When you ask "Why don't police arrest illegals for being in the country illegally?" you will get the answer that even though they are breaking federal law, immigration enforcement is not in thier jurisdiction but apparently, copyright infringement is in their jurisdiction.
Police officers in Danville, Virginia stopped a car for an equipment violation (e.g. tail light out) and noticed 'home-made' CDs. They used the pretense of music piracy to search the car.
Officer Goins stopped a car because he noticed an equipment violation. As Officer Goins exited his vehicle, McLaughlin, the driver and sole occupant, leaned toward the passenger seat. When McLaughlin told Officer Goins he had a firearm, Officer Goins observed a semi-automatic pistol on the passenger seat and several compact disks (CDs) in the car. Officer Goins suspected the CDs were "pirated," because they were in a "poor quality made CD case with the labeling." He requested assistance from two other officers that had received training concerning CDs. Minutes later, Officers Barker and Perkins arrived. Officer Barker testified that he saw CDs on the front passenger seat and on the floorboard of the car. He testified that "based on [his] training with the recording industry the thin cases and the homemade labels in the cases led [him] to believe they were bogus CDs." He explained: They were thin case CD's and the labels on them were real blurry. You couldn't really make out the reading on them that well. You could just look at them and tell that they were bogus. Concluding that the CDs were illegitimate, the officers seized the CDs they saw and searched the car for others.
The problem with this is that copyright infringement is NOT ILLEGAL! It's a civil infringement!
So apparently, local police CAN NOT enforce immigration LAWS (where a crime is committed) but CAN enforce copyright ordinances (where a crime has NOT been committed)!
Here's the link to the case: CARMAS (CARMUS) JONAH McLAUGHLIN
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