[Bradford] Fw: It Happened

[Nick Rhodes]

And don't forget the abuse of power that certain legal entities show.

I have personally received 3 legal threats, incorrect allegations of breach
of copyright for trying to resell retail boxed software :/

Cheers, Nick.


On 25 February 2015 at 10:00, Robert Burrell Donkin <
robertburrelldonkin at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 9:43 AM, Nick Rhodes <nick at ngrhodes.co.uk> wrote:
>
> <snip>
> lots of good stuff
> </snip>
>
> > In both UK and US as soon as money gets involved it becomes a more
> completed
> > situation (including profiting from add on tracker listing sites),
> > potentially criminal, but I've never been able to fathom the exact
> > legalities for UK or US in for-profit circumstances.
>
> Digital Britain was *really* close to being lost during wash-up (I
> think if a few more people with Labour MPs had contact them, Labour
> would have been forced to withdrawl it), and many of the technical
> criticisms we made over the drafting appear to have been taken into
> account by the civil service when drawing up regulations and by their
> glacial implementation of some provisions. In the country, it is often
> easier to force through poorly thought-through legislation than it is
> to get the enforcement to stick.
>
> I suspect that the current state of UK law is now deeply ambiguous at
> best. Given DB did not attempt to reconcile it's innovations with
> existing bodies of statues and case law, my best guess is that the Law
> Lords will one day need to clarify a lot stuff including the issues
> raised by Nick.
>
> So yes, the authorities much prefer to be able to use the clear,
> well-tested, predictable criminal law. Given current budget
> constraints at the Crown Prosecution service - and the wide
> confiscation powers enjoyed by the police - I would think very
> carefully before choosing using a criminal case to clarify the law.
>
> In theory, I could be banned for download software to which I own the
> copyright. In this case, I might consider contesting the case but I
> would first need to dispose of all my movable assets, quite my job and
> defend myself in person.
>
> Robert
>
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