Hey, you know that admitting to a crime on a forum can get you in trouble, right? You just confessed to stealing 500 songs. Just because you don't agree with a law does not make it optional for you.
Here's what the penalties for that are:
Do The Crime, Do The Time
If you do not have legal permission, and you go ahead and copy or distribute copyrighted music anyway, you can be prosecuted in criminal court and/or sued for damages in civil court.
- Criminal penalties for first-time offenders can be as high as five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
- Civil penalties can run into many thousands of dollars in damages and legal fees. The minimum penalty is $750 per song.
The "No Electronic Theft Law" (NET Act) is similar on copyright violations that involve digital recordings:
- Criminal penalties can run up to 5 years in prison and/or $250,000 in fines, even if you didn’t do it for monetary or financial or commercial gain.
- If you did expect something in return, even if it just involves swapping your files for someone else’s, as in MP3 trading, you can be sentenced to as much as 5 years in prison.
- Regardless of whether you expected to profit, you’re still liable in civil court for damages and lost profits of the copyright holder.
- Or the copyright holders can sue you for up to $150,000 in statutory damages for each of their copyrighted works that you illegally copy or distribute.
If you make digital copies of copyrighted music on your computer available to anyone through the Internet without the permission of the copyright holder, you’re stealing. And if you allow a P2P file-sharing network to use part of your computer’s hard drive to store copyrighted recordings that anyone can access and download, you’re on the wrong side of the law.
~~~~
So, even if you don't think stealing is morally and socially wrong... And even if you think that Exodus 20:15 is a fairy tale... what you are doing will land you big fines & jail time. Fact.
