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You wouldn't be fined. You'd be arrested and charged criminally, and likely spend the rest of your life in jail. The public does not understand and would happily hang you for being one of those evil hackers. The person who tells them you belong there would be a $1000/hour professional witness.

Infinite-term copyright builds dynasties. They do not take kindly to competition. Stay safe.

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In most counties you would not go to prison at all. Even in the US, you wouldn't get more than 10 years max.

Ironic, isn’t it - taxpayers money first goes towards funding a major fraction of the research, and then towards “hanging the evil hackers” to ensure the taxpaying public (the evil hackers included) never accesses what they paid for.

Even 10 years seems to me completely unimaginable for sharing some PDFs

How many of us would take the risk of associating with the trillion dollar pirate when the feds make their case? I really hope it’s enough to be a help. Would the ACLU or EFF take the case?

It’s going to be ugly. We’re talking about billions in profits being threatened here with the law on their side. The only defense I’ve heard is with regard to research funded by the US federal government and that’s a long shot argument that applies to a minority of these articles.

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