emphasis mine: shhhhh, that's the autralian equivalent of ssi except if you're an australian cat ;)

With the exchange rate going the way it is, any amount of cash in US$ or Euros is rapidly approaching the AUS$10k mark... :( ;)

So many of you drinking the MPAA kool-aid -- "unauthorised" ≠"illegal" -- I can make copies of a DVD that are "unauthorised" under the terms of the licence under which I have acquired a copy of that DVD from the producer, and by violating that licence, I may expose myself to the potential for civil penalties that may be imposed by a civil court which may under the law award damages. If the DVD producer/copyright holder wins a damage award in court as a result of my unauthorised copying, bailiffs may seize my property to settle that award. That does not mean I have committed a crime, it does not mean that law enforcement can act on the plaintiff's behalf or start checking at the airport, at a border or even in the context of serving a search warrant to see if I have violated a private contractual agreement with another party.

The "FBI warning" is smoke and mirrors on the part of the MPAA. Unauthorised copying is not a crime, and law enforcement has nothing to do with it, any more than you could get a cop to arrest your mechanic for not repairing your car the way he said he would.

I beg to differ . . .

From Title 7, Section 506 of the United States Code:

§ 506. Criminal offenses

(a) Criminal Infringement.—

(1) In general.— Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed—

(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;

(B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180–day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or

(C) by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.

And

what if you're flying out of the country and forget to declare
your USD$20,000 in pennies?

you're $crewed and will either have to forfeit your pennies or face arrest and/or fines as that is a violation. all currency (or currency equivalent [i.e drafts, cashier's checks, travelers' cheques and/or foreign currency in excess of $10,000 u.s.]) must be declared if you are entering or exiting the u.s. that is the law but the tsa "just doesn't quite get it"....

I think that you would have other issues before the declaration came into play as that would be over 10,000 pounds. :)

If you are differing with the previous post, the it said:

The copyright holder has the right to license a DVD anyway he wants. If his license says the licensee can make a billion copies, the copyright holder has no criminal recourse ... other than apparently hoping the TSA will find all the DVDs and have him arrested by the nearest LEO.

good guess....

irrc my central cash vault days.....

a std fed bag of pennies is $50 and weighs 35 pounds so....

50/35=20,000/x

50x=20,000x35

50x=700,000

x=700,000/50

x=14,000 pounds

but what's 4,000 pounds when the tsa has to haul it away.....;)

I just wanted to draw your attention to the following case I found recently, albeit half a year late:

United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee
v.
$124,570 U.S. Currency, Defendant
Appeal of Wayne G. Campbell, Claimant-appellant

http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-...3/1240/432416/

Seems like someone complained about the tactics used by the private secutiry firm FTS . . . and won the case. @:-)

And on the other hand - if he says the licensee can make no copies, but doesn't put copy-protection on the media, the person who bought the DVD can still legally back up his DVD for personal use, something that has existed since the Sony Betamax case, but became trickier since the DMCA disallowed circumventing copy protection.

Under U.S. law, pennies in numbers over 25 are not legal tender, so it could be argued that this is not cash or a cash equivalent.

That is completely false.

Canada has a similar law but the US has no such law. (or please cite the valid US law to educate us)
(The US doesn't have "pennies" either, it has one cent pieces-the penny is an old nickname that has stuck).

One can pay for their rent in one cent bags if they wish. It is up to the other party to accept any currency on their terms. For any US government debt they have to accept.

Any coin and currency the US has ever produced for circulation is still legal tender. The government will not trade silver or gold certificate anymore but they are still usable at face value. The US $100,000 bill, which was for Fed transfer is not legal tender outside the fed.; any 1974 aluminum one cent pieces, or 1964 peace dollars have been demonitzed but that is it (they were never introduced into circulation). the only other issue is the Trade dollar series which was made non-legal tender within the US at one time(late 1800s), which was then made legal tender again by the turn of the century.

Ciao,
FH

I thought gold coins were declared no longer legal tender in the 1930s. Was that ever revised?

yes it was. All gold was declared illegal to own back then, except for coins "of numismatic value" and certain jewelry items (it was more complicated than that but that is a dirty summary). By the early 70s all restrictions on gold ownership were dropped.

There was some issue with the 1933 Double Eagle $20 gold piece, which recently came to auction. The US seized the coin when it came to auction (it hard originally gone to Egypt as a gift to King Farouk)and a deal was worked out where this coin was declared legal tender for auction with the US gov't getting part of the proceeds, but the other 1933 $20 coins that escaped the mint illegally, are not legal tender. The 1933 $20 were never supposed to get into circulation (like the 64 peace dollars and 74 aluminum cents)

Ciao,
FH