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Laws are only valid when enough people obey them. If millions of people disobey the law, then there is no chance the law can be enforced by normal means. That is law enforcement based on finding the violaters, charging them, and then convicting will not work.

The Internet is an international market place. A Russian, for example, could develop and sell the download software from Russian sites. If the Russian government was getting a cut, there is no way our courts and laws could shut the sale of the illegal software down. And if millions of people are using it there is no way the government can stop its use by normal law enforcement methods.

If millions of people are downloading one could not get a jury to convict. Local state and National governments that tried to enforce such a law would sooner find new leaders elected who would not enforce the law.

The only solution is some sort of electronic traffic cop on the Internet. A software cop housed at ISP locations that would be able recognize illegal transfers and stop them from being completed.

Government could force ISP's in the USA to install packet sniffing software that could catch illegal transfers and send them to that big bit bucket in the sky. That is the only workable way for government to prevent illegal transfers.

Anything short of that solution is doomed to failure.

"Government could force ISP's in the USA to install packet sniffing software that could catch illegal transfers and send them to that big bit bucket in the sky. That is the only workable way for government to prevent illegal transfers."

I think you are absolutely right.

What percentage of broadband accounts do you think would be cancelled if such a mandate were put in place?

A software cop housed at ISP locations that would be able recognize illegal transfers and stop them from being completed.

I don't think this could work. IMHO, there's nothing in MP3s, or other media files, that make them inherently illegal. For it to work, the software cop would have to know whether or not you already own the material that's being downloaded.

That wouldn't work either. File names change, file characteristics change. They might be able to have software determine it was a video file being sent but not WHAT the video is of. That would require reassembling all the packets and a human viewing the resulting video to determine if this file was illegally transfered. There are many more arguments that can be made after this is done as to the transfers legitimacy, but it isn't going to happen.

Fundamental changes would need to take place in the way networking actually works on the "Internet". Changes that would make it slower, less flexible, more restrictive. The changes needed would effectively destroy the "Internet".

The old media companies are screwed, and I couldn't be happier. I take great pleasure in watching the demise of the socialist department of PR.

That would be akin to illegal search and seizure. Invasion of privacy. It's the same as police setting up a roadblock and searching everyones trunk without just cause.