Slashdot Mirror
(CD) Pirates Take to the Ocean
rammstein_rulz writes "www.cdfreaks.com reports that asian CD pirates now produce thousands of pirated VCD's on anchored ships in international waters to avoid getting caught. Malaysian marine police have been asked to be on the lookout for pirate ships"
ARRR... hoist the jolly roger and walk the plank
Beware the fury of a patient man
- John Dryden
If they are in international waters.. what are the legal implications ? Whos Jurisdiction etc .. would they come under ?
England certainly still has the death penalty for this (along with treason and one other I cannot remember).. does this mean we are going to start seeing people hang again? ;)
If I was trying to make money in IP violations, this is how I would do it:
1) Forge documents from media companies, ordering large batches of CDs and DVDs from established manufacturers.
2) Sell those records to wholesalers, which might or might not be aware of the scam.
3) Profit
When you can do the same thing at your desk?
Someone tell those guys not to take the term "Pirate" litterally.
"Suck Emma, suck. 'Blow' is just a figure of speech!"
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
...was that the page with the news article featured links right to where you could purchase the CD ROMs and RW's, plus the software to burn the CDs.
Which basically means anyone can just follow the provided links to buy all the sh-t (except the boat) that will enable them to jump right into the offshore piracy business!
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Even when they're NOT in international waters, the so-called "legality" is just as blurred.
What's "piracy" anyway ?
If RIAA wants to charge people an arm and a leg for trying out songs, and themselves (the RIAA) are known to NOT PAYING THE ROYALTIES to the artists, who's the REAL "pirate" ?
What the so-called "CD-pirates" are doing is just this - they are doing one thing that got the MPAA, RIAA, BSA and whatever hopping mad, as mad as what the DCMA is doing to many of us.
I am NOT saying what the "CD-pirates" are doing is right, but just that, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Period.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Police in Penang last week launched "Operation Green Ribbon" to nab peddlers of illegal CDs and VCDs and Mazlan said they had already arrested four retailers and seized over 1,000 pirated copies.
I went to Penang just recently and there were literally multi-floor malls selling professional copies of Oracle for $20, dvds for $2-5 (based upon quality), Adobe products, MS products, etc. It was so vast it was staggering. One guy took a duffel bag overflowing with dvds/software back with us.
Basically what I'm getting at is if they've only found 1000 pirated copies, then they are either totally inept or not trying very hard.
This is an example of an unreasoned, apocalyptic extremism that plays into the hands of the forces the poster so adamantly attacks.
Playing word games with "piracy" is pointless. Producing unauthorized duplicates of commercial products is known as counterfeiting. Most countries have laws prohibiting the creation and distribution of counterfeit goods. It's as illegal to market a counterfeit CD of the current flavor-of-the-week pop band as it is to sell fake Rolex watches.
By glibly saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", all you've done is made more enemies: You have aligned yourself with counterfeiters, a tactic unlikely to draw support from the mainstream public.
The enemies of your new friend are now your enemies.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
I don't know about you, but I get my towels from a towel licensing firm. I'm only allowed to use them for a restricted set of purposes, but I get the benefit of regular maintenance updates and, um, patches.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
I believe that a vessel in internation waters is subject to the laws of its flag country -- the country in which the vessel is registered.
Then register pirate ships in Freedonia, whose flag (called "Jolly Roger") is a white skull and crossbones on a black field.
Will I retire or break 10K?
It made a lot more sense back in the 1950's and 60's when Norweigian oil platforms in the North Sea installed some truly overpowered AM rigs and broadcasted music the BBC wouldn't play into the UK. (Paid for by the record companies who wanted the advertising.) Then, they were doing something that was legal in Norway, but not in the UK, and benefitted from being close to the UK, so a Norweigian maritime installation made perfect sense.
Here, the pirates are doing something that doesn't benefit from being done at sea, so why bother?
Q: What do pirates use to copy movies?
A: CD-Arrrr
*ahem*
I like my women like my coffee... pale and bitter.
What do you mean by "These people just don't realize that their personal gain in purchasing and selling cheap software may be good for them in the short run, but disasterous to their nation in the long run"
6 65 861,00.html
It's not that stupid.
Maybe you don't realize it but this sort of thing worked for the USA, it worked for Switzerland and I'm sure it worked for many other countries.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2002379.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,
Open your eyes dude. The only reason it'll be bad in the long run is if the USA takes hypocritical, harsh and unfair action to stop others from doing precisely what it did for its own benefit in the past. Trade barriers etc etc.
Try to see it from this point of view just for a moment.
Why not a real Country?
... voila!
Say, perhaps, the "Country" of Sealand?
Now, here you might have something! You get the 3 guys (or whatever) to agree to register with the International Registry, and
Heck, they practically are a ship to begin with!
But this raises more questions... What if you have a permanently anchored "dock" at sea? Something that floats, with pools, solar water purifiers, etc, and market it as a "vacation resort"?
Make it big, and kinda sprawling, and make it float. What then? Cruise ships today routinely take passengers numbering thousands, already many more people than something like Sealand.
At what point can a manmade structure become a nation?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Fun? Entertainment? Getting your message out? Self expression? Some how I doubt musicians started out with the idea that they were going to turn into multi million dollar stars. There are plenty of local and independent groups all across the country that perform in night clubs and bars. They do street performances, give lessons etc etc etc. They do not make millions from selling CDs, yet for some reason, they keep making music.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
There should NOT be very much international law. We already have too much. The fact that Bush wants everyone else to follow it, but doesn't want the US to be accountable to it is only an illustration of the very problem with international law. Every country has different values and societies.
It is too hard to enforce, first of all. Second of all, it imposes the values of (mainly) the West on every country in the world.
If Afganistan wants to make heroin and opium until the cows come home, let them.
If Malasyans want to copy CDs and burn them, let them.
Creating international "bully forces" to impose Western values on other countries isn't going to do anything but cause more people worldwide to become "terrorists" who are out to "kill the West."
International law should be stripped down to cover war crimes like genocide. It shouldn't have any place outside the of things like that.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Pirate Linux sounds something like PorthOS.. PorthOS is something a few friends of mine and I kicked around whenever the alternative OS announcements on /. became boring or we felt like tormenting the IT guys on campus (/. DDOS).. Anyway, PorthOS was going to be the Anti-Linux. The heaviest, most feature laden, OS ever. Error messages would be passed through text-to-speech and yelled at you in Esperanto with a drunken-french accent..
Someday it'll happen!
One thing I've always wondered about is the use of region encoding, but on a much smaller scale. You mention how you're willing to pay $20 for a DVD, because you can't be bothered to spend the time ripping it - but what about someone who only makes $5 an hour? Is it worth THEIR time?
I have rather well-off friends financially who don't even blink an eye at plopping down $500-$1000 a month for PC software, whereas with my student status, that's more than I make most months. So, I resort to what most students do, and still use the software.
Now, we all know one of the big uses for region encoding is so that content producers can effectively price-fix their products: they know they'll still make a profit selling a CD for $5 in say, Malaysia, but not any more than $5 because the average Malaysian makes 1/4 of what the average American does (all hypothetically speaking).
With a very large wage gap between the rich and poor in the US, it almost makes me wonder: CDs for $5 (still making a profit, remember)would sell boatloads to poorer families who normally would just download them. HOWEVER, the richer folk among us would buy the CD, even if it was priced at $50.
Now the only thing left to do is have the **AA buy some legislation that allows it to check your financial status, and price your goods accordingly. "Look, we've nearly eliminated those evil pirates, AND we're being nice to the little guy!"
Wow, I think I just scared myself.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I suppose if you lived in the 60's you'd say "I don't care about your principles and arguments--the law is clear: Niggers go in the back of the bus!"
So what do these guys do with those huge chests of burned cds? Bury them and make a map?
How long is it going to be now for RIAA to ask for legislative permission to use torpedoes and their own naval forces to take care of the 'pirate problem'? After all, if they can hack into your systems with full legal protection to go after the small fry traders, then shouldn't they have just as much power to go after the bigger violators? How long until we have a real RIAA Capt Nemo in a sub with anti-society crew members on a quest against the pirates of the world?
Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
umm, privateers where pirates who held letters of marque. A letter of marque ment, when country A was at war with country B you can committ acts of piracy agaisnt country B and have a safe harbor to return (country A).
Hehe, maybe Sony would be interested in allowing me to pirate cd's produced by Virgin records for example, as long as I don't touch anything produced by Sony. In exchange they will provide me with lawyers to legaly protect my ass. Well fat chance of that happening
>
Ah, back to the good ol' days of pirating. Well, good new days? Who knows, all I know is that it'll be interesting to see walk the plank for poor quality, or stealing the captian's mead.
Or maybe the crap artists who are in it just for the money will stop making CDs, and the "art for art's sake" folks will carry on with what they do, living by contributions or concert tix or something, distributing their music on the Internet, and generally making music for the reasons that people started making music. To express themselves. To have fun. To entertain. To praise $DEITY. Because they wanted to, not just because they could make money off of it (though I will admit that making money is almost always a nice secondary effect).
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute chat with the average voter."
--Winston Churchill
Holy L. Ron! The pirates have taken a page from the Pope of Fugitives. Elron, founder of Scien*gy, spent, what, ten years at sea in a converted freighter (correct me here), for the sole purpose of not getting arrested on numerous warrants.
I think I can see, like legal sheet lightning on the horizon, the copyright industry gearing up to remove the protection of international waters.
Which is doubly amusing, since the Church of Scien*ology was one of the first instigators of digital copyright law change. Back in '91, I recall, they first tore after anon.penet.fi for relaying their "copyrighted" Xenu tracts. And in '95, when they were confiscating PC's for having "illegal" copies. And certainly when they helped out with the DMCA legislation.
I just think it's funny, in a sad way. Round the circle we go. Now the copyright kings in RIAA et al. will set out after international water neutrality, seeking to to remove the protections that once saved the founder of one of the most litigious copyright abusing organizations.
If the protection of the high seas is removed, as I posit, then there will be no place left to get away from the U.S.'s interpretation of intellectual property. No Switzerlands of the mind.
At what point is a nation not a manmade structure?
A nation, in the final analysis, remains a nation when it fends off attack by challengers to its status. Sadly.
It is similar to my personal definition of intelligent life: a lifeform that shoots back at humans -- and wins. Whales would be considered ILF's if they fired frickin' lasers at the whalers.
Nations that want to remain nations, even if they are floating platforms in the ocean or spinning city-states in solar orbit, must have legal, economic, or martial ability to defend and counterattack.
Sealand exists because it isn't worth anyone's time to remove them. And a nation that simply removes Sealand will face really bad PR if they don't fabricate some excuse first: select 1) for pedophiles 2) for terrorists 3) for Drugs.
If Sealand gets private support, as offshore tax havens do, it will continue to exist, bar provocation. The pirates, however, will be sunk. No one is looking, and no one cares.
Why don't you just give peace a chance?
The best way to avoid war is to disarm.
Oh yeah? Tell that to the frickin' laser-totin' trigger-happy whales!
Mike van Lammeren
It will challenge your head, your brain, and your mind.