Pirating Windows will get you a life sentence

Found on The Inquirer on Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Browse Legal-Issues

Details of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, will criminalise "attempting" to infringe copyright.

It means that you can go to prison for one to 10 years for trying to copy a music CD and failing. In another move you could get life in prison for using a pirated copy of Windows on your home PC.

It will be possible for the FBI to get a wire tap to see if you are using pirated software. Anyone who uses counterfeit products who "recklessly causes or attempts to cause death" can be sent down for life.

Homeland Security will be allowed to use its terrorist search powers on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It would notify the RIAA when its sniffers detected "unauthorised fixations of the sounds, or sounds and images, of a live musical performance" are found.

Other copyright holders will not get the benefit of this service.

That's something you can really laugh about a lot; but only if you aren't in the US. Soon prisons will be flooded with teenagers who got a life sentence because they tries to copy the latest Spears album. The next move will probably demand even more, like the death penalty for sharing 5 or more MP3's.