An intresting question raised by an article on Yahoo, are you responsible for the illegal music that might be downloaded by your children? This question, and the answer is for now only valid for Americans as the RIAA is only sueing Americans at the moment. A lawfirm in Ohio gives the answer:
|  The law does not require parents to constantly watch their children's Internet activity. With respect to downloading, the deciding liability factor will be whether a child's behavior was sufficient to alert a reasonable parent that he or she was downloading music files illegally. Parents who are aware of MP3 files on their computers should find out if their children paid to download those files.
In addition to civil
liability, file-sharers may now face criminal misdemeanor or felony
convictions under the federal No Electronic Theft Act. The Act punishes
individuals who willfully copy, distribute and traffic in copyrighted
works on the Internet. The reproduction or distribution of 10 or more
copies of copyrighted works with a total retail value of at least $ 2,500
constitutes a felony, with a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment
and a fine of $ 250,000. The reproduction or distribution of one or more
copyrighted works with a total retail value of more than $ 1,000
constitutes a misdemeanor, with a one-year maximum sentence and a fine of
up to $ 100,000. |
In general the law firm advices parents to talk with their childeren to at least know what they are doing. We'd say that parents should always know what young childeren are doing, you don't want them to give out your creditcard numbers to strangers eh!
Source: Yahoo.com
