U.S. Attorney Won't Appeal Computer Piracy Decision

United States Attorney Donald K. Stern announced last week that he will not appeal the decision by a federal judge to dismiss charges against an MIT student accused of running one of the biggest computer piracy schemes ever.

David M. LaMacchia, a 21-year-old senior at the Cambridge University, was charged last April with conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly running a computer bulletin board that allowed people to make free copies of more than $1 million worth of copyrighted computer software.

But District Judge Richard G. Stearns dismissed the charges on December 29, ruling that "what LaMacchia is alleged to have done is not criminal conduct under...the Copyright Act."

Stern announced that the Department of Justice would not appeal the case in a press release last Friday.

"Thankfully that marks the end of the federal action," a relieved LaMacchia said yesterday in an electronic mail message. "Now my family and I can get back to the process of rebuilding our lives."

LaMacchia, an electrical engineering and computer science major, operated an electronic bulletin board called Cynosure through his MIT computer, through which other computer users were able to make free copies of many commercial software programs.

LaMacchia was not accused of using the software himself or of profiting in any way from the trading, but prosecutors said his operation was one of the largest in a world-wide black market that trades billions of dollars worth of illegally copied software each year.

The MIT student said the charges were dismissed because Judge Stearns ruled that the Copyright Act did not apply to his case.

"There exist very precise laws specifying what is and is not criminal copyright infringement," LaMacchia said.

Although LaMacchia said he did not think laws would be written to criminalize what he did, he said he was concerned about the lack of liability laws for systems operators (SYSOPs).

"There are no laws currently delineating a SYSOP's liability for actions committed by third parties using the SYSOP's system," LaMacchia said.

LaMacchia was the SYSOP for Cynosure, and he contends that he should not be liable for other people's actions on his own system.

"We need to protect SYSOPs from excessively harsh liability for the actions of others," he said, echoing the concerns of a number of Harvard students.

Student computer users at Harvard have voiced similar worries that gray areas in the University's rules might lead to punishments of unknowing students who do something wrong.

Eugene E. Kim '96, the former president of the Harvard Computer Society, said he wonders what kind of liability a student faces for putting his computer on the network and unknowingly making software available to others to copy.

LaMacchia and Harvard computer users are both concerned that people might be wrongly held responsible for actions committed by others while on their computer systems.

The issue is significant, LaMacchia said, because "as the Internet continues to grow, more and more ordinary users are going to provide services for others and thus fall into the category of SYSOPs."