td@alice.UUCP (Tom Duff) (06/21/84)
Requests to obtain pirated copies of copyright material are at best in poor taste, and at worst illegal. Be it known that Lucasfilm, Ltd., the copyright owner of ROJ and ESB (and my former employer) will vigourously prosecute ANYONE (not just the `big guys') who violates their copyright. Their lawyers are bigger than your lawyers, and they have nothing better to do with their time than protect the company's property. Furthermore, counselling or soliciting the commision of a crime is itself a crime. Such activity using as fragile a medium as USENET is a grievous breach of propriety. I take it as a personal insult, if not an injury. If you do it again, I will personally drive to Piscataway and kill your pet budgie. Also, USENET extends to the Lucasfilm Computer Division, and thence to the legal department. They ALREADY know that this request was posted. Respect for our intellectual property laws is part and parcel of respect for an individual's right to benefit from the fruit of his labors. That George's income is in the millions of dollars per annum does not diminish his right to one red cent of it, and it certainly increases his ability to defend himself. I am a champion of intellectual freedom and therefore a friend of the protection of intellectual property. It is a Libertarian maxim that `All property is theft.' The only case in which this fails is that of intellectual property. You own the things you devise, and no one (esp. P. M. Iurilli) has the right to deprive you of them. I have digressed. I intended only to say that I am offended and insulted by this solicitation to violate the intellectual property laws. I strongly reccomend that anyone considering such a conspiracy think twice, and I demand an apology for this offensive and insulting behavior.
smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin) (06/21/84)
Thank you Tom Duff. You said exactly what I was going to say, only better. --Steve Bellovin
wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (06/21/84)
This must be a joke. Who in their right mind would tempt fate so boldly? Advertising for pirate copies of unreleased movies? You gotta be kidding. It makes me nervous to think what could happen to the writer if Lucas and Co. see that bold article.