[access-uk] download books legal issues
- From: "Derek Hornby" <derek.hornby_uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:28:24 +0100
Should you be downloading this book?.
By Jack Malvern
The Times 19 July 2007
Anyone who downloads a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
is breaking the law and may even be comitting a criminal offence,
lawyers said last night (Jack Malven writes).
Robin Fry, the head of intellectual property at Beachcroft, said that
people who use file-sharing software to download the book are also
unwittingly distributing it at the same time.
Peer-to-peer networks operate by obliging users to make available
parts of the file that they have already downloaded to others on the
network.
"Since the very act of downoading automatically means that the
version you obtain is then also exposed to the rest of the world
whilst your computer is running, any downloads could mean an
injunction or criminal proceedings, not just for the originator but
also each reader," he said.
"There's no doubt that given the fastidious requirements and huge
marketing spend of this launch that anyone breaching the embargo
-particularly via peer-to peer networks -can expect not just civil
proceedings but warrants being issued for search and arrest."
The maximum sentence for breaching the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act (1988) is two years imprisonment or a £5,000 fine.
John Cooper, a criminal barrister, said that downloading and
distributing the book was illegal, but in practice Bloomsbury, the
publisher, would be likely to pursue only big offenders.
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