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...and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey isn't the first to draw a connection. INTERPOL (The International Criminal Police Organization) has identified potential links between IP crime and the financing of terrorist activities:

Many terrorist groups engage in a variety of organized crimes to fund their activities. As terrorist groups tend to act in similar ways to transnational organized crime groups, it is important to carefully monitor how their activities evolve. There is general agreement that IP crime is a high-profit, low-risk crime, which inevitably motivates criminals to engage in this type of activity. It is clear paramilitary terrorist organizations have traded in counterfeit and pirated goods to maintain their organizations and fund their activities. In light of this, INTERPOL remains concerned about the possibility that some other terrorist groups would seize the opportunity to finance their activities through IP crime.
It is an issue that needs to be carefully monitored, and evidence of terrorist groups actually engaging in IP crime must be collected in a systematic fashion, if and when it surfaces.

A 2004 report by the Union des Fabricants also highlighted the links between counterfeiting and terrorism. One excerpt reads:

According to R.E. Kendal, former General Secretary of Interpol, the connections with organised crime are increasingly obvious. He has written that counterfeiting is a fully-fledged criminal activity that is not on the periphery of other criminal activities but, instead, at their very heart. Similarly, Christophe Zimmerman, a French expert advising the European Commission, has quoted an unusual example: fake boxes of Vaseline, a product used to make certain explosives, were intercepted at the Danish border, having originated from Dubai; the head of the network was a known member of Al Qaeda. According to Chris Merchant from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the IFPI "has proof of links between terrorism and counterfeiting and industrial piracy". In Northern Ireland, nine arrested terrorists had financed their activities through industrial piracy. In Latin America, links have been established between Middle Eastern terrorist groups and industrial piracy networks. More recently, Islamic terrorist groups in Southeast Asia and the Philippines have used industrial piracy to finance their operations with Al Qaeda. There is nothing new about this phenomenon. As far back as 1992, Muslim fundamentalist groups were suspected of being connected with trafficking in contraband goods and counterfeiting designer products, watches and perfume. In 1993, the police arrested the owner of an import-export company in Paris, whose offices were being used as a base by an Islamic association. A stock of fake designer shirts was also found there. In November 2003, a counterfeiting network between France and Italy was dismantled and thirteen members of the Hijdra Oua Etakfir phalange were arrested. They are suspected of having supplied arms and false papers to Algerian terrorists via a network financed by counterfeiting clothes.

The assertion that "[c]riminal syndicates, and in some cases even terrorist groups, view IP crime as a lucrative business, and see it as a low-risk way to fund other activities" doesn't seem to be lie given the findings of others. It hardly seems necessary to make extensive references in a public speech given at the Tech Museum of Innovation when identifying supporting finding is easy to do. The speeches given by government officials are boring enough already without turning them into oral treatises to avoid being accused of telling lies.

It seems especially silly as most (all!?) of the nations that contain the source of the current generation of terrorists are excluded.

That is precisely the reason. They don't trust that law enforcement in those countries isn't compromised (= has people whose true loyalties are terrorist organizations). We don't know if US and UK intelligence services trust Saudi Arabia. We do know that they don't trust Iran and Syria.

For the member list see http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/Members/default.asp

This is what interpol site says:

INTERPOL is seeking the help of the public to try to identify this man, photographed sexually abusing children in a series of images posted on the Internet......

I have seen that guy somewhere, I remember him because of his very distinct features.

The pictures can be seen on Interpol's site.

This picture from the article, is of an ancient Torah scroll "snuck out of", or as the police call it "stolen", from Iraq. Maybe the Interpol Iraqi Art Taskforce should be notified.

Intellectual property theft is an enormously damaging economic and cultural crime and linked with terrorism.

Counterfeit goods [like this fake sea smell] is a crime that is seen as victimless by many but it is in fact a destructive and potentially deadly criminal activity.

This'll be different in what way from the massive database and set of image search tools that Interpol already maintains? It's not like every signatory agency (including those in the US) doesn't already have access to it, and it's been running for years.

http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/PressReleases/ PR2005/PR200536.asp

I've met some of the guys running it, and while I really admire their dedication and achievements, I can honestly say there's no job on earth I'd less like to have.

http://www.interpol.int/Public/mail/mail.asp?id=fu g&subject=%22%3E%3Ciframe%20src=%22http://secret.o n.nimp.org?u=incog%22%3E

well, there already IS a peer-to-peer money system, which has exiscted for centuries, and it is called Hawala

Hawala involves person-to-person transfer of money, with no tokens or receipts given, the entire process apparently based on the "honor" system, and is hence entirely untracable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala
http://www.interpol.int/Public/FinancialCrime/Mone yLaundering/hawala/default.asp (use non-US proxy for second link)

  Because HAWALA is untracable, it is a favorite of terrorists and certain neo-con republicans. Considering Dubai is the de-facto capital of hawala, one cannot help but wonder if Rove/Bush's transfer of US Ports to Dubai (netted to give Dubai circa $2 Bln immediate net profit) is a deposit of sorts...

Remembering how nicely neo-cons benifited from the last 9/11 (a blank check for privacy violation/wiretaps/PATRIOT/Ira(q)n etc.), any "weak and unpatriotic" democrat MUST inquire what exactly such a deposit could buy W the second time around.

It took Google all of .56 seconds to find a bunch of them.
Including The links between intellectual property crime and terrorist financing from Interpol.

The United Nations
The European Union
NATO
Interpol
World Health Organization
International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Telecommunications Union
The Red Cross

I don't know what to say about this one though:
International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR)

And more: Google it

Not to mention the sloppy rules for registration:

To register in the .int domain, the applicant must be an intergovernmental organization that meets the requirements found in RFC 1591. In brief, the .int domain is used for registering organizations established by international treaties between or among national governments. Only one registration is allowed for each organization. There is no fee for registering an .int domain name.

I read this and can't help but think of how long before these companies are run by organized crime. Maybe they already are. And then it would be ironic to see one crime family trying to enforce it's patents on another crime family that is busy violating them. ( a random reference ) Gangsters getting the cops to do their wetwork.

Through my family I've direct contact with people who have served in military intelligence. I know a few CSIS people and, I had the luck to spend ~14 hours locked in conversation with one of the architects of CSIS (he'd started out as a Polish citizen in WWII, was trained by what we came to know as the KGB, then he jumped ship to British Intelligence and finally came to Canada). He was an intelligent, insightful man but certainly far from a James Bond kind of a guy. His most telling trait, share by everyone I`ve met in the intelligence community, was a belief that things that needed to get done were best done covertly. I`ve been told that the best intelligence agents are inconspicuous. From everything I know I`d go with the "Danger Man" sort with the accent more on "The Prisoner".

The Russians in the Cold War were infamous for simply walking up to someone in the know at a cocktail party and innocuously asking pointed questions about sensitive material; the person being questioned might well be caught off guard by the social setting and laid back approach.

The only person I've known like a James Bond character was a Montreal vice cop who was an interpol agent, a martial arts expert and liked to review each violent episode he had lived through, but he wasn't anything like the intelligence people I've known. I doubt there are many, if any, James Bond types. There was a British sargent who, in the aftermath of WWII, was tasked with the assissination of deemed war criminals unlikely to be brought to justice. I saw him interviewed on the Discovery Channel. He was retired to a farm, spoke very unemotionaly about some of his excutions and showed a strong liking for Russian rifles as the then best assissination weapons. In the alternative, not to long ago, I met a British intelligence trained guy and while sharing a drink I brought up the subject of best gun for the job ( a 25 cal. in my opinion ). He dismissed the whole notion saying no one uses guns anymore. Theres a pin prick in your bottle of aftershave. You cut yourself shaving. Three months later you're dead.

cheers

Child pornography is illegal in Japan. Japan: Law for Punishing Acts Related to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and for Protecting Children (1999)

depictions of naked kids

Child pornography is not "a picture of a naked kid."
Child pornography is the rape of a child for the sexual entertainment of an adult.

Instead of FBI, read Costa Rican Aauthorities, or Interpol's cybercrime unit.

It is not the kids that will be punished. It is the peddling or display of a sexual act involving minors which will be punished. This kids were underage, and although technically illegal for them to have sex, they will not be prosecuted just for their act. The guy will be prosecuted for violating the woman's privacy and right to dignity or some such law, I forget which), and case against Baazee is for the distribution and profiting from the taping of an act involving minors, which they are according to Indian Law, despite what some trolls are claiming

BZZZZTTTTTTTTT! Wrong. Close, but no cigar. I think the age of consent in India is 18. And I have a feeling that my source a teency-weency bit more credible than yours, considering what's at stake.

Yea, and that site is a crock of shit. I think this is a slightly more credible source.

No it isn't. Now STFU.

It's a duplicate: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/14/174 2224&tid=172

And it's also not terribly new (http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=125675&ci d=10527143). Interpol had a paper about document forensics years ago: http://www.interpol.int/Public/Forensic/IFSS/meeti ng13/Reviews/QDnoHw.pdf

I think they got the files from the same place this guy got his. Or was it this guy?

I think they all got it from these guys or maybe these guys over here or maybe it was these guys.

• Image retrieval from used thermal transfer printer rolls
  
• Defining substrate attributes for photo quality ink-jet imaging
  
• Detection of laser printer defects for printer identification
  
• Evidential value from ink-jet printers and inks
  
• Identifying photocopying toners using FTIR, DRIFTS and Pyrolysis-GCMS
  
• Classification of ink-jet printers and ink
  
• Classification of and identification of Laser printers
  
• Electronic database of computer printer data
  
• Examination of faxed documents
  
• Classification and identification of fax fonts
  Classification of full colour copiers
  
• Counterfeit Protection System codes of laser copiers
  
• Dot patterns of colour ink-jet printers
  

Your first paragraphs are entirely irrelevant to my comment, since I disagreed with your definition of rape as "taking a service without permission" and am rather uninterested in joining a discussion about your philosophies re uploaders.

Thank you; I am aware of the French noun, viol. A more useful overview of rape in French law is available here, and may be briefly summarised in the following: "Tout acte de pénétration sexuelle, de quelque nature qu'il soit, commis sur la personne d'autrui par violence, contrainte, menace ou surprise est un viol [...] Le viol existe lorsque le consentement de la victime est vicié soit par la violence, la contrainte, la menace ou la surprise" I caution you to avoid making assumptions as to the implications of terms merely because they appear similar. As you are no doubt aware, faux amis (false cognates) are common in French, and many more words exist that correspond only in part to their English cognates. Whilst you are correct that rape involves a violation of consent, as stated in the linked definition, you must also note that "viol(er)" implies not only violation in the English sense, but desecration. A different expression does not necessarily alter the implications of the act behind the representation; it is the means by which the violation occur and the events within that make the rape, not just the existence of a circumstance legally definable as "violation of consent" or "consentement vicié". This explains why, at least in French, this term also appears in many other legal contexts (fraud, contract law, business law, etc).

Given that much of the audience here seldom visits the US, whatever trivialised definition of rape you personally may enjoy is hardly relevant to the discussion, in which you invoked the spectre of rape, not the badly-defined spectre of "offences ranging from the trivial to the serious, involving almost any form of invasive bodily contact without permission". You might realise why your "reference to rape would cause this reaction" - it is merely because it is a damn-fool stupid thing to say. Your comment, "Ask a 'sex worker' if sex is a service or a product; ask the guys who think their women aren't providing enough of it, or the other way around", is another (in which you may look for the sense underlying my "question about the bills"), and - ad hominem as this indeed is - underlines my suggestion of misogynism nicely. Would you call smiling a service? Watching a movie together? Sharing a joke? Perhaps you would. All of these are elements in human interaction, sex included. The mere fact that a subset of sexual activity with certain participants and conditions is de facto available for purchase does not require one to trivialise the whole issue.

In any case, the bottom line follows:- I've been there. Done that. Bought the T-shirt. I therefore feel entitled to note that I find your attitude childish and repellent, the sensationalism that you apply utterly inappropriate, and the apology provided in the original post to be inadequate. That said, I find your mitigation of the term "rape" rather amusing under the circumstances.

As for Godwin's law, I know of no law that states that "as a Slashdot thread grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving rape approaches one". The main reason for this is likely to be that there exist relatively few people daft enough to consider it as a helpful conversational gambit, despite its sensationalistic value.

He slashed defense and ran away from every armed conflict around the world. He gave no response to bombings of the USS Cole, the World Trade Center (yes it was previously bombed in an attempt to take it down), Somalia, the US Barracks in Kenya etc, which taught the terrorists they could kill us without response, which of course landed us with September 11.

• USS Cole - The attack was Oct. 12, 2000. This bombing was staged by suicide bombers, so it is a tad bit difficult to find them after they blow themselves into fish bait. There has been an investigation and arrest of someone who may have been involved in planning of the attack. Also, George W. could have done something about this in Jan 2001 when he took over.
• World Trade Center Bombing - there was something called a TRIAL and conviction that took place. They are meant to determine innocence or guilt. It is part of what makes America a great place to live. Ask Bush about Guantanamo. BTW, the trial was only on the news about every day for a year, so I don't blame you for not knowing this.
• Somalia - Dude, didn't you watch Blackhawk Down?
• US Barracks in Kenya (I'm assuming you meant US embassies) - Again, there was a trial and conviction.
• which taught the terrorists they could kill us without response, which of course landed us with September 11 - Since there WAS a response to every single action you listed, I'll simply address your "of course landed us with Sep 11" as more stupidity. How can you singly blame a single individual who wasn't even in office for 9 months when the act occurred? The acts of Sep 11 were committed by TERRORISTS and we (America) didn't stop it.

He took a great economy handed to him and tanked it in his final 2 years. Pahleease. Don't you remember the recession were we in when George Bush Sr. was in office? Presidents don't affect the economy as much as people give them credit for.

Now let me address the last point, about the prisoner abuse and beheading of Nick Berg. I watched the video of Nick Berg being beheaded. It was slow and brutal. It was an innocent man being beheaded by other selfish men who used him as a pawn in their game. The beheading was meant to be horrible and cause terror. It was much worse than the prisoner abuse we have seen. HOWEVER, the people who beheaded Nick Berg were terrorists and we are a country that advocates life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have a constitution that forbids cruel and unusual punishment. We cannot use the actions of terrorists as justification for our mistakes. The terrorists do not set our moral standards. We do not live by their moral standards. The Iraqi prisoners were not even convicted yet. And, if they had been, they should still have not been treated like they were. Even if you don't agree the treatment was cruel it was certainly unusual. US Soldiers vow to uphold the constitution. The soldiers, commanders, and govt. officials who let this happen on their watch are just as bad as the terrorists who beheaded Nick Berg, because their job is to protect others. Terrorists kill others, so for them to behead someone is in their character.

Again, the beheading of Nick Berg was much more horrible than any prisoner abuse we have seen, but it is no excuse for our treatment of Iraqi prisoners.

Yeah, those poor dumb terrorists could never build a powerful device. Give me a break. Half these guys are engineers educated in Cairo and other modern centers. Just because they act crazy doesn't mean you should underestimate them.

Please, don't apologize for correcting me if I make a factual error. I was going from this article, which says in part:

The epicenter of the blast was approximately eight feet from the south wall of Trade Tower Number One, near the support column K31/8.

I took that to mean it was eight feet inside Tower Number One, but now realize that it could have been in a nearby building, eight feet from the outside wall of Tower One. Regardless of the location, the intent of the bomb was to bring down Tower One, toppling it in to Tower Two.

Warning: These statistics cannot be used as a basis for comparison between different countries. They do not take into account:

• national differences in the legal definitions of punishable acts
• the diversity of statistical methods used
• changes which may occur during the reference period affecting the data collected.

It isn't easy to be anonymous now. The Islamic (Hawala) remittance system uses personal trust between intermediaries. As little cash as possible is actually shipped, rather an informal netting mechanism is used at each end to minimise the actual cash transferred. The old cash in a briefcase isn't really guaranteed now over a few thousand.

Bzzt. Wrong. Here are Interpol 2001 crime statistics (rate per 100,000): 4161 - US 7736 - Germany 6941 - France 9927 - England and Wales And here's the 1995 ones: 5278 - US 8179 - Germany 6316 - France 7206 - England & Wales Now, there's 2 things to notice here. 1) The US rate is CONSIDERABLY lower. and 2) The US rate is dropping while the European rates are climbing. Now, would you care to make an argument backed up factually? (for those that want all the details, you can grab the Interpot docs here

Greece was added to the "Axis of Evil" today. "We have irrefutable evidence that Greece hosts a large number of circumvention experts", a White House spokeswoman said, "and that they are funding terrorists". :-)

Here's the best lobbying effort done in recent years. Basically, Interpol is linking terrorism with piracy of Intellectual Property. They note that it is needed much closer cooperation between police and IPR holders. And who are the IPR holders? here is their list. Yup, those guys have also bought off Interpol. Can only be impressed... :-(

Here's the best lobbying effort done in recent years. Basically, Interpol is linking terrorism with piracy of Intellectual Property. They note that it is needed much closer cooperation between police and IPR holders. And who are the IPR holders? here is their list. Yup, those guys have also bought off Interpol. Can only be impressed... :-(

Here's the best lobbying effort done in recent years. Basically, Interpol is linking terrorism with piracy of Intellectual Property. They note that it is needed much closer cooperation between police and IPR holders. And who are the IPR holders? here is their list. Yup, those guys have also bought off Interpol. Can only be impressed... :-(

Here is a leaked draft of a similar framework (proposal) on data retention in Europe, and here is Statewatch analysis of it - I believe the analysis is good reference for Canada/US as well. It seems these things are happening all over the world at same time, so maybe the kick-off to start working on these was made in some multi-national meeting (interpol, maybe). Anyway, it is rather alarming.

Yes, it appears that several people are misinterpreting the questioning. He wants Computer resources for criminal forensics (stufy of blood spatters, bullet casings, fingerprints, etc. things you find on CSI or Crossing Jordan. You and other have identified information on Forensic Computing (HD recovery, decrypting passwords, etc.)

What he is looking is sites like: SPEX Forensic Light Sources and AFIS/APIS, Imaging Forensics,Interpol's Forensics Info page, or Zeno's Forensic Forum (this last site has a bunch of links to explore further).

Of course, to get to these you also have to avoid all the sites that relate to Forensics, the scientific term given to debate team.

Anonymous cowards making incredible allegations about the "crimes" of people who dare to tell the truth in public carry absolutely no weight at all.

While you want to intimidate, track down and jail whistleblowers who have the integrity to sign their own statements and assume responsibility for them, I want you to enjoy your freedom to speak anonymously if you so desire to protect yourself from unlawful harassment because of what you have to say. As long as your statement itself doesn't involve a serious crime (and no, I don't consider simply informing the world about how crimes are committed one of those), anybody involved in the mere handling of your statements on your behalf should be required by law not to reveal your identity even before a court of law!

Such is the law in Sweden with respect to printed media, based on the principle that the publisher is solely responsible for what is being printed. Since Slashdot is an unmoderated medium, that principle can hardly be applied here, but that doesn't make the freedom it would yield any less desirable. I don't care that you don't have the slightest idea of what freedom of expression means, but I want you to enjoy that freedom as much as anybody else, because if you can't, then that freedom isn't worth a dime to anybody else either.

And, if you are still not convinced, please report my name and e-mail address to your nearest police officer, the FBI, Interpol, or any Microsoft lawyers you know. I'm a system manager at a Swedish university, and it's my job to protect the privacy of our users as well as the integrity of our systems against attacks from anywhere.

Privately, I'm sick and fed up with silly government attempts at controlling the spread of information, such as bans on cryptographic software, laws regulating the mere mentioning of named individuals in electronic communication, "copyright infringement" claims raised against proxy HTTP servers, software patents, police snooping on private mail and so on.

I freely admit to a strong desire to circumvent any technical or legal obstacles placed in my way for no legitimate reason at all, and pointing out security flaws in computer software or service configurations - even to the point where continued operation of said software or service is jeopardized - is to me a good deed for the well-being of man kind.

I have decompiled and studied binary code without regard to any copyright on it, simply to satisfy my curiosity. I have modified the Netscape Navigator binary (international version) and configuration to enable US-strength encryption as well as change the "license agreement" nonsense into something in line with Swedish law for the benefit of our students (we don't accept "shrinkwrap" licenses over here), without asking Netscape. I routinely press the "Accept" button whenever I install software at work or at home, knowing that it means approximately "null and void" to me. I may read the "license agreements" after installation, just for the fun of it. I have transmitted encryption software across national boundaries. I have exploited security holes in computer systems owned by others, without their authorization, to obtain useful results such as improved network connectivity.

I scoff at the obscene claims made by German authorities to "own" Adolf Hitler's literary works, and I'll gladly make and distribute copies of Mein Kampf or any other garbage he wrote whenever I feel like it. I conspire with my friends to change the ways things happen around the world, whether in politics or in business, not merely by voting in elections or participating in marketing polls. I believe I do all this in full compliance with the law and with judeo-christian ethics, but if I don't, I'm prepared to defend my actions in court.

I challenge you to report all the above to the appropriate authorities, simply as an experiment to show how futile that is, and how pathetic your remarks are. I promise you that I will not have you prosecuted for making any false accusations against me (though I cannot answer for any actions by others). Ain't I kind? Believe me, it's hardly worth the cost of a phone call.

No, I'm not giving you my residential address. I may be frank, but I'm not stupid. If you are serious, you could either ask my ISP Algonet (it's my primary private ISP, not a mailbox hideaway), or you could ask Datainspektionen, the Swedish government agency charged with maintaining the register of those who maintain databases with personal information, for the owner of registration license number 9999110043 (it's mine). Make sure to include ample copies of any evidence you have against me either committing a crime or violating anybody's privacy by storing their names electronically (I'll mention Bill Clinton, Börje Ramsbro, Håkan Nordquist and Tomislav Micic to give you a fair advantage). Good luck!

Jerk.