The Legal Janitor

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Archive for the ‘America’ Category

Penalties compared: Downloading vs shoplifting

with 10 comments

Found this interesting comparison about the difference in penalties between infringing copyright of a movie, and stealing the DVD of the movie in the USA.

Summary

Stealing Infringing
Absolute

Minimum
$0

no jail
$4,400
Absolute

Maximum
$100,000

1 year jail
$3,400,000

1 year jail

lawyer fees and costs
Real World

Example
Winona Ryder*:

$2,700 fine

$6,355 restitution

$1,000 court cost

3 years probation
An Average RIAA settlement**:

$14,875

from Off The Shelf — Penalties of Stealing vs. Infringing via Slashdot

How does our Singapoream jurisdiction compare with good ol America?
Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Han

February 11th, 2005 at 12:57 pm

Posted in America, Copyfight, Law

Reasonable Dog standard!

with one comment

Those who study the law will know what I’m talking about: the concept of the reasonable person.

Yeah, and fascinatingly, American judges have also ruminated upon the concept of the reasonable dog!!!

via OxBlog

PS: I highly recommend Professor Lawrence Solum’s Legal Theory Lexicon for any aspiring Law students, or currently suffering Law students as a primer for Legal Theory. Excellent stuff.

Written by Han

November 22nd, 2004 at 11:17 pm

Posted in America, Law

It takes a redneck cowboy…

with 2 comments

to promote a black woman to high office.

Yes, for all their talk about multiculturalism and diversity, when was the last time a Democratic President had done anything for the black community?

For 2 consecutive terms, George W. Bush has had black people in high office. First it was Colin Powell, now its Condi Rice. Now THAT is true diversity.

Update: Yes, I’m ready to admit when I’m wrong. But then, I’m not completely wrong either.

Written by Han

November 17th, 2004 at 7:51 pm

Posted in America, Politics

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Australia