Ignorance is not an excuse to commit crimes.
Who said anything about the act of committing a crime? I simply said that a person cannot call him/herself guilty if they don't know they are in fact guilty. What do you think the word awareness means? My entire point was that people need to be aware of such crimes. So if you commit a crime that no one witnessed and you are not "aware" of it being a crime, how can you have the "
perspective" that it was a crime? You cannot.
Here is an example to put this in to focus.
It is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket in Kentucky. -- This is actually a true law. States need to make some quota of laws and they apparently had nothing else better to add. Do you think many Kentuckians know that? Who care if they do, it’s stupid... Not that it's really possible and I'm sure no cop would care, or be "aware" of this crime themselves. It’s still illegal per the written law.
So back to my point and back on topic. A very large amount of people that come to this page have no idea that downloading a rom is illegal...
If you download a game you have committed a crime, yes.
committing a crime does not make you guilty by law, at least here in the US you have the right to court.
You may feel guilty if you are "aware" it was a crime but that does not make you guilty by law.
If you are not aware of this being a crime, there is no guilt. Just hope you don’t find out the hard way...
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For all whom may want to know. Remember CD,Roms,Movies, its all the same thing. Copyrighted material.
Downloading Without Paying: Why is it illegal?
When a movie or song is produced and marketed, everyone involved in the process has monetary gains from the sale of that product. Therefore, that product is protected by copyright law so that it cannot be copied, reproduced or resold without their permission. If you did not pay for a song, movie or other media file that has a copyright, then downloading that file is a crime. Likewise, distributing a copyrighted media file, whether via electronic or non-electronic methods, without the express permission of the copyright holder is also illegal.
Just to add perspective here. If you see a game on a web page, there is no crime until you duplicate it. The game by itself is still one copy. When you hit the download button you just made another copy of it. This is why its illegal. Its not that you now own it, because if downloading deleted the server copy you would be fine. Just like you can give your friend a CD. One copy, one purchase...
You can read more here
http://www.webster.edu/technology/service-desk/illegal-downloading.html