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Comment by firefoxd | Hacker News Reader

This might be a naive question but, why is the FBI the office in charge of enforcing copyright? Especially when it comes to entertainment. Why do we get an FBI warning on a cartoon's dvd?

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The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

As such, state courts and police forces have no jurisdiction over copyright issues; they must be handled by the federal courts and police force (the FBI).

(Text from https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcri... )

Why didn't FBI get involved against Napster?

I assume it's because Napster was the first to really take file-sharing global and at such an accessible scale. And maybe the laws and enforcement procedures hadn't really caught up. But keep in mind, that Napsters defense was that they were just acting as an intermediary, they never actively distributed and held the content unlike our heroes at JetFlix.

Who else is going to do it? Your local municipal cops?

The person you’re “stealing” from?

You want to give them the power to subpoena, the power to issue search warrants, and while we're at it, the power of pit and gallows?

Or are you trying to make copyright of consumer media unenforcible?

This isn't Billy downloading a movie. (Which is not a criminal offense.) This is two chaps running what is essentially a counterfitting ring. This is a problem for police to solve, not a civil issue.

Did I say any of that? No. I said they should sue them themselves. Use the discovery process like anyone else can.

I believe it's because it's an inter-state crime. Once crimes cross state borders you have to get the federal level police involved, which is the FBI.

Ah Goodfellas :-)

Think of the FBI as the police for the federal government. Roughly, as soon as your typical crime goes across state lines, they can get involved (because a state's jurisdiction ends at their borders).

Incorrect. They are a federal investigative agency with arrest powers. They are NOT charged with standard policing type roles.

The US does not have a federal police force.

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