Court Determines That Downloading Porn Qualifies As Making Porn

Child pornography is obviously a subject that gets a strong negative reaction from most people -- as it should. However, it gets a little worrisome when that reaction clouds legal judgment. We've had stories in the past of child porn busts based on very bad info, and now Jim submits a story about an appeals court in Michigan that has decided that downloading and putting child porn on a CD is "making" it under the law. The guy in question clearly had child porn, and should be punished accordingly -- but the question is whether he should be charged with "possession" or "making" it. Obviously, making it gets you more stringent penalties. However, the court has decided that the guy who downloaded it and burned it to a CD has, under its understanding, "made" the pornography. The folks over at Slashdot have quite a discussion going on this as well. While this case is likely to go up to the state Supreme Court before it's finally decided, it raises some questions for other, non-child porn, content as well. For example, with just regular movies and music, it could change the type of punishment the entertainment industry could go after for anyone caught burning content to a CD or DVD -- or even just moving content to an iPod