> How can you suggest not to take the wording literally?
> I thought law language was carefully picked so as to avoid
> loopholes. The exact intent is expressed as unambiguously
> as possible through the language.

That's a popular view, but legal history is is full of "reinterpretation", contradiction and sometimes outright distortion of the original intent of all sorts of legislation. This
is why The Law is BIG business.

> How do you know what the intent of the NET act is?

I read it somewhere... I'll see if I can dig up the links.

> Whatever its intent it defines criminal copyright infringement
> (aka, theft) as infringing more than $1,000 in 6 months or
> making a profit from the infringement. Thus anything less is
> legal."

Nice try. If NET were the ONLY law covering the question, you may have a case. However, check out the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty (to which the US is a signatory), and others. Perhaps downloading less than $1,000 worth of material in 6 months does not make you a Federal felon (I'm not an attorney, I can't advise you there), but a property owner (copyright holder) who feels "damaged" can come after you and seek restitution. And just because the property owner chooses not to come after to at this time does not make the activity legal.

> This is of course the answer; however how can an ISP take
> action on a civil case?"

The ISP wouldn't take civil action-- the owner of the copyrighted material can sue for damages.

Refer to this link-- an interpretation of some terms of the DMCA:
http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/band.html

Apparently, the ISP has to proide notice that theywill terminate you: "...an [Online Service Provider] must adopt, reasonably implement, and inform its subscribers and account holders (its "Users") of, a policy providing for termination of Users who are repeat infringers."

I strongly suggest talking to an attorney before you act on research based on a single statute. The law just ain't that simple.