Patriot Act Used to Enforce Copyright Law?
Found on Slashdot on Monday, 26 July 2004
The Stargate SG-1 Information Archive is reporting that the Feds filed charges against Adam McGaughey, creator of SG1Archive.com. The website is a fan site for the television show Stargate SG-1. The charges allege that Adam used the website to engage in Criminal Copyright Infringement and Trafficking in Counterfeit Services. Two interesting things about the charges are that they were apparently set in motion by a complaint by our friends at the MPAA and the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP. Is copyright infringment now a terrorist act?
The US Patriot Act is, like the Can Spam Act or Induce Act, an undelevoped quickshot. Can Spam never helped against spam (as predicted) and the Induce Act would cripple innovation. And the US Patriot Act is, like here, used to fight things it wasn't designed for. Witness politics at work.