downloading games is illegal? The copyright owner can elect to receive "statutory damages". The minimum amount of statutory damages that can be awarded for copyright infringement is $500; and the maximum is $20,000. If the infringement was willful, the potential statutory damage award is increased to $100,000 for each act of infringement. In addition, attorneys' fees may be awarded. In addition to civil penalties, copyright infringers can be prosecuted under the federal criminal laws. All willful copyright infringement is a criminal offense. The lowest penalty is conviction of a federal misdemeanor, with a prison sentence of up to one year for each act of infringement. now I dont speak legal jargin, but I believe this something is wrong here. If its illegal, then why is it perfectly legal to buy blank media, media writing devices, media writing software, and media copying software! Its like the "crack pipe program" here in Ottawa. Smoking crack is illegal, but the city HANDS OUT CRACK PIPES FOR FREE!! Can anyone figure this out?
hehe cool city... sorry i can't answer your question but in some countries it is legal to download a copy of a game and use it for your own purpose but it is illegal to distribute it and make money from it.
There are plenty of uses for blank media besides piracy. Backups being one of them. You can, as far as I know, have one backup of the majority of your software for example. Again burners etc. can be use for data purposes as well, such as file backups or transferring. Media copying software maybe used to create backups of a data backup etc. Also, some companies only have one "master" copy (i.e. pressed) and they distribute copies on CDs to there consumers or employees because they are cheaper to replace then pressed CDs are. Peace
It's like PopSmith said, there's other things to do with blank media. For example, once a year i catalog my digital photos onto a blank DVD, and archive them by year. I'll burn several home movies, family get togethers, kid's birthday party, etc. onto DVD. Data is data, and burning stuff onto cd's and dvd's is a great way to not take up mucho space on one's pc. Like anything else though, people can take it to far and cross the legal line with modern technology. Therefore, i don't think the crack pipe analogy really works.
