I read only your comment and the first paragraph of the plot on Wikipedia, and I’m sold. It sounds like a more modern version of The Count of Monte Cristo – which I absolutely love as a novel – which then involves vampires somehow.
And I’m here for it. Added to my library reading list.
I think – but do correct me if I have this wrong – what you’re describing is a resort, which all the big casinos do have, hence “casino resort”. Resorts are truly astounding, how they basically operate their own in-house logistics. That some casinos expand to become a resort is not a coincidence, since it’s the lure that draws people, and then they stay for the food, the hotel, the shows, etc…
But there are also non-casino resorts, often located in otherwise undeveloped places that don’t have a nearby town to support all the visitors. And then at sea, there are floating resorts in the form of cruise ships, whose logistics are simply unfathomable to me.
Possession of content – with the unique exception of CSAM – in the USA does not draw a distinction between how it was acquired, whether or not it may have violated a license or copyright. The primary provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976 are to protect the production and distribution of copyrighted works. So unless your stash of content is being hosted on a server for others to access – which constitutes distribution, though one could possibly argue that if no one ever accessed it, it’s not distribution – then the mere possession does not incur criminal liability. Of course, civil liability may attach, meaning that the copyright holder could sue you for the cost of buying a legit license. Though there’s zero reason for the police to pass that info to whomever the copyright holder is. Whether police can gratuitously share investigation info with a third-party is a matter of state law.
But the other potential criminal charge could come from the infamous DMCA, whose provisions make it a crime to circumvent DRMs. Though this provision has an out, whereby certain circumvention is permitted as exceptions for designated purposes, created and renewed through a regulatory process. Outside these exceptions, the standard defense of fair-use for copyright infringement does not apply to a charge of DMCA circumvention. So if the police could put together evidence that your content stash is the product of circumvention, and other evidence shows that you used or have the tools/software to perform that circumvention, that’s technically a charge which could be leveled.
This would take a colossal amount of effort, for something which generally has to be brought by the (federal) US Attorney’s office, rather than a state-level District Attorney. So realistically, this would only really be considered if you somehow managed to annoy an FBI investigator enough. And even then, it’s quite petty to charge DMCA circumvention alone.
If your content was purely acquired through download-only means – as in, not BitTorrent – then I can’t think of what criminal charge could be raised. But IANAL.
100% agree on tossing it. The risk isn’t work it. I think the only thing I’d do differently is to stab that hole to make it larger, as a way of indicating to any would-be dumpster diver: “you really do not want this”.
I have a similar policy for CAT6 cables, where if I’m tossing it due to diagnosing that it’s dead, I’ll cut it in half. The next person who wants to revive it is now on-notice that it might have problems.
Same policy for faulty home appliances: the cord gets cut off.
I mean, amateur radio was illegal to encrypt
Was? I’m not familiar with a jurisdiction that presently allows licensed amateur radio operators to send encrypted or even obfuscated messages, with the unique exception of control-and-command instructions for amateur radio satellites. The whole exercise of ham radio is to openly communicate, with other frequencies and services available for encrypted comms and whatever else.
To be abundantly clear, I very much support encryption because it keeps good people honest and frustrates bad people. But it’s hard to see how, for ham radio, encryption could be reconciled with the open and inviting spirit that has steered the radio community for over a century. In a lot of ways, hams were doing FOSS well before the acronym came into existence.
I have great admiration for the radio operators, precisely because when all the major infrastructure falters, it takes only a battery and a wire up a tree to recover some semblance of connectivity.
(this is entirely tangential to the OP’s question, but I feel like hams deserve a good word every so often. Also, I understand that last weekend was ARRL Field Day in the USA)
If the goal is to convince other people to think you’re a bank robber, but without actually having to rob a bank, I think it could be done with much less effort and likely more effective. But this then gets into the ethical line between little white lies and outright deception or misinformation.
Because one way to achieve that goal is to doctor a bunch of evidence that would “incriminate” yourself, such as AI-generated video, then disseminate that to local reporter s, while also plastering it on social media using astroturf accounts, and might as well stuff a copy into a manila envelope and mail to the local District Attorney.
And all of that is probably legal in most jurisdictions in the USA, with the probable sole exception of intentionally wasting the prosecutor’s office’s effort, since they had not solicited such evidence. Compare this to “tip lines”, which expressly seek info and they are fully cognizant that not all the tips will be good.