| > "I wonder if my recent email asking what the BBC thought of our
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file sharing might be connected with removals from Mediafire. I trust
not. But you never know! "
Are you serious?
You wrote to the copyright holder asking for their opinion of file sharing and blatant breach of the relevant laws, at best you are naive and worst stupid.
What do you think their answer might be? Honestly!
"Oh! that's OK please feel free to distribute our copyrighted programme content around the world breaking various local and international laws and those of the file sharing sites who's Terms and conditions clearly state that you are not allowed to host content for which you do not hold copyright for."
In case you think that Australian law excludes Just A Minute I suggest you read your local law on this matter: http://www.ag.gov.au/Copyright/Pages/default.aspx I'm sure you will be aware of the current AFL/Optus copyright case, so copyright theft is high profile and anyone that is indulging such acts will want to "keep quiet about it".
The issue you might
counter with is to suggest we are "time shifting" the broadcasts but this is not the case as we are sharing beyond the national/regional limits of the original broadcast and "media shifting" where the copyright material is transposed to MP3 format for onward transmission. Both points specifically forbidden under the T&Cs of the various sources from which "copies" are taken.
The BBC as the copyright holder will be tied to their contractual agreements with the programme performers who would (probably) otherwise receive payment from future sales of the programme content; which a court case would argue that we are depriving them of.
If this Yahoo Group disappears overnight - it's a fair bet that it will be as a result of a "cease and desist" notice to the cappers and this Yahoo Group owner, who probably do not wish the floodlight of litigation to focus on them because a fool waved a flag at the
BBC.
http://info.yahoo.com/copyright/us/details.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement
Read the two links above to understand exactly what you have put at risk not only to the group but the kind people that infringe copyright for your pleasure.
I take it back; you are not a
naive fool you are, with respect, a moron.