Thursday, August 08, 2013

Manifestly unjust

One of the basic principles of justice is that you punish the person actually responsible for a crime. Collective punishment is immoral, as is scapegoating. Sadly, it seems the latter is now official policy when it comes to copyright infringements:
Releasing its 10th "Skynet" judgement, the Copyright Tribunal said "unfortunately the act makes it clear that the responsibility for illegal uploading or downloading lies with the account-holder".

"The fact that another person at the account holder's address may have been responsible does not, in the tribunal's view, in itself make it manifestly unjust to impose a penalty," the tribunal said.


Bullshit. It is manifestly unjust to punish one person for the actions of another. And if the Copyright Tribunal cannot see that, then it has given up any pretense of being a court of justice.