

How many bytes of a file does it take for the copyright to be enforceable? - scrhoads

If people only served up a fraction of a copyrighted work(song/movie/picture), does the copyright apply?  I'm not condoning illegal file sharing, but curious where the laws breaks down with digital media.
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wmf
Classic must-read answer: <http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23>

My interpretation is that if it's possible for a user to download and
reassemble the entire file (e.g. as in BitTorrent) and those who are serving
the parts of the file know that, then the _intent_ to infringe is evident.

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scrhoads
I had some thoughts the other day about hosts each serving up a different yet
static set of bytes, but not having any knowledge what they were being used
for.

I quickly realised that whatever was mapping IP's to particular bytes was
going to be wildly inefficient when stored, and probably just as illegal (if
its illegal to distribute).

The focus of the idea was to keep the spirit of BitTorrent (at least what I
think the spirit is) while relieving the risk for those willing to share their
bandwidth and computer resources.

Excellent read; thanks for the article.

