Fed Raids Software Pirates in 27 Cities

akiaki007 was among many who wrote in to say: "Check out this article on the New York Times (free reg, blah blah) site. The Feds have raided 27 cities in 21 states. Raid sites include MIT, UCLA, Purdue, Duke, UofO. Their main target was the group DrinkOrDie. 'This is a new frontier for crime,' Kenneth W. Dam, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at a news briefing. 'The costs are enormous to both industry and consumers.' I better hide my burned Linux CD's. They might think it's some weird hacking tool."

Comments

Duck.

[Axe]

Cold war was won by Russia - dictatorship is coming.

We are all doomed.

P.S. That was a joke. But it is disturbing indeed...

Good thing

[autocracy]

Open source is great, and I love free software. But man, if you spend years working on something and sink it around a company, you want to get its value worth back. And I'll be the first to agree, Microsoft overcharges. And disabling software parts intentionaly is a load of crap. But this isn't the issue. The issue is being able to recieve something back for giving someone else the benefit of your risks taken and hard labor.

CmdrTaco where are you?

[smoondog]

Hello... hello? Slashdot? Could this be the last slashdot story ever?

-Sean

MIT is a haven for piracy

[bconway]

I have a good deal of experience with MIT and their network, and for some reason the administration there thinks that any and all network activites should be allowed and are for some reason granted under free speech (as evidenced by, among other things, fuck-the-skull-of-jesus.mit.edu), including piracy of software, music, and movies. I'm really not sure what's going through their heads or why they consistently look the other way (join MIT, pay to pirate all you want and we'll protect you!), but I've SERIOUSLY seen less piracy in a number of Asian cities selling "questionable" goods on recorded media. What a disgrace.

mods eat crack

[cockeater]

The "flamey" part reads to me like "sarcasm." k thx.

Re:Just how far we've fallen...

[vax]

Yea I hear thier investigative department is underfunded maybe thats why all those gay scout leaders just recently got busted..

glad i quit the BSA or id be SOL

Re:Hmmm...

[HavingToLoginSucks]

I have to comment on your sig block. I have to ask, do you really associate all disabled people as retards? Do you really judge a person's mind by their body?

I know you are just trying to make a funny comment. In the deep south where I live I hear such "funny comments" all the time. I will spare you the embarrassment of most of them.

I myself spent a few years in a wheelchair, much like many of those who do participate in the Special Olympics. Just like Stephen Hawkins, and many others. Are we to be judged by our physical limitations? Does the fact that a guy in a wheelchair can't beat up the school bully make him dumber?

shut the fuck up

[Platypii]

shut the fuck up, it's called a joke!!! and i found it quite amusing at that. It's not POSSIBLE to not offend one of you oversensitive trolls looking to pick fights.

Gee! Can I move to your planet?

[Fantastic Lad]

Personally, I think you're dead wrong. What you and many others seem to forget is that the US is still a republic. Now I realise that could change and we could become a dictatorship, but I find that highly unlikely.

The U.S. is already a dictatorship. Did you miss the last election, or was the cheesy writing of that choreographed event too subtle for you?

Anyway, this whole kafuffle about software piracy is nothing new, and who the hell cares? The Evil Overlords WANT you to be plugged into your flickering boxes, because they make you soft and dumb and easy to control. GTA3 and all those retarded shooting games? Whether or not they create Columbine Kids is totally irrelivent. Fact is, the power/money/establisment people THINK that such games raise the danger level of society, which makes it easier for heavier internal security measures to be passed into law.

No matter what the playing field happens to look like over the next ten years, whether you have to pay through the nose, duck arrests or trade software in a free for all, Joe Asshole WILL be plugged in, he WILL think that his choice to be plugged in will have been un-affected by the general miasma of social programming which surrounds us all, and as a result, his brain WILL be all mushy and ripe for 'instruction' and easy control.

What are YOU going to do about it?

-Fantastic Lad

Political Prisoners

[Loundry]

At any rate, so long as we are still a republic, that means the people are ultimately in control.

What do the NSA and the CIA do? Are "the people" setting their agenda? Do major news outlets report on their activities?

Generally big companies, special intrest groups, etc get what they want because they are the ones that whine to the politicians.

s/whine/donate/

It's all about money and power, as usual.

And I bet you if the FBI starts locking up normal people over things they've been doing for years, people will speak up, and with a loud voice.

The FBI locks up peaceful, productive, taxpaying citizens who happen to smoke marijuana. The United States has the world's largest prison population, and that is due to our insane War on (Some) Drugs. People in prison for possession of marijuana are not criminals. They are political prisoners.