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Copy That Floppy? Go To Jahannum (Hell)
andrewdm writes "The Business Software Alliance has a new partner: the grand muftis at Al Azhar in Cairo. The New York Law Journal has an article explaining the new holy(?) alliance between the BSA and the highest religious authorities in the Egyptian Sunni Islam sect. The clerics issued a fatwa (holy edict) against piracy, saying it is "the worst type of theft and prohibited by Islam." What's next? The Pope denouncing mp3's as mortal sins?" The worst type of theft, indeed.
So the worst type of theft is the kind that causes the least physical loss.
THEY STOLE MY ELECTRONS!!!
"Derp de derp."
New EULA... Do you accept this agreement that if you pirate this you will burn in hell [ ] No I don't want to roast [ ]
Ryan T. Sammartino
"Ancora imparo"
that religious Islamic fanatics are perhaps *more* moderate than the BSA.
:)
Maybe the new partnership with Egypt will help the BSA to tone down its image?
I think it's a sad day when I don't know which organization is more extreme
After nearly a decade of U.S. persuasion and $7 million in technical IP assistance, a new IP law is under debate in the Egypt parliament. The law's authors hope that it will pass before the People's Assembly begins its summer recess on June 30.
FOR SALE, 65 Million like new Egyptians. Good condition, hardly abused. $7,000,000 OBO.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
I think the BSA should team up with the Boy Scouts of America. They could share an acronym, and add a few lines to the scout law:
A scout is-
Trustworthy
Loyal
Not a software pirate
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Willing to abide by legal licensing agreements
Kind
Obedient to the will of Microsoft
Cheerfully paying outrageous prices for MS Office
Thrifty
Brave
Clean - Hard Drive
Reverent
They call me the working man. I guess that's what I am.
Jesus, Mohammad, Buddah and Ra the Sun God have been elected to serve on the High Council of the RIAA.
Nicholas, Patron Saint of Thieves, has been strangely silent on the matter.
GMFTatsujin
The top of the list is something like this:
...
1. Software Piracy
2. Stealing from the Church
3. Stealing God's pants
4. Stealing someone's immortal soul
As you can see, the heirarchy starts at digital concerns, and gets to the lesser matters a bit later. Real forward thinking I must say.
- I love animals. I try to eat at least one a day.
No, according to RMS, the worst sin is ommitting the "GNU/" from the Linux name.
Will the punishment for this worst sort of theft be in the traditional style of Islam?
Pirate software, we'll cut off the left side of your keyboard.
.sig? Get your own damn
And poor muslim bastards losing their hands over a pirated copy of Word.
;)
Now, just imagine how much money you'll make if you design a good one-handed keyboard...
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2001/11/riaa.html
Calm down, it's *only* ones and zeroes.
As one of the tiny community of Christians here at Slashdot, let me point out that Jesus welcomes all, including black hat crackers and warez fiends, and that far from begrudgingly embracing the above parties as repentant sinners, His views on the morality of the mega-rich software vendors doing things such as sending goons to public schools to enforce the use of their products would probably call for those opposing said megacorps to receive the same esteem He granted to those on the fringes in His own time. (read up on some of the disciples)
On a related note, he would like us to know that Bill Gates is going to hell.(Matt 19:24)
> Qul hua allahu ahad, Allahu assamad, lam yaled, walam yulad, walam yakun lahu qufwan ahad
Mecca lekka hi mecca hiney ho. Mecca lekka hi mecca channi ho. Inka dinka doo!
>>And poor muslim bastards losing their hands over a pirated copy of Word.
Another argument for open source software. Not only do you get the source code, you get to keep all your appendages! Free, modifiable and open to scrutiny, no risk of amputation -- OpenOffice, the complete solution.
hmm...
All those still using Vatican 1.0, please upgrade today. Vatican 2.0 patches a number of security vulnerabilities and is packed with new features to make your Catholic experience better than ever before!
Vatican 2.0: So easy to use, no wonder it's number 1!
(Competitive upgrade available!)
If you call yourself a thief and all you do is pirate, you're a pretty piss poor thief, you should learn better kinds of theft.
-JDF
If you mean "dead from the neck up", plenty of times.
There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line. -- Oscar Levant
Don't those ancient pieces of hardware that you just can't afford to throw out just drive you crazy?
Don't worry, the September 11 hijackers are going to hell: they pirated Microsoft Flight Simulator, remember?
Gates' Law: Every 18 months, the speed of software halves.
The clerics issued a fatwa (holy edict) against piracy, saying it is "the worst type of theft and prohibited by Islam."
:)
It seems that when they say "piracy" they're thinking in terms of the sort of theft that happens on the high seas - where generally pirates board ships, kill all the men, rape all the women (and then throw them overboard), take the children as slaves, and subsequently sell the ship and its accompanying valuables. This is indeed the worst kind of theft. Completely unlike breaking software licenses (and it's worth noting that when you buy software, you basically buy a box of air with the hopes that there's something inside that you can find useful - the contract that you sign by opening the box (?) negates even that.) by giving a copy away to a friend for free, annoying the company that made it because they counted their chickens before they hatched.
Clearly, there's been some kind of misunderstanding here.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert