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No Electronic Theft Act Is A Partial Success

By Eric Goldman and Julia Alpert Gladstone
August 22, 2003

In 1997, the No Electronic Theft Act radically changed the underpinnings of criminal copyright infringement. Before the act, criminal copyright infringement targeted infringers making profits. The act focuses instead on copyright owners' losses, treating criminal copyright infringement as a type of theft ' like shoplifting.

Prior to the act, criminal copyright infringement required willful infringements committed for commercial advantage or private financial gain. In 1993, David LaMacchia, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, operated a bulletin board system that allowed users to upload and download infringing software applications and videogames.

LaMacchia operated the bulletin board system for fun, without any profit motive. Because of that, prosecutors couldn't charge him with criminal copyright infringement. Instead, prosecutors charged LaMacchia with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In Dowling v. United States, 473 U.S. 207 (1985), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that intangible intellectual property couldn't be taken by fraud. The court then dismissed the indictment. U.S. v. LaMacchia, 871 F. Supp. 535 (D. Mass. 1994).

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