.

The downloaders share nothing, but they are willingly downloading content they know is copied or purchased by someone else, therefore not legally theirs.

You're saying a civil offence and legality are different? The only difference between civil law and criminal law is that with civil law you can't be imprisoned and it's between legal parties and not the government. It's still against the law, therefore illegal, unlawful, whatever you want to call it.

Technically speaking copying media isn't "theft" since it doesn't remove the property from the person you steal from, instead it's copyright violations (you're making a copy without permission from the copyright owner). I don't think there are criminal laws against copyright violations (unless you "willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain."), so you will likely see a civil case only (although people have been trying hard to make simple copies criminal as well).

Any form of sharing copyrighted material without approval from the copyright owner or by purchasing a license (that's all you do when you buy an album/movie/etc.) is illegal. It makes no difference if you give it or receive it.


I do agree that usenet is probably "safer" since it'd be hard to build enough of a case to warrant suing someone who just downloaded some stuff over someone who had "100 people download it" or whatever, but don't for a second think you're being legal.