Tennessee passes Web entertainment theft bill | Hacker News Reader

Tennessee passes Web entertainment theft bill

latimes.com

14 pointsjessedhillon9 comments

I do not think this is well explained. There is no point in going on about whether password sharing is a bad thing. That is is already very clear in the legal system. If it is a TOS violation, then a contract or license has been breached; that is officially "bad".

However, that kind of "bad" is normally a civil matter. This bill appears to be moving it into the criminal realm. Thus, the key paragraph in the article is this one:

> Under the measure, download services that believe they are getting ripped off can go to law enforcement authorities and press charges.

But I would change "they are getting ripped off" to the more factual "their terms of service are being violated" -- assuming that is what the bill actually says (which seems likely).

Thus, the real point here seems to be that -- as is becoming more common of late -- the police and the criminal courts are being pressed into service as an enforcement arm of the entertainment industry (and possibly other industries as well, depending on how broad the language of the bill is).

I think the "logic" goes something like this:

- Breaking TOS means you are taking something without the owners approval

- Taking something without the owners approval is theft

- Theft is a criminal offence

Note: I am not agreeing with the bill, far from it. Just that I can see how it is pretty simple to create an argument in this area that would probably sounds fairly reasonable to a lot of people.

I don't think there's any "logic" required. If we could argue that breaking TOS were already a criminal offense, then we wouldn't need the bill.

TL;DR -- first paragraph: "State lawmakers in the capital of country music have passed a groundbreaking measure that would make it a crime to use a friend's log-in — even with permission — to listen to songs or watch movies from services such as Netflix or Rhapsody."

This reminds me of the "right to read" short story by stallman. Who knew it would be so prescient!

"I don't know enough about that legislation, but if it's combating that issue, I would be in favor of it," Haslam (the governor) said.

When is someone going to enact a law that makes it illegal to vote on laws (or sign them in to power) when you don't understand the text of the law (or indeed, haven't even read the bill in question)?

>The bill, now awaiting the governor's signature, was pushed by recording industry officials to try to stop the loss of billions of dollars to illegal music sharing.

From using other people's login?? Yeah, right.

From the article: '"I don't know enough about that legislation, but if it's combating that issue, I would be in favor of it," [Governor Bill] Haslam said.'

Scary.

Next step: Make it illegal to share ebooks.

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