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MPAA, Microsoft Testify Piracy Funds Terrorism
GuyMannDude writes "[Yesterday's] Oversight Hearing on "International Copyright Piracy: Links to Organized Crime and Terrorism" featured the MPAA and Microsoft testifying that software and movie DVD counterfeiting is an acute problem, with criminal gangs operating factories in Russia, Malaysia and other countries that have weak copyright laws. They further claim that intellectual property piracy is a vehicle for financing or supporting acts of terror." There's another article about the hearing at Infoworld.
Wait.......since when did Microsoft become the ANTI-terrorists?
Give it a look
Yeah and Osama Bin Laden is sittin in a cave in Afghanistan with a buncha cds and a burner!
I mean, sure, I can buy drugs, or pirate music/movies/games. But, I can also drive an SUV, or use oil in other ways. I can also support terror by being critical of the government, or being supportive of the use of encryption and privacy. I mean, so many options, so much terror. Where does one start?
Doesn't this sound like the MPAA, Microsoft a la RIAA trying to make piracy sound like terrorism, and get the public all jumpy and hate piracy?
..
Next, they will be saying that filesharing funds terrorism too.
...then the terrorists have already won!
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Piracy might fund terrorists, but Hollywood is where they get their bombs from.
"Terrorism" is just the keyword of the past 18 months or so. Everything you hate gets labelled as promoting terrorism and everything you like is an anti-terrorist measure.
If it works for little Bush, why not for little Bill?
There's really nothing unusual going on there. Just the usual stupidity and simple-mindedness.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
"Buying over/fixed price cds & dvds help fight the war on Terror!"
Which one is running microsoft? Bill Gates or George Bush? :)
Oooookkkkkeeeey... So I'm supposed to believe that religous extremists, in thier war against the West and the Western culture, are financing operations by pirating and spreading the very thing that they are against.
It's kind of like hardcore Vegans raising money for a campaign by holding a sausage sizzle.
Complete bullshit.
--
Simon
Want to demonize something but have now real information to back it up? Just say it fund terrorism, works every time!
Nan
God is real unless declared integer.
How does stealing something for free FUND terrorism? It can't. Lesson here kiddies, it's okay to steal for free. Don't be stupid and buy things.
Are they sure they ought to be jumping on it like that?
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. --Edmund Burke
Wait.......since when did Microsoft become the ANTI-terrorists?
since Bush let them off the hook.....
We're like rats, in some experiment! -- George Costanza
How about we get rid of religion?
Sounds like a plan to me.
This just in:
Breathing supports terrorism. Scientists have just discovered that if you breath oxygen, you are in fact taking away necessary, life giving resources, namely oxygen from those who fight the terrorists.
The public is now being asked to refrain from breathing so that the counter-terrorists do not run out of oxygen (although is was also recommended that if you are around any terrorist you should try to use as much oxygen as possible, because we believe that terrorists also use oxygen to live).
sin(6cos(r)+5A)
This was out of hand before, but now it's getting really out of hand.
When most people say "what, do you want to support the terrorists?" they're joking.
I think these two monopolists have just showed their true selves as far as I'm concerned.
Anyone who can say something so ridiculous is a joke themselves.
i certainly have never paid for any pirate software, i thought that was generally the point. even the ppl that sell cd's at markets and online, i highly doubt any of that goes towards terrorism. unless of course pirate's are now branded terrorists.
I dont know about the economics of international IP piracy, but I imagine that the piracy is more prevalent in areas where there is not enough money to pay for legitimate software. In this case, there still won't be enough money brought in to make a dent in the terrorists' pocketbooks.
To make big money, you have to sell things to people with money. This means the west (especially western Europe and the U.S.) The best way to get lots of money from the west is to sell them oil, drugs, or Pr0n.
OK...
I can do this. I am, after all,
a superhero!
And for those who ask why we here on slashdot bash the utter shit out of microsoft, this is JUST why. They're full of shit. They use all means they can do strengthen their position. They'll take advantage of anything they can to grab a little more legal strength as a monopoly.
...and they'll just keep doing it.
They've claimed silly things in the past to aid themselves
They've screwed over other companies to aid themselves
They've screwed over their own users to aid themselves
Wait a minute. We need tougher laws in the United States, because organized crime gangs in Russia and Malaysia are counterfitting Windows CDs (including the hologram, so people can't tell it's not official) and selling them, which is already illegal? What exactly can the USDOJ do to stop this?
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I remember when the joke was
....) we should just say
"If you download mp3s, you're supporting communism"
I mean, seriously, WTF. They need to lay down the crack pipe and just move on.
Everything supports everything else (I breathe oxygen, expel carbon dioxide, my plants then take the carbon dioxide, give off oxygen, i breathe i n the
LIFE SUPPORTS TERRORISM.
all you are, is all you are, i'm so sorry for you.
...everyone uses terrorism to push their agenda. I'm so sick of that phrase. Don't like something that people are doing? Tell them that it funds terrorists, and they'll stop. I suppose it works -- the average person probably believes this crap.
I was so pissed the first time I saw the commercial with the teenagers saying "I helped terrorists because I bought a dime bag" (or whatever). 9/11 was a *terrible* event, yes, but to try to make people think they're partly responsible because they commit some petty crime? Total BS.
NGWave - Fast Sound Editor for Windows
Seriously,..remember the Muslim Charity that was nailed funneling money to al Qaeda? Well here's the news story.. (Google Cache)
In case you don't have time to read the story, MS admitted to giving Benevolence International, the Muslim charity that funnled money to al-qaeda, around $20,000. You can buy a lot of box cutters with that money.
MS had better not throw stones in their glass house. And if you're going to start giving money to charities, it's a good idea to research them and make sure they are legit. Say what you will but MS is SUPER guilty of not doing research on this "charity".
Hot off of the press...
Commerce funds terrorism!
Upon thought & inspection, this sounds more like they're throwing more fodder on the fire which is quickly razing the USA's foreign policy & relations.
i'm amazed that i survived - an airbag saved my life.
The way people seem to avoid it today, you'd think shame funded terrorism too.
But not oil companies, oh no.
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
It seems that these companies could do their part in the war on terror by lowering their prices to put the pirates out of business. There may be some pain in the short term, but once the war is won, they can raise their prices again!
-ec
The more small minded corporate shills and their bought and paid for politicians keep this up, the more weakened and desensitized people will become to words like terrorism and war. Soon, they will be hiring PR firms to craft new words to symbolize people worse than "terrorists" and armed conflict will no longer be called war but something else. The current administration would no doubt prefer "liberation". This is absolutely ridiculous. The rest of the world must think we are the biggest bunch of un-educated sheep.
Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
For the love of the DMCA-Bush-MPAA-alliance, how long does it actually /take/ to equate everything under the sun to an act of terrorism!?!
Come on people, we need to start whipping out these unfounded defacements quicker!
We've already renamed 'French fries' in the capital, but that may not be enough, we actually have to stand up in a court of Bush^H^H^H^Law and accuse anyone that still refers to them as 'French' as being a TERRORIST!
Ha! That'll teach them! Now I must go formulate my plan to charge all McDonalds franchises as terrorist havens thanks to their newly proposed WiFi!
-VolVE
Because, with all the money saved on a pirated copy of MS Office, you can afford to go on vacation.
If Microsoft and the MPAA were to release everything under the public domain, there would be nothing to pirate. Ergo, terrorism would end.
Seems like a good solution for everyone. Microsoft and the MPAA, I implore you to end terrorism! Only you can do it!
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I like to listen to mp3's and watch SVCD's in my SUV while I am high.
from the no-evidence-required-or-desired dept.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...
Now, can Microsoft truthfully claim that they are not terrorists? They use force in getting OEMs to only distribute machines with Microsoft tax. They threaten companies who have decided to support Linux or other operating systems. They strive to demoralize and intimidate everything and everyone. They use Microsoft as a political weapon and have changed laws with their money. Microsoft has fit the definition of terrorism perfectly.
Microsoft is a terrorist organization and they know it. I would not be suprised to see Osama Bin Laden hiding out at the Gates getaway.
They should clamp down on for-profit piracy, and ease off on casual piracy on Kazaa etc.
Local twelve year-old boy downloads "Lord of the Rings: Two Towers" dvd-rip. Later sends love letters to Osama and Saddam. Young lad is rumored to be single-handedly responsible for the September 11 attacks.
More at 4:20.
I have never laughed so hard in my life.
.
.
Wait . . . driving a car funds terrorism . .
Where can we go from there . .
So speeding and using too much fuel which funds terrorists is a terrorist act.
waahahahahaha
This is good to know because, see, I thought the problem in America was people DOWNLOADING their movies and music illegally. Now that we know it's people buying them from Asia, we can stop worrying about file sharing on P2P networks right?
I do security
I don't think terrorism is a good thing, but I'm getting sick of all the reports:
"Sometimes, _________ is used to fund terrorism, so _________ is evil."
Drugs are bad because buying them funds terrorism. Yep, that's right. Even when it's homegrown. :P
I know that all those media conglomerates are the true source of funding for these things. So I'm going to buy my movies from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and friends from now on.
I'm sure I could find just as sketchy of a connection between the media companies and terrorism as they can find between [insert comman activity here] and terrorism.
Trees everywhere, and not a forest in sight.
I don't know why you wouldn't believe that...after all, the Taliban had agreements with the opium producers in Northern Afghanistan. Why should a religious extremist care if you, an infidel, violate God's laws? And if your stupid enough to fund your own destruction, what delicious irony for them.
While I don't like the scare tactics and I'd like to see proof of the cash flow, it should be neither surprising nor controversial that illegal activity feeds on itself to society's detriment.
"... but you can love completely without complete understanding." - Norman Maclean, "A River Runs Through It"
maybe I'm reading into this wrong, but isn't the MPAA/MS the ones funding terrorism?
Some group in Russia is stealing software/DVDs and selling them for profit, that money is going to terrorist groups (supposedly). Is this my fault? Not really. I've never paid money for pirated software, so I know I'm not supporting anyone.
It looks to me like MICROSOFT is the culprit. They're the ones putting software out there to be pirated. The MPAA is releasing DVDs that are getting pirated. Funny, I've never heard of anyone making money pirating linux CDs.
So, listen to Microsoft. Stop supporting piracy. Support open source.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
By stealing a little bit of computer ressources, they are effectively slowly but inexorably shutting-down the Internet.
Time to emigrate folks, before Bush starts heating the ovens. Glad I'm a European. Hope we'll be able to bail you out, like you bailed us out 60 years ago.
All decisions regarding software 'n hardware 'n everything else should be made by Microsoft, whose exemplary record on all security-related items makes it the logical choice. Wouldn't want any 'o them terrorists messing up our thriving economy and the innovative flair of Microsoft, now would we?
if you sell 5 cd/day with M$ win2k with 1-2$ = > 10$. after 300 days you will have 3000$. so, in a year, you could buy 2-3 guns. => in 30-40 years you could have a small army.
:).
it's a really nice plan
This just in, piracy is found to not only contribute to acts of terror, but also is responsible for all known venerial diseases. CDC researchers have found a link between getting payed large amounts of money by the RIAA and discovering virulent diseases linked to piracy.
Unbreakable toys can be used to break other toys.
..terrorists never use basic things such as food and goods shipping, gold and silver markets, thievery, retail sales, or anything else of the sort.
This is someone sitting back in the headquarters of a firm which has lost its way with the world saying, "How can we shake Congress into action on these fronts?" With a snap of their fingers they say "Terrorism! Piracy supports terrorism!"
Is it true? Certainly! And again, it's just as true as every other occupation or activity in the world that can generate revenue - at some point that activity is used by terrorism.
We cannot lose sight of reality in our pursuit of justice.
My reality check bounced.
Know what really contributes to terrorism? Buying oil from terrorist harboring nations.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Here comes the DMCTA ... The Digital Millenium Copyright Terrorist Act.
We all knew Napster was domestic terrorism.
Yes, I agree! They can raise their prices, once the war is won - i.e. we will have lower prices forever, yay!
When you pirate MP3s, you're downloading COMMUNISM!!!
How can you use MS products when you MIGHT be helping terrorists do things so horrible we can't even imagine...there is no moral loophole
Michael conveniently left this part out of his headline, which served to make this bigger flamebait than it really is.
SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
Ok. Since the US public Opinion is running on this "If it's bad it's Supports Terrorism" Nonsense, I've decided to put it to some good use by Saying the following.
"Spam Supports Terrorism".
Think about it.
1) Most spam comes from compainies overseas that can not be identified, move randomly and take advantage of Security Holes to send it.
2) These Anonymous Companies make millions in revenue, and for all we know could be tied to the mob, or Terrorist Organizations.
3) It costs US Companies Millions of dollars Annually, Hurting Our Economy.
4) It attacks unsuspected citizens by using Virus-Like Activity (FriendGreetings for Example) to spread, which could slow the internet down like a DDOS attack.
Im sure I could go on and on but you get the idea
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
All victimless or apparently victimless crimes are dressed up like this by the relevant authorities, in a desperate attempt to get public support for enforcement.
The UK Customs&Excise insists that if you buy cigarettes smuggled over from France you are supporting organised crime and/or terrorism, and explain that if you pay your car mechanic in cash you are also supporting terrorism. This is just another reason for speaking about software licenses as "Microsoft Tax" rather than as payment for services -- enforcement is being defended in the same way.
Think about it, if M$ GPL'd its software, the vast majority of software piracy would be wiped out immediately.
Stick Men
In other words: If you violate American Law anywhere in the world, the Americans are coming after you! Am I the only European getting scared about this kind of thinking?
In Murphy We Turst
Run for the hills!
Say no to software patents.
but undemocratic countries around the world are using exactly the same trick to get rid of everybody who talks about free elections too loudly. Let's shoot the suckers, we're fighting terrorism! It has been 1 1/2 year since 9/11 and the Bush administration still has no exact definition of the word "terrorist". That is good for US foreign policy, but non-US citizens pay for this with their lives.
It's actually a little known fact that Open Source is, directly or indirectly, in close cooperation with Al-Qaida network and other terrorist groups. Linus Torvalds, during his years in Finland, participated in the Finnish wings of PLO, IRA and, when he had time, NSDAP.
Stallman is also a card-carrying islamist, testified beyond doubt by his beard and fanaticism. Al-Qaida was intended to be named GNU/Qaida, but the principal leaders of the group felt that it would have been too obvious a giveaway.
So, would somebody think of the children and put a timely end to this Open Source nonsense (or "Free Software", when we are dealing with more extreme factions)? I'm sure Microsoft, patriots that they are, would be more than happy to contribute resources to this non-profit movement. The future is in our hands!
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Maybe a lot of people are too young to remember, but this is starting to sound a lot like the communism and McCarthyism of the 50s and 60s. If you don't like something or someone, just associate them with terrorism.
VHS movies in Australia already have an extremely lengthy copyright notice that is specifically designed to be played at fast forward and still impart it's propaganda. I had not rented a new release in awhile so was I in for a surprise. The old copyright notice was still there, plus a new one from the "Federation Against Copyright Theft". It featured a glowing-red eyed psychotic making frenzied movements with a branding iron from a blacksmith's oven stamping CD's and other paraphenlia. His movements were similiar to the way a mentally retarded person acts when they are confused or upset, scattering CD's everywhere, etc. The voice over claimed 'pirates' fund terrorism AND drugs and that THEY MUST BE STOPPED.
More hysteria for soccer moms everywhere. I've seen mainstream media pick up on this meme too. As the wise George Castanza once said: "Remember Jerry, It's not a lie if you believe it".
So perhaps the new Open Source and Free Software slogan should be
"Open Source and Free Software does not fund terrorism"
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Most toys these days are made in China. Buy your kid a toy ==> supporting terrorism. Go to McDonalds, order a happy meal -> Chinese made toy inside ==> supporting terrorism.
-MDL
Happy meals fund terrorism
First, the Justice Department guy only said "We are constantly examining possible links between traditional crimes and terrorism, and we will continue to do so. All components of the Justice Department, including CCIPS, the Counterterrorism Section, and the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, will do everything within their power to make sure that intellectual property piracy does not become a vehicle for financing or supporting acts of terror." Nothing else about terrorism. The MicroSoft guy doesn't mention terrorism at all. The chick says "So as you can see, I have a number of issues to discuss, but here at the outset let me make clear that my comments do not purport to make any linkage between piracy and organized crime and terrorism."
:w
This is just Jack wankying away. His big proof is that a bunch of other IP nutters all agree that piracy and terrorism go hand in hand. Especially the IRA.
There doesn't seem to be a transcript of the questioning...
Well thats why I use Limewire and grow my own pot, that way funds go nowhere ;-)
A) so does money laundering, organised extortion, illegal dealing with weapons, and so on - only more so.
B) and they would know, wouldn't they. Yes, software & media companies are the best judges on funding of international terrorism, I'm sure.
C) one more excellent reason to use open source, live concerts, local talent etc. etc. and open source. Did I mention open source? Good.
yes, we have no bananas
If purchasing pirated music promotes terrorism and you can't tell what's a pirate and what's not, your only choice is not to pay for it. Buying music may promote terrorism. Sharing it however does not.
...or you can just support terrorist by supporting the government.
as the H guy: trying to fight a war on two frontlines. While they're busy with Saddam, the Koreans will throw them a nice big pineapple into their Californian backyard!
...to terrorism over a couple of edges. Watch out, Kevin Bacon!
Because people who would otherwise buy pirated DVDs now download movies for free, thus depraving terrorists of their main funding source!
...and a lot of other things. Equally, a lot of other illegal acts fund terrorism.
We all seem to be looking at piracy from the point of MP3 downloads, whereas I think Microsoft at least are viewing it from the viewpoint of pirating software and selling it.
Let's face it, if it's illegal, people want it. If it's illegal, organized crime will use it to raise cash. And pirating software may not bring in the same revenue as drugs, money laundering or anything else, but it's a hell of a lot safer and means that organized crime has a hand in a technology market.
So MS are probably making a good point, except that they nedd to say "some" piracy profits fund terrorism, just in the same way that "some" US companies fund the IRA - the money gets there in the end.
And how is that different that buying M|cro$oft products that fund the BSA?
From the article: "Organized crime syndicates are frequently engaged in many types of illicit enterprises, including supporting terrorist activities," Malcolm said. "All components of the Justice Department...will do everything within their power to make sure that intellectual property piracy does not become a vehicle for financing or supporting acts of terror."
...then so do SUV owners.
I wish people would read the articles before summarizing them *incorrectly*.
Yes, Microsoft & MPAA stated that pirating is rampant and bad.
They did *NOT* state that pirating=terrorism. That statement was made only by the Justice Department (which is not necessarily better, IMHO, but significantly different to the slant that the article lends).
From the article:
John Malcolm, a Justice Department official who oversees the computer crime division, warned the panel about the connections between copyright piracy and terrorism.
"Organized crime syndicates are frequently engaged in many types of illicit enterprises, including supporting terrorist activities," Malcolm said. "All components of the Justice Department...will do everything within their power to make sure that intellectual property piracy does not become a vehicle for financing or supporting acts of terror."
www.christopherlewis.com
I guess in a couple weeks we'll start seeing the commercials that have a guy saying this:
"That $2 'installer CD' I bought on the street in Hong Kong on my last business trip paid for Mohammed Atta's box cutter."
Whatever. Fucktards.
And if it comes down to giving money to terrorists or an evil monopoly, you might as well just flip a coin.
Hello,
Your current administration (most Europeans still make the distinction between the 'average' American and the bunch of NAZI whores running your country), is really starting to worry me.
Thx.
How stock fraud doesn't fund terrorism? Funny how that works...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The argument can't possibly be that all piracy supports terrorism. It's got to be that *some* pirates use piracy to support terrorism.
This really can only be used as a reason to crack down on "commercial piracy" (ie selling pirated copies). It would display flawed logic if this was used as a reason to further crack down on private piracy.
P.S. If you really want to reduce your support to terrorism join a carpool, or start riding your bike to work.
Brittany Spears and N'Sync are fighting the good fight against terrorism. How could I have missed this before? MP3 is actually a 'secret code word' for "Kill the Yankee Devil". My, how we were all so fooled.
Microsoft software "indirectly" funding terrorism? Well there is an easy solution! Just GPL all MS software. The price would drop to $0 and the terrorists would be deprived of a source of revenue.
Come on, Bill. Do your part.
And then the Taliban outlawed opium and actually had some impact on reducing the trade. Try again.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
BULLLLLLLLLLLLSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!
This is nothing more than a power grab. Plain and simple. That's the only explaination.
You want to know who's funding Osama bin Laden? Osama himself is. That wacky guy has almost $300 million dollars, and it's all his. He's bankrolling his own operation. We've already proven that his buddies have also been funding him, too. Hardcore militant Arabs are all about one thing: sticking to their guns and ousting technology in favor of hardline Muslim rule. That means oppressing women, forcing their will on people, and keeping things in the stone age. The only two uses they have for technology is A) Keeping Osama alive (he's on kidney dialasys) and B) using it against us to further his agenda.
Microsoft and the MPAA/RIAA are only concerned about two things: losing money, and keeping control over their respective industries.
I have only two words for them: Fuck 'em.
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
... terrorism and piracy are battled with fascism :))))
I was also under the impression that the major piracy houses in places like Malaysia were actually semi-legitimate companies - that they operated openly, since it's not illegal there. They might very well still have ties to organized crime, which might in turn have ties to various terrorist groups, but it's not any different than a Mafia boss owning a nice resturaunt.
The only act of terror I see here is the MPAA and Microsoft shooting themselves in their respect feet.
I mean, come on, this is taking it a bit far. Gasoline purchases, maybe a bit, yeah, but most of that money goes to propping up the regimes that keep the more fundamentalist/psychotic of the locals firmly in check. Heroin purchases, prior to our ass-whupping of Afghanistan, okay, I can see that...
But pirated software? Give me a fucking break. I'm willing to bet that most of the people that sell illegal copies of the stuff are just out to improve their standard of living...
blog |
Hahahahaha
... anyone want to buy a copy of soldier of fortune 2 for 500$?
"Illegally copied materials can have markups of 900 percent"
Wow
- I'm in the wrong business -
funds domestic terrorism, of the worst kind (pr, that is), & allows continuation of the gottiesque rico stylings, of those phonIE payper liesense stock markup fraud peddlers, upon the pacific crest annex of wall street of deceit.
lookout bullow. details at trustworthycomputing.com
Here's a related link about opium and the ban.
--
Simon
Only copyright law make it possible for terrorists to earn money on unautorized copying. So if you support copyright law, you support terrorism.
Same logic applies to illegal drugs.
you americans need to lay off this paranoia shits ,politics or ideology being supported by sellin pirated CD here.
i live in Inonesia where a CD of software from microsoft,macromedia,adobe, (whatever. you name it, we got it) being sold for merely US$1.00 / RP10.000 a CD (less if youre good at bargaining) and this were sold in every big fancy shopping malls
I know some of the software pirates here in jakarta, and none of them could careless about war, jihad,islam or killin dirty american.
they just care about putting food on their tables. and some of them were the opensource supporter geeks who enjoys pissing over micro$oft face by operating a cluster of 50 CD writers in their mom's house basement, burning 200 bootleg windows XP pro CDs an hour
Now, im not justifying piracy here. im just pointing out that piracy is alive and kickin here strictly for the cause of either poverty, unemployment and weak law (not to mention our lovely corrupt law enforcer) or a combination of above mentioned.
there are no religion
Sure, theres a bunch of hardcore moslem militans in the rural area, but they dont even know how to operate a computer for allah sake...let alone burn a CDs
d035 7hi5 100k 1ik3 4n l337 5i6 2 j00 ?
I just do not understand why every conglomerate,corporation and special interest group has to sink to the level that everything against them has to do with supporting terrorism. We all know that everyone has jumped on this bandwagon to push all of their agendas. They flap , then the media picks it up and then they flap. It is rinse and repeat until they brainwash the public into believing this. And then the lemmings start to follow each each off of the cliff.
The outlying problem is laziness and greed. The MPAAs, RIAAs, and MS's of the world are losing money hand over fist because they sell shitty products and services. In this day the old business models don't work anymore BUT they refuse to open their eyes and see the actual problem is THEM, not the rest of the world. They feel that they are special and above everyone else and think that the public are idiots and try and blame terrorism for their declining revenue.
So Mr CEO can't go out and buy his spoiled brat kid a Mercedes for his/her birthday. These are the idiots who will cut you off on the highway, you toot your horn at them and they think why is this person blowing their horn, I have the right to do what I want. These blue bloods deserve nothing more than to be human shields when the bombs start dropping on Baghdad.
Your know the old saying about glass houses....
The Saudis are stupid helping the shrub out with his insane quest. What do you bet he will do after having defeated Saddam (and laid hand on his large oil stocks)?
Right, he will tackle Saudi Arabia, which actually do fund terrorism (Osama is a Saudi), unlike Saddam, who is as antireligious as you can get.
Indeed, before tackling Saddam, the shrub cannot attack Saudi Arabia, because he needs their oil! Once he has another source of oil, this is no longer a concern!
Of course, during all the time, the shrub needs to watch his back, or else there might be lots of nice giant yellow mushrooms growing in California...
*there seems to be some connection between illegal copying and organized crime*
Yeah . . I downloaded a copy of 'The Godfather" last night.
This is so idiotic, people engage in piracy because it does not cost anything. No payments means no profits. Unless of course they consider the broadband providers to be the organized crime.
I live in Europe, where new CDs cost a fortune. Recently, I paid 22 euros (roughly 23 dollars at current exchange rates) for the new Massive Attack album and couldn't even play it on my computer because of the "copy protection". Given this situation, why wouldn't I engage in piracy instead? So, to continue to use the sloppy thinking of Microsoft, if piracy funds terrorism, and the curren practices of the music industry encourage piracy, then the music industry is encouraging the funding of terrorism!
Technically the Koran bans alcohol produced from fermented grains and fruits. That rules out beer and most wines as well as most distilled liquors. There is one major exception though. Mead, which is made from honey.
Galium Arsenide is the material of the future, and always will be.
I for one don't have a problem with forming a possible link between Asian CD and DVD duplicators making forged copies to generate cashflow, but we need to bifurcate the term 'piracy' before things get too far.
It seems to me that the idea of fabricating copies of something and selling them for profit is a completely different act than downloading an MP3 off the net for personal use.
Even if both are illegal, calling both 'piracy,' hoping to villify the home-downloader with imagry of aiding terrorism is just FUD.
So, if piracy only referred to one of these acts, and a new term covered the other, what should these terms be? I'd propose FORGERY for the act of making duplicate copies and selling them. Anyone?
Kevin Fox
Only because the US paid them $50 million to speak out against opium.
What a great deal we got!
Wow! The Russian mob has somehow taken over Verizon's news sever. I never knew.
For the good of the country, I'll stop all piracy and stick to cruising for pot in my SUV. No, I take that back. I'll stick to cruising for freedom weed in my freedom tank. Those nickel bag guys over there look pretty American to me. As long as they're not Canadians, it should be alright.
I further claim that George W. Bush is a vehicle for financing or supporting acts of terror.
No I'm talking about American terrorism. The Bush family has strong ties to bin Laden's family. And the Saudi government, one which is widely regarded as repressive as the Taleban, is one of the US' closest allies. Including all the family of bin Laden, with the obvious exception of Osama.
As for the thought that violation of copyright supports terrorism; even if this ridiculous suggestion were true, would that be a reason to punish kids that buy pirated stuff or rip their own stuff? Because that's who the MPAA and MS will try to punish.
This is left as an exercise for the reader.
Burning a mix CD of Moog Cookbook supports terrorism, but a "Christian" country unilaterally declaring war on a Muslim nation doesn't?
The requested URL
...some of the stuff that goes on in Congress.
On Sept 11, Mr. Bush said that the terrorists wanted to take away our freedom. Congress then decided to take away our freedom by passing the USA Patriot Act.
The United States government supports terrorism!
Looks like that "new business model" is still a long way off. I suppose region coding amd preventing home users installing XP three times is going to thwart bin Laden and his cronies too?
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
If the current big evil was pollution, I'm sure they'd be coming up with some way to say that piracy was causing pollution... surely all those poorly run pirate factories are big polluters, right?
I would guess that a lot of the anti-civil-liberties laws that got shoved through recently were not created recently. I bet they were just waiting around for a good enough excuse that the public would accept it.
I hope you're not pretending to be evil while secretly being good. That would be dishonest.
I know everyone else is complaining about "I download this off kazaa, it funds terrorism bs", and that is how the MPAA / Microsoft might be trying to push it, but I have no doubt that a lot of piracy is controlled by organized crime. No, not the downloaded kind, but the kind you buy off the street. The last figure I heard was that 75% or so of porn in the world was controlled by the mafia, so I don't doubt that piracy is the same.
Yes everyone is pushing the 9/11 murders to get what they want, but to really understand it we need to go back to the 1950's and see this as a cold way, where anything that went against "US" was communism and needed to be destroyed and no measure however wrong and evil would not be used to stamp it out.
We are now back to the same thing. The old Cold War warriors are back (Pointdexter?) and they want it all. We can only hope that generation will eventuall die and that way thinking and living (in fear and distrust of everything) will die into the past.
But for now, dont make a mistake, this is a power grap that is so naked, that even most average citizens are seeing it for what it is and they are reacting to it. They dont want to go back to the times of "Duck and Cover", or "Duct(tape) and Cover(all ventilation)"
Bush and the old guard are really screwing the pooch on this one. Even we to to war and win(im not against) the way things have been handled, the way ashcroft and rumsfield have tried to grap everything in sight, Bush will not win re-election.
The Cold war is over, let it die, guys.
This is something different. I dont know what it is , but fear and paranoia are not the way to react.
I would appreciate hearing from you all
Sigs are dangerous coy things
Don't forget masturbation. Every time you masturbate, a terrorist gets his wings.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
It has just become a matter of Micros~1 and MPAA allowing free replication and distribution of their so beloved Intelectual Property.
Terrorist organizations will therefore go bankrupt.
-><- no
Conversely, we could say that Free Software and Open Source are not helping terrorists because they cannot be pirated...
So, we could say that proprietary software is evil.
And there's a War on Evil!
Do they really think these things through?
Other things that fund terrorism:
Drugs Fund Terrorism
The Drug War Funds Terrorism
Porn Funds Terrorism
Saudi Arabia Funds Terrorism
Also, Diamonds, Weapons, Charities, Muslims, Extortion, bin Laden, and Al-Queda funds terrorism
Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
So, driving to work in my Lincoln Navigator while smoking dope and listening to my pirated copy of Rage Against the Machine was probably not the best way to start the day?
Milo
What they are basicly saying is that some people sold some stuff, then MAYBE gave the money to the bad guys. This is like saying that capitalism fund terror.
This is like the really awful adds they have been running in the states where they talk about drug money funding terrorists.
What this means is that the US "War on drugs" fund s terrorism, as it is the current laws that artificially inflate the prices of narcotics to the point where it is highly profitable to sell them. You would think the US would have learned this lesson during Prohibition when the banning of alcohol pushed usage through the roof and funded the growth of organized crime.
Artificial scarcity has created the whole drug economy. Remove that factor and it will no longer have the huge profit margin. Remove the profit margin and incentive to produce and distribute will be reduced, as well as the money available to be spent on weapons, bribes, and other criminal/terrorist groups.
Will it end drug traffic? No. Will it make it a heck of a lot harder for the organized groups involved to pay for weapons, transport, and bribes? Yes. You have to ask yourself which is more dangerous. People screwing themselves over of their own free will as they already do, or large well funded, armed, influencial groups that are activly working to increase their sales and protect their profit.
Enough of this. The "x funds terrorism" crap is getting just stupid. In fact, now I'm thinking of making a Six-Degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon type game: "Everything Funds Terrorism".
Basically, the user searches on an industry or activity, and -ideally in six steps or less- it's put into a chain of other industries or activities, leading back to terrorism.
I'm only half-joking; this would make an interesting project, and I hope it would get the point across: that terrorism must not be allowed to significantly impact our lives. Because that really is how they win, by dominating us through fear.
(insert cheesy melodramatic music)
In the interest of international security and a reduction in terrorism, I think the MPAA and Microsoft need to step up and give the world freedom to copy their work...
(a single tear rolls down my cheek)
Do it for the children.
Do it for the world.
Do it, because it's the right thing to do...
--
Was it the sheep climbing onto the altar, or the cattle lowing to be slain,
or the Son of God hanging dead and bloodied on a cross that told me this was a world condemnded, but loved and bought with blood.
Prohibition caused selling alcohol to be more profitable, thus funnelling money to gangs. Pirating Windows is profitable and can be used to funnel money to terrorist organisations. But *why* is selling Windows profitable?
Likewise, DRM technologies generally work by making it inconvenient or expensive to make copies. As a result, the only people who do make copies are professional pirates--those who can make money off of the copies to pay for the equipment and, presumably, use the excess to fund terrorism.
Therefore, Hollywood and the music industry must immediately stop using any sort of copy protection at all and lower their prices worldwide. Furthermore, all file-sharing networks must immediately be legalized and legitimized worldwide. Only in this way can they undercut the pirates and dry up this source of funds for terrorists.
I realize that it's a big sacrifice for the content industries, but it's one that must be made and I, for one, salute them for it.
How does something I don't pay for support terrorism? Someone explain.
I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class. Especially since I rule. -Randal, Clerks
where in either one of the articles it indicated that the MPAA or MS testified that piracy was linked to terrorism? I'm not a fan of the MPAA or MS, and it was certainly apparent that the hearing was more of a soapbox opportunity than a true effort to gain insight into a perceived problem. That being said, leave the erroneous, sensationalist headline to the tabloids. They reduce the credibility of any point you are trying to make.
If you are looking for a good book about real pirates and their lifestyle. Get 'The pirate hunter: The true story about Captain Kidd' great read, and interesting to boot.
Software is like manure, it isn't good for anything unless it is spread around encouraging young things to grow.
I don't know what my point is, maybe that Microsoft is really gouging consumers with Office(TM). What do you think?
Hmmm... Given the above, is Microsoft helping to fund terrorism? I mean, not every who needs Office(TM) can afford to purchase it legally, so they are forced to "pirate" it... :)
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
So probably the next target of US army to invade will be Nigeria, and the next Osama Bin Laden will be Mariam Abacha
I realize that this is /. and all, but seriously, did anyone RTFA before posting? Nowhere does it say that MS said that terrorism and piracy was linked. Organized crime, yes. Not terrorism. There is a BIG difference. For those who didn't read it, it was the Justice Department that made the connection between terror and piracy.
I wonder how many were parked in the parking lot at this conference?
BTW, this is a legitmate argument, not flamebait.
Read more about it here.
My Karma was at 49, then they switched to words. All that work for nothing!
Sure Piracy might help fund terrorism BUT M$ helped train them!
Are the biggest funder of terrorists in the world then!!!
Whatever you do, don't buy drugs first, or you won't get around to doing the rest.
this will work against microsoft. 'terror' is such an ambiguous word.. perfect for starting wars and getting knee-jerk reactions. eventually though 'terror' 'terroris' and 'terrorism' will become so ridiculously trite they'll have to think up a new boogey man.
I don't spend any money buying legit software, and I sure as HELL don't spend any money on buying pirated software.
I'm not funding anybody but myself.
When I was job hunting last year, I used the then-current catch phrase on prospective employers: "If you don't hire me, the terrorists win!". It didn't work out too well.
We already know that drugs and SUVs fund terrorism. Basically anything we don't like (cigaretts, firearms, etc.) don't want, and, most of all, don't want anybody else to have, funds terrorism.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
It should be neither surprising nor controversial that legal activity also feeds itself to society's detriment. After all, if you have any significant number of followers, the only thing you need to do to raise money, is to give your followers menial jobs.
At the same time, don't trivialize a claim. For example, the recent convictions on cigerette smuggling used to fund terrorism. The smuggling was done right here in the old U.S. of A. So it is plausible that other avenues of crime are being used, including sales of drugs.
What I am trying to say is be skeptical, but don't dismiss outright.
As the Bush administration induced this highly irrational terrorist-mania after 11.9. to get carte blanche for whatever they want to do, I fear things like this since about spring last year.
Americans be careful where you go, one can easily find parallels to what happened in Germany around 1933!
cu
Kosi
I wonder how much of the weapons the US sells abroad ends up in the hands of terrorists? How about the weapons our so called allies sell? That's what should be stopped.
History is so yesterday!
Masturbation kills kittens. Returning library books late causes illiteracy in hillbillies. Cheating on your income tax returns causes rogue politicians.
1) Create a monopoly or a trust
2) Convince everyone that anything that works against said monopoly funds terrorism
3) ???
4) Profit!
Much like Hollywood "re-tells" old movies, this is just a re-telling of the old McCarthy Hearings in the 50s. Instead of Communism, they're searching for any remote link to terrorism. If you have a friend who's muslim, they'll claim you're doing something that supports terrorism, even if your friend was born and raised in the US.
They'll slap a fake nose on you and label you a terrorist because you float in water. It's just that ridiculous.
-- Does anybody know where the 'any' key is on the keyboard?
Just hear me out
Women want tanzinite earings, necklaces, rings, etc
Men want to make women happy so they can get sex, so they buy the tanzinite piece
So if men would stop wanting sex, they would stop buying tanzinite, and then men could blame terrorism on women since they would be the only demographic purchasing the gem
With that said, I think that shows just how rediculous this post is since I could probably link anything to terrorism and show why we should stop buying or doing somethig in the name of "freedom" or "anti-terrorism"
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
Where Do Terrorists Get Their Money? (Real format embedded)
If you can't view Real format video directly in your browser, here is a complete URL that you can cut 'n' paste into the "Open Location" menu item of Real Player, or use "Open With":
http://www.adbusters.org/abtv/movies/spotlight/Thi nkTank3/real_high.rpm
Thanks go to Adbusters.org.
--
Simon
All children will be confiscated and raised in state-run facilities in a standard ISO Certified Environment. Care takers will work in pairs and those pairs rotated on a regular basis. Any hint of subversion (IE: Mentioning any form of religion, attempting to molest or otherwise mishandle the children, etc) will be reported and punished appropriately. Secret police agents will be rotated into the caretaker list from time to time to insure that caretakers are reporting suspecious behavior on the part of their co-workers. Any form of religion will not be mentioned and critical thinking skill development will be encouraged.
Forcing the interbreeding of the diverse races will also be a long term goal of the regime. At some point the state would probably find it necessary to require citizens to breed across racial lines, until everyone is a single ISO Certified color of Tan. Personally I think this is the only way to resolve the Israel/Palestinian problem too, but I have yet to find a way to a position to force the issue in those populations.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
This is about as credible as linking Iraq and Saddam to Al Q'aida (sp?) and bin Laden.
If I can pirate something for free on KaZaa or eDonkey, why would I buy it from pirates? I might want to buy a pirated DVD because downloading movies takes so long, but then I'd only be saving a few bucks over a legit DVD.
I suppose the next logical step is to link the Open Source movement to terrorism. Some have already implied this. It would help them fight Linux and other Open Source software (much of which I prefer to proprietary software), by branding those who support its use as terrorist symapthizers. The link is even more proposterous. Open Source projects have no money, nor can they can go and make any.
This space left intentionally blank.
now i remember, since everything that is sold generates money, and money buys guns. everything sold outside the US supports terrorism if the MPAA or M$ feel threatened. jeez.
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
Funds Terrorism. As does Drug Money, Prostitution, Illegal Immigrant Smuggling and of Course working for any Fortune 100 Company! ... Puhlease!!!
If the government is going to make such a tenous argument as piracy funding terrorism they should at least consider other possibilities. An equally, maybe more, justifiable position is that foreign oil funds terrorism.
That link doesn't mention the $43 million we paid them to declare opium anti-Islamic. Or that the Bush administration did this in May of 2001.
Reminds me of this parody.
OK, another agenda packed onto the Terrorism Bus...
We can't smoke, drink, drive, copulate, deviate, masturbate or listen to MP3s because in some way we'll be aiding and abetting the terrorists. Speaking out is the same as lighting the fuse, because then the terrorists would have won. Don't change your privacy policy because then the terrorists would have won. Don't limit spam because then the terrorists would have won.
So Baby Jesus is there, thoughts of a temple disruption brewing in his terrorist mind, while the memory of the terrorist Moses killing an Egyptian is still being whispered softly...
Most of the terrorists get their money from charities. The Philipine terrorist group Abu Sayaff have admitted they recieve money from Iraq through Islamic Charities. The suicide bombers families in Isreal automatically recieve $24,000 compliments of Iraq. The Saudi's have set up hundreds of so called charities that funnel money directly to Al Qaeda. So should we assume all charity is bad and outlaw all charities? I don't see the FBI raiding terrorist cells using limewire! At least not yet!
This is the political version of FUD.
...."
Pick something that people hate and use the hatred of as a vechicle to drive all kinds of crap under the nose of joe public
"Uh huh, we'd like clean air too buddy, but you know it's them damn terrorists"
"Drilling for oil in the rain forest, before we sell it to the corporate burger guys to raise cattle in inhumane conditions, we'd love to stop it too but you know it's them damn terrorists"
"we'd love to stop bugging your phone but you know
repeat until the next election, kiss baby, smile, wave at camera.
I am taking suggestions, on what will take over from Terrorism, open source anyone?
--My sig is bigger than your sig--
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
is that you should create your own pirate copies at home, rather than chance buying a pirate copy that could fund terrorism.
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
I bet these terrorists do their accounts on Excel spreadsheets.
For instance, both Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols received their training in the U.S. army, does that make the U.S. army a terrorist organization? The U.S. trained most of the high level participant of the mass murders in central and south America, particularly during the Reagan/Bush administration. Does that make Reagan a terrorist? There are several countries that would love to see Kissinger brought up on crimes against humanity charges.
In this country and in this world we love to buy diamonds and emeralds. Both come from parts of the world where so-called terrorist operate. The sale of both, but particularly diamonds, likely directly benefit organizations that commit act of terror, not because they receive donations, but because they control the supply chain.
Of course we buy oil directly from the people that we accuse of being the terrorists.
Of course some people might say all the examples are for legal trade, and it is ok to support terrorism if the product is legal. For instance it is perfectly ok to support your local church even if your local church terrorizes children, doctors, minorities, or expectant mothers. This may be true.
OTOH, it is still clear we pick and choose those things we wish to link with terrorism. For instance, in the U.S. Cuba is certainly considered a terrorist county. Whether we agree with it or not, it is the one country we seriously boycott. When left wing fanatics go to visit, the right wing fanatics call them supporters of terrorism. So why is it, then, that Cuban cigars are not linked to support of terrorism, even though they are illegal in the U.S? Why is it that Cigar Aficionado can run articles praising the cigars? Why is it that we do not have hearing in Washington to include Cuban Cigars in our war on drugs, and punish the possessors of such illegal drugs as we would any other addict? Why isn't Cigar Aficionado labeled a supporter of terrorism in hearing on the hill?
Why is it that we are so jaded that we are more concerned with using death and destruction as a political tool rather than trying to stop death and destruction?
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
yeah! and dont forget that open source software is supportive of terrorism too! in fact, anything that causes big business to lose money is supportive of terrorism! im not being sarcastic at all right now! not one bit!
Gyrate Dot Org - "Where high-tech meets low-life"
Burning a mix CD of Moog Cookbook supports terrorism, but a "Christian" country unilaterally declaring war on a Muslim nation doesn't?
Like I said, I don't like the war, and am confused on what intelligence the US Govt does have...
The horsecrap that you are shilling above is quite possibly the most ridiculous statement that I have ever seen. That is like saying that the alliance counter-attacked Hitler because he wasn't a Christian. Truly uneducated. And poorly stated... because of the serious slew of information that is out there. READ A LITTLE. Stop listening to your college buddies that are getting all of their war opinions from a 20 year old on MTV. Two of my best friends at work are in Kuwait (I am a news videographer)with the 101st right now. So I might have an idea about what is happening over there. You would too if you paid attention. There are a whole bunch of media outlets... read them all instead of only believing the gospel of the ones that have a fist in the air as their logo.
The last three military police actions in the United States have been at the protection of Muslims or Muslim Nations. If anyone remembers Bosnia, the Christians were slaughtering the Muslims, so we intervened. Kinda shoots your theory full of holes, does't it?
Besides, if you really want to get to the truth, Muslims historically have been the ones to strike first for religious differences. ONCE AGAIN, READ A LITTLE.
Like I said, currently I am not happy about this war, but I am much more unhappy about bald faced ignorance in both camps than I am about us going after a complete nutjob.
Here is an english version of a recent article in Pravda (influential russian newspaper) that uncovers where Microsoft donations were going for years.
if they are such anti-terror organization why do they send a team of sales droids (terrorists) when you trying to switch to Linux??? Provacative and stupid and if the idiots in washington beleive them they are even dummer than I ever thought. I guess 1+1 does equal 11 in microsofts eyes.
"It's more dangerous than we thought"... What a bunch a shit...
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Except now the farmers are making even more $$$ than the taleban ever did, thanks USA for liberating them !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/26619
"Last autumn, the UN reported that poppy harvests in Afghanistan had increased 18-fold in 2002 after a dramatic drop the year before following a Taleban ban on production.
Farmers had taken advantage of a power vacuum before the collapse of the Taleban in 2001 to plant the crop. "
OK, so MS and the MPAA are complaining that the lax foreign legal systems are causing large scale piracy, and that the money from these enterprises is going to fund terrorism.
Simple Solution: we need to relax out copyright laws to the point that piracy is no longer a viable source or income.
Problem solved.
This repulsive profiteering should cause public opinion to sway against these bastards, but it won't, because "the war on terror" is one of the best marketing ploys ever.
Carpe Deez
1. U.S Consumer buys Microsoft Software.
2. Government take sales tax.
3. Government gives money to Osama bin Laden to fight socialist/imperialist Russia
It all depends on your point of view
Does anyone else see the irony in paying an Al Qaida footsoldier 27 million dollars to capture Kahlid Shaikh Mohammed?
Where do you think that 27 mil is going to go...Most likely into a bunch of pirated copies of XP right!
Shut the fuck up you fucking retard.
There had to be a flag to wave, the "It causes cancer" and "It causes AIDS" banners were getting nowhere.
No wonder I always get stomped by the arabs while playing my pirated copy of C&C generals, al quaeda musta funded it.....
How would me downloading something off the net 100% free support terrorism?
This is the biggest load of horse crap I've seen in months!
I feel sorry for the idiots that believe this crap.
It's a sad fact that the vast majority of the people in this country are LEMMINGS that get thier marching orders from FOX news which is the most skewed propaganda outlet on the planet...
If more talk like this get's to the people in congress and the government, this could soon encompass the 'you're either with us, or against us' attitude the infects the current administration.
Why is this not good?. For quite a few reasons. Many in the free software and open source community face various uphill battles when trying to use or get others to use non-commercial, specifically, non-m$ products. Linking piracy of IP to terrorism starts sending the message that anyone interested in not buying software could be deemed a non-patriotic (think France and the Florida Freedom Fries and Liberty dressing if you don't follow me) and someone helping anyone that doesn't necessairly fall in line with the accepted point of view of what's legal and what isn't, is gonna soon be in trouble.
I'm all for supporting the software industry and making money selling software. However, the price barrier for purchasing software in other countries is sometimes so high, that the only alternative is to get a pirated copy. This monolithic view of buy our software at the price we set, period!, can only play well in economies that can support the cost. If m$ would instead take this as maybe their customers outside of wealthy countries cannot afford $199 for a version of XP and we will then adjust accordingly and fairly, then I think there would actually be less piracy. However, Bill did not become the worlds richest man being fair.
That said, when a proven monopoly, who got off scott free, links these circumstances to terrorism, it basically opens the door for the U.S. govt to now start not only being the morality police of the world, but the information police. This is not far fetched. When a company pushes the way m$ has for Palladium, Digital Restrication Management, and product activation, closed 'standards', they basically start controlling how you can and cannot access information. As time rolls on this will become more and more critical as more and more of the world hits the net and connects with other. This is textbook civics/government high school class stuff.
These issues are well documented through many writers on many sites. The connection of information, freedom to own what you buy (not a license to use it), intellectual property, and the linking of piracy to terrorism makes for a dim future for everyone who does not want to, cannot follow along (land of the free?) or cannot afford ot license every idea and process under the sun. The America for the individual will be fine as long as you play within the boundries set by the few like Valenti, Gates, Ashcroft (remember how he said the latest m$ court 'ruling' was a victory for the consumer??) - their vision of morality and what constitutes fairness.
Frankly, this persuades me more and more to let friends and family know that their use of products that these companies crank out, will restrict their freedom more and more as time rolls on. As technologies like Palladium and DRM mature and are used more widely throughout the world, these issues will be harder, if not impossible to dodge and the way the net and our machines work now, will not exist. It is up to everyone who sees this to do their part, however small. Support the FSF, Non-M$ anything, your local/fav Linux distro, contribute some code or time to a os/gpl/free project, or purchase hardware from alternate non-M$ only hardware manufacturer (are there any?). Along with our voices, our dollars will be the most significant in making sure that we will have a choice in the future.
Something to actually worry about from this article is that it is the DOJ which is trying to expand the definition of 'Terrorism' to include software and music piracy. Under the twin brother to Patriot Act (currently waiting for Congress to have the living shit scared out of them again) they will be able to expatriate (that is, revoke citizenship) those who 'support terrorism', a term which is not defined.
Therefor, if the Bush administration gets what they want, if you have a single illegal mp3 on you're computer, you can be shipped off to Guantanamo Bay to be tried by a kangaroo court ^H^H^H^H^H military tribunal, and shot.
Isn't it great to be an American?
I get my news from a lot of different sources, and I think about it. I believe a US-led war on Iraq is entirely justified, as well. After one madman bent on your destruction is *not* attacked, and then kills thousands of innocent Americans, it is perfectly justified to seek out other madmen bent on your destruction--Does anybody, even the French, put forth that Saddam is not a madman, or is not highly interested in doing harm to the U.S.?
I just worry that Iraq and its surrounding nations will propagandize this (as history shows they have before) and use it as a tool to create more, not less terrorism. Justified or not, it will still bring a lot of negative consequences when we win--maybe more than if we didn't do it at all.
The requested URL
"The subtext to that film is terrifying"
You're confusing that film with "The Seige"
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
You know, that Jack Valenti.
"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."
"What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law."
And my fave,
"I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my president. "
That's an old one, but sort of illustrates the point. Jack Valenti is a ridiculous dinosaur from the Johnson administration, and he still thinks like a military guy from that era. He's not an idiot, but he is massively self-deluding, and you can count on him to not concede anything he doesn't absolutely have to. Like many old-school execs, Valenti will never totally grasp the fact that scarcity of media is history. He'd rather fight than adapt. Which is a shame - as these types of organizations (MPAA studios, etc.) essentially have a first-shot opportunity when situations like P2P arise, through startup capital and established contracts.
It's rhetoric. He does it to get a rise out of people. It's the Bigger Hammer approach. You can try and yell louder, or you can ignore him.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Education is the silver bullet.
It can be proven.
Piracy dosn't fund anything if you don't pay for pirated matl. Of course, then it supports Communism.
"Organized crime syndicates are frequently engaged in many types of illicit enterprises, including supporting terrorist activities," Malcolm said.
The shocker about that statement is that Valenti would have love to have made that comment and Gates wants everyone to believe it.
Looking for a job?
Want your resume written professionally?
DON'T USE TUNAREZ!!!
Let's face it, Microsoft has time and time again (explorer can't be removed from windows anyone?) proven in the past that their testimonies aren't worth anything.
Curiously I was under the impression that lying in these circumstances was against US laws. Then again, I'm not from the US, are they required to tell the truth in these testimonies?
Hashish is marijuana. In fact, that was *the* name for it until it was villified and became illegal at the beginning of last century.
Not to mention that in some of these countries, opium is the only real cash crop. Farmers will grow whatever the market demands; they can't afford not to.
BTW, back about 1980ish there was an article published by (IIRC) the Federal Trade Commission, which stated that somewhere between 20% and 30% of the U.S. economy was based on mob money, and that if the Mafia were all taken out at once, the economy would collapse overnight. The problem is, mob money ALSO funds lots of perfectly legit businesses, like your example of a nice restaurant.
Or... is Waste Manangement your trash pickup company? In that case, I've got news for you... it's not just a Sopranos in-joke, it's for real.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
This is just stupid and silly. Everyone knows that piracy is behind kiddie porn, not terrorism. Comon' people, let's get it right this time!
You cant take religion away without giving something back to the human psyche, the unconscious needs the symbols and Archetypes that are found in religions, if you take them away probably the strong religous beliefs people wont find a meaning for life anymore and, and more likely are going to fight back to get them back.
Terror?, common guys, you know from where it comes. Hint: What country is promoting war, kills and suffering?. What is going to happen after this war?. A counter strike, more terror.
How long do you think it will be before Microsoft decides to proclaim that open source software supports terrorism?
Even the "just say no" administration sold drugs to fund its cover ops. If it was good enough for Ronnie.....
"Doctor, it's not the voices I hear in MY head, but the voices I hear in YOUR head that really frighten me."
By that logic, squirrels are funding terrorism. After all, gasoline comes in part from countries like Iraq and it takes a little extra gas to avoid a squirrel that runs out in the road, so squirrels are funding terrorism. :)
Reeve the cat
Fuck Jack Valenti! ..... and the MPAA.
Fuck Jack Valenti!
Fuck Jack Valenti!
For now, at least, the corporations are not exactly synonymous with the government.... even if they do pull the strings.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
As everybody knows, the 9/11's terrorists were trained using Flight Simulator. Therefore the first thing we should get rid of is Microsoft, the Mother Of All Terrorism. QED.
--
"Copyright was originally the grant of a temporary government-supported monopoly on copying a work, not a property right. Its sole purpose was to encourage the circulation of ideas by giving creators and publishers a short-term incentive to disseminate their work." --The Economist
So I'm supposed to feel sorry for the richest company in the world and one of the wealthiest industries because "pirates" are stealing their "warez"? Ok, I'll put them on my prioritized pity list. I think I have a little more pity for your average lottery winner but less pity for the hairy mole on my ass.
Hollywood and Microsoft are uniting to warn Congress that their intellectual property is being stolen and resold by organized-crime gangs around the globe
How about somebody unite to warn congress that we've got 40 fucking million people in this country without health insurance?
"Organized crime syndicates are frequently engaged in many types of illicit enterprises, including supporting terrorist activities,"
Give me a break. There are a million ways to make money to "support terrorism." I'm sure terrorist activities are actually funded by LEGAL income as much if not more than illegal income.
The MPAA and Microsoft, as usual, can fuck off. We've got better things for our politicians to waste their time with this. Please. They have more than enough problems to solve. This kind of shit just gums up the works.
Trying to stir up support for a commercial activity using the emotion stirred up by the possibility of war, hurridly put together subscription news streaming services - is there no end to the lengths these parasites will go to in their quest to capitalise on the possibility of death and destruction. Plastic model of a B2 bomber with your Happy Meal sir ?
So what if I ride in my SUV and listen to a pirated CD while smoking marijuana? Does that make me a terrorist, or just a bad driver?
I just picked up Tom Clancy's Shadow Warriors - Inside the Special Forces. Great stuff - General Carl Stiner helped write the book so it is plenty accurate with detailed information about the Special Forces (except where it would compromise national security).
For example, it talks about the exact reasons the Iranian hostage recovery failed in 1980. BTW - sales of this book DO NOT SUPPORT TERRORISM.
and, oh yeah, fuck the french
The terrorists win!
--
For the book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us."
I read this and I was shocked and amazed. I had no idea that the big monopolies had such dedicated copyright staff that they were also an anti-terrorism orginization!
But seriously, regardless of the actual validity of the statement, they remain full of crap. Thier past action show clearly they will take any strategy to try to get what they want. This will range from unfair licenseing agreements, to buyign off lawmakers, to trying to legalize otherwise illegal acts. Holding up the spectre of 'terrorism' is really a shameful ploy. It really does belittle those who suffered and died because of acts of terrorists.
Of course on ther other hand you could say that monopolies and big business cause connunism:)
Let's pretend Microsoft always tells the truth. Therefore, we can easily see that the solution to this problem is that the FBI and any other Nazi outbacks should stop their investigations into any online file traders. Online file trading, be it for music, movies, or software, on P2P networks is not a monetary transaction. When you prevent people from getting the goods for free [couple this with the fact that buying legitimate goods is vastly overpriced: 20 bucks for a fucking cd? Suck MY dick!] they will then turn to the next best thing - cheap copies from the Far East. So, by going after warez groups online, who aren't making profits and are merely trying to pirate overpriced crap, the FBI is funding terrorism. It is because they are driving the warez groups out of town that the Asian market is opening up and funneling money to terrorism.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
Just like the VCR will kill the movie industry, right? And whatever is left after that will be destroyed by stores like Block Buster Video that rent movies.
It wasn't that long ago when the U.S sent quite a few nasty missles to Iraq to use against Iran. I think this helped terrorists a little more than downloading Windows XP from Kazaa.
Isn't it quite typical in such irrationally panic-filled times to declare ones enemies witches/communists/terrorists and then let the mob do the dirty work? It seems like the MPAA and MS should be the ones to burn for unscrupulously taking advantage of such mob mentality.
Wait? Who pays for pirated things? How does that help terrorists? Doesn't piracy not pay anybody? The only one making any cash in piracy that I see is the lowest cost CD brand.
*I would like to state for the record that I am not a pirate*
I had a flame... but she had a fire.
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, terrorism funds piracy. AR'RR, lower the gunwhales and prepare to board ship!! Are these things funny ... ever? Thought not ...
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
That's a funny way to think of it, but that's what they're looking for, right?
...more laws to coerce users into tight license agreements and light fair use definitions?
Sure, it's great when the government will allow and even support strapping customers down to milk the remaining life from them.
Using fear just like the terrorists...
There are three possibilities:
- They are pulling this speculation out of their asses.
- They have personal ties to terrorists and were able to witness it first hand.
- It is just common sense that everything eventually funds a bad guy somewhere, since when you get down to it, there's just one big world economy.
So which one is it, Jack?BTW, Microsoft people, what's it like to have your company's name spoken in the same breath as MPAA? What charming company you keep.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Apparently Camp X-Ray if you dare pirate M$ software.
.
Seriously, this is the kind of news about Microsoft that you should forward to all of your friends, along with notes letting them know that there's other alternatives.
If M$ succeeds any further with their domination the whole computing experience is going to be ruined, no matter what platform you're running. I mean, you have to question what motivates the richest man in the world to still try and gain more control, it's certainly not money, so it must be power . .
Of course, Bill's attitude fits in well right now with the US's proposed neocolonialist efforts in Iraq -- so they probably make a perfect team. You have to wonder what more the most powerful country in the world wants, when it attempts to control through proxy every other nation. In either case, it's not a good thing.
When your power reaches a certain stage you have a few options. One is to use your power to benefit everyone, and be satisfied that you've reached the top. The other is to have an all or nothing attitude, try and seize everything, and wager ruining yourself, and everyone under you in the process -- because hey, what fun is life once you've reached the top? The only other thing you can do is push it to the edge.
Russia expanded too far, now look at it. Britain expanded to nearly all of the globe, and now it's not controlling even half of that. If Microsoft follows the history of colonialism and imperialism, then they will almost definitely fall. The problem isn't their reign, and how long it will be, but the damage they do in between. Case in point, under colonialist conditions enough damage can be done to a nation's morale that it takes years to fully recover, not to mention the damage done by an outside culture attempting to destroy the formally dominate culture (the heavy usage of French, and its tremendous effect on pure Arabic in places such as Tunisia and Algeria come to mind).
The point is, never think that computers are politically neutral ground. For the past 5-7 years I think M$ has proven that who ends up controlling certain aspects of technology either makes it an enjoyable, or absolutely horrific experience for all.
Software pirates make the pubs shut early?
Comedy gold!
Osama bin Laden made all his money selling pirated DVD's of "The Sheikh of Araby"...
Let's see, what other commodity could possibly have been funding terrorism for FIFTY YEARS...
Oh, wait, could it be...OIL?
Now what does the Bush family traffic in...
And why has George been documented having business partners who also do business with the bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia...?
And Dick Cheney's former company is up for a fat contract to rebuild the Iraq oil fields if they get blown up...
And P2P gets the blame?
Seriously, are there any studies which compare the total amount of diversion of revenues from so-called "legitimate" enterprises to terrorism vrs the total amount of "piracy" revenues? Until then, this argument is a joke by morons...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
The ny times says that this guy wants to be a suicide bomber but that his other dream is to be a programmer for Microsoft.
Does anyone remember the rules about statistics? Or specifically about correlations and cause-effects?
"These groups will not hesitate to threaten or injure those who tend to interfere with their operations,"
Wait, are we talking about P2P users, or M$ themselves? "Illegally copied materials can have markups of 900 percent"
Get real. That is what the LEGAL versions do. I used to work at a major retail chain. The MOST expensive DVD we bought was $1.69. Most were less. The cheapest we sold was $40. Some, like Caligula, we bought for $1 and sold for $100! P2P users, on the other hand, usually get 0% markup, as it is shared free. Sometimes, it even COSTS them (time, energy, hard drive space).
"For too long, people engaged in piracy believed that if they were outside the borders of the United States , they could violate our intellectual property laws with impunity," Malcolm added. "They were wrong. This indictment and the extradition sends a clear and unequivocal message to everybody involved in illegal piracy that regardless of where you are, the Justice Department will find you, investigate you, arrest you, prosecute you, and incarcerate you."
BS. If this were true, big companies (like M$) couldn't get patents on things that are in common usage. People like AOL couldn't force pengaol to loose their domain. You only get persecuted (yes, persecuted) if you are the one with lower-paid lawyers. Not to mention, even if NO ONE made illegal copies of M$ software, they could STILL claim a 20% loss - due to the law assuming pirating is taking place.
"I can't help but sit here and wonder ... if parents fully understand the ramifications of what it is to steal a movie or pirate a song,"
Why don't we ask the recording label? I am sure that many artists feel like they have no rights over what they created. An artist (musical artist, author, whatever) is not ALLOWED to give you permission to use their work -- because they don't own it. They loose all rights to it to get it published.
"Jack Valenti, president and chief executive officer of the MPAA, described a couple examples of copying operations that had been raided outside the U.S. , and he said 26 copying factories in Russia can copy 300 million DVDs and CDs a year. He claimed his industry is losing billions of dollars a year to piracy,"
The MPAA's entire industry is based off doing exactly that! You think the artist gets full price per DVD/CD? Many artists claim (in interviews) that they receive NO MONEY from cd sales, just from gigs and memorabilia. Sounds like the MPAA is pissed off that the people are fighting back against their piracy.
"I think it'd be a good idea to go out and actually bust a couple of these college kids," Carter said. "If you want to see college kids duck and run, you let them read the papers and somebody's got a 33-month sentence in the federal penitentiary for downloading copyrighted materials."
If that was true, no one in college would do drugs now, would they?
All in all, my solution? Don't let the government take advice from M$ or the MPAA -- everyone knows they are bigger crooks than the people they complain about.
http://www.google.com/profiles/malachid
Representative John Carter, a Texas Republican, suggested that college students would stop downloading if some were prosecuted and received sentences of 33 months or longer, like the defendants in the DOJ's Operation Buccaneer. "I think it'd be a good idea to go out and actually bust a couple of these college kids," Carter said. "If you want to see college kids duck and run, you let them read the papers and somebody's got a 33-month sentence in the federal penitentiary for downloading copyrighted materials."
Last I heard, no one from Enron has done any prison time at all. Does this dickhead really believe that Napster users deserve prison time more than the real pirates
Fucking bullshit. Not everyone you disagree with is a terrorist. some people are simply thieves or criminals, not terrorists. This country is so full of shit it's ridiculous.
Linux O Muerte!
Notice the dramatic increase in products selling themselves as "America's choice" and that talk about how great America is. Especially mobile phones and cars.
:P
Gee, if it's America's choice, then it's gotta be good! Even if our mobile phone networks are years behind other countries.
-- n
Majority of people that read slashdot are Intelligent.
People who think that piracy is funding terrorist is a lame excuse get high ratings on their respones at slashdot.
Conclusion, people who believe that piracy is funding terrorism must overall not be intelligent including the public and representives in the goverment.
Insert Witty Remark Here ===>____________________________
...the money I saved by downloaded the "Best of Simon & Garfunkel" I can now contribute to Hezbollah! w00t!
Then again... S&G may be a terrorist act in and of itself... who is to say for sure?
They further claim that intellectual property piracy is a vehicle for financing or supporting acts of terror.
what about selling flight simulator software with accurate depictions of major u.s. cities, as well as national land marks?
This doesn't surprise me one bit.
In the early 1980s, I tried a similar tactic with my parents. I was hooked on video games, and attempted to explain that if I didn't get an Atari 2600, they'd be funding terrorism.
I also explained the lack of quarters for the Aladdin's Castle in the mall was probably funding terrorism. When I wanted a TRS-80 Model I Level II computer and my parents refused, I urged them to rethink their stance. "Not buying the computer probably means you're funding terrorism."
My dad looked at me, told me to go to my room and not come out for a while. From behind my bedroom door, I yelled out that by grounding me, they were supporting the Soviets in Afghanistan. By not purchasing the Mattel 'Big Trak' remote control car I coveted, they were essentially supporting the Argentinians in the Falkland Island dispute. But they held firm.
When, many years later, my parents refused to fund the purchase of my first automoble (a little Buick Opel), I wondered whether or not their recalcitrance wasn't actually helping Manuel Noreiga in Panama. I explained that by refusing to do what I asked was probably assisting rogue regimes across the globe.
And now, take a look around. The North Koreans are threatening to rain missiles down on America's cities. Sadaam Hussein is sitting in his bunker with some sweet tea, watching Tony Blair struggle for his political life. General Idi Amin Dada is still exiled in Saudi Arabia, but I'm betting he's got a funding pipeline that comes directly from all those times my parents refused to give me five dollar bills so that I could go to Aladdin's Castle and get the five extra tokens when you stuck a five dollar bill in the cash machine.
The rise of rogue regimes is the direct results of doing things I didn't want done. Microsoft is absolutely right.
Oil? Being critical? Driving a van? Copying a CD?
Bullshit, lets start with the basics: weapons and explosives. Which person provides the most support: the one who sells them an 5 Kgs of C4 or the one who turns on their heat during winter? How come you are willing to boycot the people who sell oil and not say a word against the people who the very means terrorists use? Is it because the people who sell weapons are not arabs? Or is it because selling weapons to foreign countries is a major source of income to US business?
And guess what, neither of the two measures (boycotting oil or weapons) will probably serve in the long run. To solve this problem you need to attack its source, which has been for the last 50 years, US foreign policies.
My other OS is the MCP!
This is what i was afraid of. Statements like these (which are ridiculous) combined with these kind of legislations will enable govt to label anyone a terrorist.
Seems to me people on this site aren't actually reacting reacting to the article, but to a generic statement, "Microsoft and the MPAA say piracy funds terrorism." That statement is not in the article, nor is it what the article is about. I can't promise they won't bring their claims to bear on the fight against P2P sharing, but they're talking about _counterfeiting_, not piracy, and that is a much bigger deal. P2P users may be downloading the latest Britney Spears album or even an illegal copy of Windows, but they're not trying to recreate the product packaging and sell it as the original. If MS and the MPAA want to go after counterfeiters specifically, I don't see a problem with that.
You've probably already seen this, but this group has ads that say just that.
Of course, SUV's fund terrorism only to the degree that oil producing countries support terrorism... hence the (possible) war.
Note that I did not say if I was against or for the war, just the motive for it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is not funny, its downright scary. This fascistoid picture completes, democracy in the US has ended. Truth is dead. You are being derived of your civil rights, and the american people stand aside and either dont care, dont know or are being silenced by the stupid mob. In terms of civil-rights, justice, arrogance and moral, your country is reaching new extremes every new day.
Sad.
What comes from the middle-east is mostly controlled by governments. SOME of that money MAY find its way into the hands of terrorists. Or are you implying that all arabs are terrorists, and thus buying oil from middle-eastern countries necessarily supports terrorism?
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
and sent his earnings to his terror cell's slush fund, would Microsoft be funding terrorists. Money changes hands, that's the way things work. Some money will eventually end up in terrorists hands, but that doesn't mean everyone who touched it along the way is funding terrorism. There is a difference between paying a criminal for a CD, who then turns around and gives that money to a terrorist cell, and directly contributing to the terror cell. How many degrees of seperation are required before one is deemed not-guilty of funding terrorism? Is the US MINT funding terrorism? Jesus Christ we are truly coming up to the end of the world, or at least the end of a "free" America. Seems some multinational corporations will use the fear of terrorism and drugs and "piracy" to censor, incarcerate and control everyone who is less wealthy or disagrees with them. When will we fight back, not against the stupid ass purchased politicians, not by trying to play their game of "who can bribe the most" but by "attacking" directly these corporations. One day we'll wake up and even the soccer moms will realize that Disney, AOLTW, Exxon, etc control every major decision that is made in this world, and she and her children are either their slaves or their casualties. When money is diverted from education to tax cuts for corporations, it's her children suffering to make these corps a little bit more powerful. Some day they'll realize it. When that day comes even the soccer moms will drive thier suv/minivans into disneyland and take arms against the greedy corrupt leaders of this world, the executives of these transnational corporations. I can't wait, because until then, until we hit rock bottom, it's all downhill. I don't look forward to sliding further down this slippery slope of losing all our liberties to make it that much easier for 6 fucking assholes to go from 1000000000000000000000000 trillion dollars net wealth to 1000000000000000000000000000 gazillion dollars in net wealth. But once we reach the breaking point, look out. You'll have a nation, or an entire world of poor ass angry fuckin people rioting in the streets and taking down these fuck heads. Until then life is gonna continue to suck. For the rest of us anyway.
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
This is great news! Now if they can just keep me from ripping cd's and movies and shairng them with my friends there wont be any more terrorism! After that we can crusify all the pot smokers then we will just have the perfect utopian society! Go facism!!!
Jump on the terrorist bandwagon... I hear it blueballs contributes to terrorism too...jez..give me a break.......M$ and MPAA= Lame stupid ass excuse makers
the Taliban had agreements with the opium producers in Northern Afghanistan
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the nature of those agreements something like "we're going to destroy your poppy fields, and then accept $20 million from the American government for helping in the War on Drugs"?
The parent poster is right. Not only is Nigeria *obviously* funding terrorism, but it has significant oil deposits too!
0 1 - just my two bits
Read that again - federal felony for
- You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!
...terrorism funds piracy.
Contact Me (got tired of viruses emailing me).
Hashish is to marijuana as whisky is to beer.
Unless you're actually a member of a terrorist organization using piracy to directly fund your group, NO professional pirates would give their funds away to terrorists, for one simple reason: profit.
Professional pirates are businessmen. (Also see: professional drug dealers). If they invest money in anything, they want to see some sort of return on it - giving the money to terrorist groups is about as financially effective as setting it in a pile and lighting it on fire. Why would anyone trying to maximise their profits give their money to people who can't make it into more money, when sound investment opportunities are right there for the taking?
Having terrorists blow things up and wreck the economy is also not exactly something that someone who wants to make good investments would probably be very interested in. So, now you have two great reasons not to give your money to these people. So, seriously, NO ONE is doing this, and the entire concept is bullshit.
Just like Bush uses terrorism as an argument for killing thousands of people, MS decides its millions just isn't enough and want to take the bread and butter from a few poor people in the world where it isn't illegal to copy software.
And what of it?
As far as I know, "asshole" is an US invention.
Right?
If someone gives me a copy of a game, I fail to see where the money is for the terrorist.
A far greater tool to be used by terrorists are Operating Systems the consistantly fail any real security scrutiny.
So what they are saying is everybody should use free software whenever it is available. not a whole lot of money selling something thats free. Unless you have a value add, like support. Some how I don't think I will be able to call Bin Laden to ask him how I can get AQLinux to read my win2k partition.
Now as far the industry of creating illegal copies is concerned, I could see where that could fund terrorist. If you needed money, didn't care where it came from, and had fanatical followers, wouldn't you make money from any revenu stream possible.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
In SOVIET RUSSIA, Terrorism funds piracy!
after all, it seems that companies are so fucking terrified by copyright violation that they resort to stupidity, such as calling other countries' copyright laws 'weak' when in fact american copyright law is simply too strong. So if the companies are to be believed, anyone who buys bootleg copies of something is a terrorist, and is therefore funding piracy out of russia, china, and so forth as stated by many a post. And you know what? if companies are terrified of this inappropriately-labelled "piracy", then I'll speak out in its favor. I for one am sick of companies, especially ones that screw the little guy both during production and at the cash register, getting away with it. Now these alleged 'pirates' need to figure out a way to make the companies either simply die to be replaced with more ethical versions, or to change their ways...seems pretty hopeless actually.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
WHAT?!?! It's not the same thing at all! Hitler did attack other nations and slaughtered millions of Jews! Iraq's been sitting there minding their own business for 12 years.
What has Iraq done to warrant being invaded and overthrown?
Like I said, currently I am not happy about this war, but I am much more unhappy about bald faced ignorance
I too am apalled at the ignorance involved in this scenario, but it is directed at those who are ignorant of the history of the region, ignorant of the possibility that Iraq might actually have had an arguably legitimate claim to Kuwait (it used to be a provice of Iraq, it was being unreasonable in denying Iraq access to the sea - how is Iraq supposed to participate in international trade without waterway access??), and ignorant of Bush's blatant ulterior motives and hatemongering.
The US is a rabid dog, and I sincerely hope the rest of the world has the courage to unite in time to reign in their leash before thousands of innocent Iraqis are slaughtered, just so the Jones can keep filling their BMW SUV with premium, Middle East petroleum products.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
Prohibition is the sole reason why "drug violence" exists. Think about it. Do people kill each other over market share for beer, tobacco, or coffee? Of course not. Those products are bought and sold in a legitimate market -- a market where the buyers and sellers are responsible for their own actions. In the black market (under prohibition), the buyers and sellers are criminals. They are not obligated to play by the rules.
Sorry to bust your bubble, but your own government is 100% responsible for all "drug-related" violence. Perhaps you should read up on the US government's attempt to prohibit alcohol early last century -- which, surprisingly enough, failed miserably and created organized crime in one shot.
We shouldn't dismiss outright, but assertions require proof, and extraordinary assertions require extraordinary proof. Without proof a claim must be considered mere speculation.
/. whenever a story about the DMCA or Microsoft is posted? Such arguments are no more valid when they are presented by a corporation to a Congressional committee than they are when presented by one of us in this forum. They just have a larger and more influential audience.
Minds certainly should remain open, but if the claimant provides no facts to support the claim and instead depends on an appeal to a pre-existing emotion for validation (in this case justified outrage over the results of terrorism) then the claim trivializes itself.
Don't we see similar "appeals to outrage" here on
Get out now! Leave the USA! Come live in France, the food is healthy and non fattening, the wine is great and the (wo)men are fabulous. We have our own Linux distribution (Mandrake)!
Most bad muslims I know are more interested in stealing your car stereo than integrist terrorism. I think they use the money to buy hashish. Or maybe blank CDs so they can copy Raï and other ethnic music (you know the stuff not made by the MRAA).
And governement departments are busy getting rid of MS software. Hell this is paradise on earth compared to what I am seeing on CNN!!! Do you guys really believe that this puny country has arms of mass destruction? The CIA doesn't...
realkiwi
We're taking a ride on the terrorism band wagon. Come on everyone, jump on in !"
I was gonna mail a check to Osama, but then I got high.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
"terrorism" has been a catch all since 9-11 for most anything people want to get rid of.
Get it to fall under the patriot act and let the feds help you stamp it out..
Regardless if its a crime, or just something ( or someone ) you don't agree with..
Its use is spreading like wild fire.. Much as the overuse of the DMCA to sue people into non existence on a whim..
This path we are on scares the hell out of me.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Well if we are all terrorists for pirating, then maybe it is time we call a Jihad against those who would be our enemies and boycott their stuff.
Not that it is going to happen anyway.
Apathy rules.
...if only our elected officials had the cojones to say it out loud.
The black market in software and pirated DVDs only exists because there is a profit to be made by selling those pirated items.
If you make it possible to obtain those items without paying for them (i.e. P2P networks), then there's no profit to be made by selling individual discs!
Thus: Napster, Kazaa, and Gnutella are fighting the war on terror!
Do you?
Hlack market economies create violence. All of them. They have no real choice. The reason is simple: no recourse to the law.
What do you do if you buy a bottle rum at a liqour store and find out it's nothing but water? You call the police and have that jackass arrested for selling bogus merchandice.
What do you do if you buy some weed from a dealer and it turns out to be catnip and oregano? Call the cops? Last person I heard about that did that was arrested. No. You either live with the fact that you got ripped off or you shoot the sonofabitch.
Because the sale, puirchase and distribution of pot, or any other illegal drug, requires that the manufacturers/growers, distributors, sellers and end consumers all operate outside the law. This leaves them only one recourse when things go bad. This also leaves them no choice in how to deal with conflicts of any kind.
If legalized and sold through normal sales channels, drugstores (hey, that's a catchy name) drug-related violence will drop like a stone. If you can call the cops because that jackass at the corner pharmacy cuts his stock of Vantage Ultra Gold Columbian with catnip then you don't have to shoot him for it. If he knows that he can call the coips because you passed a bad check he knows he dowsn't have to shoot you for trying not to pay.
It's like the liqour business durring prohibition, or the porn industry when it was illegal to make blue movies, or like prostitution is right now. When you make something that people want illegal, you create a lawless subculture that is infested with violence.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
One of the big successes of the anti-drug propaganda war is what you have pointed out, the way the authorities have been able to blame the problems of prohibition on the drug itself.
Now, just because prohibition causes problems is not necessarily an argument against prohibition; it is simply part of the cost-benefit analysis. Alcohol prohibition worked to some extent, it cut alcohol consumption in half. However, the general public decided that the costs of prohibition outweighed the benefits of reducing alcohol use.
When it comes to pot, all the scientific evidence shows that it is less harmful than alcohol; it isn't possible to overdose (unlike alcohol "poisoning"), there are no serious diseases proven to be caused by it (unlike cirrhosis of the liver), and it is not nearly as addictive (read up on delirium tremens, then find any description of pot addiction). Since pot is even less harmful than alcohol, there is even less reason to accept the cost of prohibiting it, as compared to alcohol.
Now with other drugs, like heroin, the benefits of reducing consumption may outweigh the costs of enforcement. Unfortunately, governments rarely bother to even admit the costs of prohibition, preferring to blame everything on the drug. The result is that people are forced to choose the more dangerous mind-altering substance, Alcohol. They must risk arrest in order to make the more responsible and intelligent choice of using pot, the least harmful mind-altering drug.
-- Pot is safer than Beer
This is jane!
This is the CD that jane burned!
This is the DC++ hub that contained the CD files that jane burned!
And this is the family, who was gunned down by the terrorists who bought their guns with the money (that was supposedly lost) from the CD that jane burned.
MP3 supports terrible things. If you think for yourself and don't listen to bands like avril lavigne and eminem, you may too.
When I downloaded "Fight Club" I used the $4 I would have spent renting it in order to purchase some light automatic firearms and held 27 people hostage for 9 days in a small town in Florida. But incidentally, I liked the movie so much that I used the money I stole from an unwed pregnant woman before shooting her in the stomach to rent the movie. It's my right to time-shift, who says I can't time-shift backwards? :)
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Eating less makes you thinner!
Everything is terrorism if you fear it!
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
You have a point up until you say "If they really cared about avoiding the funding of terrorism they would let whoever wanted to copy their stuff copy it freely." Um, no.
Just because someone sells something doesn't mean that you can make copies of it for everyone. If that were the case, Microsoft would sell one copy of windows and the world would get it. That's not a good business model. Microsoft is allowed to sell their OS for however much they want. Its their software, they wrote it. If you don't like it, buy a mac or download Linux. If you want to go on about Microsoft's draconian OEM policies and such, feel free, but don't think that they shouldn't have a right to sell their OS, cause they do.
- gtaluvit (prnc. GOT-tuh-LUV-it)
Bonzo and Big Bush paid Osama AND Saddam lots of money during the 1980s. Do you think they spent this money on shoufas and copies of the Koran?
When faced with a problem, many web developers say "I know, I'll use JavaScript!".
Now they have two problems.
George Orwell Bush
Everybody know that Linux is the OS of choice for super villins (terrorists)!
I'm not a real doctor, but I recommend beer.
I believe a US-led war on Iraq is entirely justified
Is this because of all the technology/weapons of mass destruction the US helped him aquire? Maybe Bush should take this up with his daddy and leave the world alone. Why doesn't the US present this as the much seeked proof of WMD in Iraq?
After one madman bent on your destruction is *not* attacked, and then kills thousands of innocent Americans, it is perfectly justified to seek out other madmen bent on your destruction.
You did attack Al-Qaeda and Ossama Bin Ladden. It was your excuse for bombing Afghanistan. Thousands died in your showoff, and like the 9/11 attacks, the thousands that died did not have anything to do with there government's foreign policy. Did you find him Ossama Bin Ladden? No.
Does anybody, even the French, put forth that Saddam is not a madman,
He is a madman, but please dont play the hollier than though card, not after you fundded him, not after you purposedly supplied him with knowledge and equipment to perform his madness. And if judged by the ammount of pain and grief he has inflicted, Bush is even madder than Hussein.
is he not highly interested in doing harm to the U.S.?
yes, probably, along with many other countries and people who you have wadged war in the past. Are you going to bomb them all just because you are not popular among them?
I just worry that Iraq and its surrounding nations will propagandize this (as history shows they have before) and use it as a tool to create more, not less terrorism. Justified or not, it will still bring a lot of negative consequences when we win--maybe more than if we didn't do it at all.
I totally agree with you in this point. Going to war is a no win scenario for the US and Iraq in the long run. Like it or not, the root of US directed terrorism is the past US foreign policy. Want to stop terrorism? Change your foreign policy.
My other OS is the MCP!
I call bullshit. Anyone with me?
Selling the product at a price that discourages piracy and thus pulling the rug out from under the terrorists? Why are we wasting all this money on stealth bombers when we could bury Osama with cheap DVDs?
Yes, as long as you ignore all of those crusades, which was the first full-scale war between western christianity and middle-eastern islam. Note that the Christians started the crusades to kill the unbelievers. Of course, the word "crusade" is politically correct in this country, but its arabic equivalent, "jihad", is not.
Another thing, the grunts in the military tend to be even more brainwashed than the average civilian. So your buds in Kuwait aren't a good info source. Just as Sadaam's elite guard aren't a good source for unbiased info.
Just ban Microsoft, since it supplies the software being pirated.
Sure.... and Client Access Licenses are the Microsoft Tax NO BODY WANTS TO PAY!!!!!!!!
I would love more than anything for Penn & Teller's Bullshit to do a story entitled "Everything funds terrorism."
Their insights on topics from Feng Sheu and Bottled Water (easily one of my favorite episodes) are classic. They take the average urban myth (such as Chiropractics are actually doing you some good...not) and deconstruct it to shreds.
This is political BS and those who don't believe it have their head in the sand.
What's worse is this is just going to lead to more legislation taking away American Civil Liberties. I've got my ACLU membership card, do you?
Oh wow, what a great commercial...hmm, who was it created by? Oh, citystreets.org, a NY based "pedestrian rights" organization.
Just another example of the myopic world view alot of groups these days have. Does citystreets.org expect me to walk 30 miles from my house in the rural areas of VA to work every day? Just cause the shoe fits, doesnt mean everybody has the same sized feet...
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
When you skip over commercials you are stealing therefore you are aiding and abetting terrorism, therefore you are an unlawful combatant and can be held indefinately and tried in a military tribunal without access to a lawyer.
Remember THAT when you skip over commercials you communist terrorist scum!
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
It doesn't fund it, first of all....
Here's how it goes: Software is made available for free. This makes it much more readily accessible to the terrorists. Because they are not purchasing it commercially, much less information is given out about them.
Therefore, the best OS for terrorist's computers would be Linux.
I'm not asking you to cease using your existing copies, but I urge you to keep Linux off of the internet, out of stores. If the supply chain is cut off, they will have to cut into their funds to use comnputers.
No, I'm not being sarcastic here, folks...
Seriously, we should get rid of all free software. I am entirely against the M$ monopoly, but free software is wrong. We need more commercial producers, competing for the market.
AND NO MORE DAMN LINUX!
Coal power stations provide energy for electric trains / trams / trolley buses / light rail. Lots of that in Europe and other places. Not great carbon emissions though.
Gas (propane or butane) powers many vans and cars (e.g. my dad's van). Lots of it in Russia, though elsewhere it is being got through quite quickly. Gas cars were very common in New Zealand in the 1980s.
But more environmentally sustainable fuels would be nice.
"Six Degrees of Terrorism" would be an outstanding thing. In fact, if you don't get around to it, let me know, so that I can steal your idea (with credit to you, of course) and throw together some sort of cheesy little web DB app to handle it.
Actually, it would be super easy if we could connect Kevin Bacon to terrorism, and then just use 5 degrees to him. With all the ground-breaking research being done on how things connect to Kevin, I'm sure we've got our maximum hops down to 5 for most traffic by now.
Didn't Microsoft just give Russia and China the source code for windows ?
Kinda kills the whole 'piracy causes terror' spin when you give the commies the keys to the back door.
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
More information from here, in an article from an Anime mailing list, in reference to bootlegged DVDs:
Further to my last e-mail. I went to a lecture at the Leeds East Asian Research Society tonight. It was by a police officer from the Met. in London talking about Chinese triads. He said that one of the big money spinners for mainland triads was - yep! you guessed it! - bootlegging DVD's. Actually it was a bit gruesome - perhaps more to your taste as a former forensic scientist then to a sensitive, squeamish soul like myself! To titillate his student audience he brought in full colour photo's of what these guys do to folk with whom they have some difference of opinion. It seems they like to slice them up with meat cleavers. The Chinese gangs are apparently quite artistic about it - they prefer not to kill their victims, just to slice chunks off them to leave them permanently scarred and disfigured as living warnings to anyone else who might be tempted to go their own way. The Vietnamese gangs are, it seems, less cultured in their use of ironmongery and merely stab their victims with often fatal consequences. Perhaps this is because of the mainland triads other big money spinner - people smuggling. (Do you remember all those poor kids who died in a container lorry in Dover a while back?) Apparently this is such a big thing the gangs give their customers professional training appropriate to their destination. For the UK this is a 2 week course in stir fry cookery! (Apparently they say this is all that's required as the Brits only eat half a dozen Chinese dishes!)
I thought I'd send you this because it reinforces the points you made. People who buy bootleg goods don't want their money to go to the people who created the goods they so desire but would rather it go into the coffers of murderers like these. I don't suppose people who buy bootleg DVD's think that they are supporting the sort of organisation that condemned all those young people to such an appalling death sealed in the container in Dover - but then they probably don't think all that much at all. Perhaps that's unfair. Maybe it's a problem for this generation that in a world dominated by consumer power people are going to be more aware of where their hard earned cash actually ends up.
Still I find the link to terrorism a bit of a stretch.
------------------
You may like my a cappella music
Everything funds terrorism. The fascists that are currently in power would very much like for us to see things in black and white, just as they do. There are only the evil terrorists (with whom the French are now being lumped; "freedom fries," give me a f ucking break!) and then there are good conservative Americans --nobody else. Similarly, we are expected to believe that individuals in our very small world are not connected and ignore the fact that any individual activity can have a miniscule global impact. I pass gas in front of my computer and the average annual temperature over Israel increases one trillionth of a degree...
The fact is that if my contribution to terrorism (and we ALL contribute to terrorism in some small way) would be probably greater by driving 50 miles a week than if I smoked an ounce a day. Moreover, seeing as the US Government likes to regularly engage in such nefarous activities such as providing Israel with 3 billion a year or giving Saddam Hussein anthrax and other Weapons of Mass Destruction (another loathsome buzzword), all of us, despite the mass of drugs we might each use, probably contribute the most to terrorism through paying US taxes.
If I pay NOTHING for somthing, (i.e. MP3's or Movies, or Microsoft software) how can it be funding anything? Nobody makes any money off of it..
---
This just in.. capitalism funds terrorism!!!
So long, and thanks for all the Phish
SUV's contribute to terror...
Marijuana contributes to terror...
Software/Media piracy contributes to terror...
Coffee contributes to terror...
Christians contribute to terror...
What's next? They'll catch a terrorist with a Linux laptop?
Ooooh GNU/Open Source contribute to terror!
Damn... I'm an American, I hate the liberals and I hate the media! I hate the current war protestors, they are such incredible idiots! Yeah, the war is about oil, Bullshit! I am not a conservative, I am a realist. You can't just go on and on about being against the war and not offer a valid solution! You cannot ignore the dangers this country faces and expect they will go away!
If anything the French/German opposition to war is about oil! They both have BILLIONS invested in Iraq currently and many more BILLIONS just waiting for sanctions to be removed. They both rely on guarantees that will only reach a payoff if Saddam stays in power! France hasn't been our ally since 1966!
If you support the protestors, the French or the Germans, then you are supporting the Saddam regime! You support money over human rights, you support ignorance over the truth, and you support terror in an indirect way. History shows that we cannot afford to allow Saddam to continue his current regime or we will have a new Hitler to contend with. One with horrible weapons of mass destruction. The UN will prove itself invalid just as the League of Nations did prior to WWII.
The majority of the protestors are just pissed off at Bush personally. They are upset over the election and the Democrats loss in the White House and in the senate/congress. You LOST THE ELECTION! GET OVER IT! Keep it up and you stand to lose a hell of lot more!
The French would have stuck with us if we didn't demand regime change in Iraq. Now they will pay in economic ties being cut by angry Americans!
I've got news for the liberals and the Democrats! You are losing the public rapidly. Every time you show just how partisan you are; you degrade your public support. The more Senator Kennedy, former presidents, Clinton and Carter shoot their mouths off the more the public sees it as a purely political attack on the current administration. Yeah, Clinton's the same guy who fired more cruise missiles into Iraq than Bush senior used during Desert Storm.
The reason Kerry is ahead in public opinion is simple because he hasn't been able to voice his views! All the other Democrats are screwing up badly. Kerry had Prostate Cancer and is currently recovering. If they really gave a damn about our security, they would work with the current administration and not fight it every step of the way! People are worried, many are scared. The more you distance yourself from the existing government the more the public sees right through your rhetoric! The Bush opposition doesn't care about security or safety of the public, they only care about restoring the power they lost!
Peace is desired but not at the expense of the public safety nor at the expense of freedom! Look at the Amber Alert conflict. It's liberal Democrats that are holding it up! The bills riding on the coattails of the Amber Alert bill promote tough punishment for crimes against children. The Democrats want to protect the freedom of pedophiles!
Latest polls show that American's are fed up with Iraq and most are just waiting for the war to begin. Boycott's of French and German products have begun.
Just wait till we get into Iraq and find out just how bad it really is! I fully expect the military to find all the WMD's as well as extensive records implicating Syria, France, and Germany in providing the forbidden technology.
Bush will be re-elected because he will have actually pursued his goals and succeeded. The Democrats talk a good game but I have yet to see any results from any initiative they've ever pursued! Their moral ground has traditionally been high and they think they are superior to the general public; more ev
The MPAA and Microsoft cried wolf again today, and scientists have measured a large increase in general scepticism from the public.
What strikes me the most about the testimony is the counterfeit label.
:-)
I see a cdr with whatever game or os or mp3 collection as one thing, and a manufactured
CD with a counterfeit holographic label, presumably even in a retail box with counterfeit labels being sold as a retail product, as quite different things.
Now, I do draw the line at "...including supporting terrorist activities" for two reasons.
1. If Mr. Malcolm Justice is not prepared to give evidence for that conclusion, then the court should ask some probing questions. Would those answers be satisfactory basis to make such a statement under oath?
2. The claim has a chicken-little effect against the premise that we should assign importance to avoiding "things that support terrorism." There may be all kinds of activities that "support terrorism" that are not obvious. What does the State Department have to say about the risk of copyright infringement? I doubt they assign it a high level of military risk. Is it even on the radar as an economic threat?
I predict that if we get into a war with an enemy who has the capability of shooting back, all the mainstream media will be tripping over themselves to ride the propaganda machine. Sharing and copying will be encoraged then. Music copy protection will not be used on the things "they" want you to hear (and, thanks to the conformism of our population, that will be all the popular stuff.)
Watch for the mainstream to further adopt the idioms of urban culture. I expect there are a few years to go where it will not stand out as something manufactured. Propagandized mainstream entertainment, serving to polarize domestic morale while further dehumanizing the enemy.
Entertainment Media may be the War Bonds of Cold War II.
I'm a math major, so econ and polisci folks please be gentle tearing my assumptions to shreds
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
So what we as a society do instead is take other areas that are completely tangential and insignificant but very CONVENIENT to the coporate money interests to get rid of. Filesharing. Drug use (Don't smoke marijuana; instead buy our Prozac and Ritalin.) The right to privacy is just about dead. And so on.
Its not as if Microsoft has never been hypocritical in the past, but this sets a new level.
If you believe logic that says anything that aids terrorism in any way, shape, or form should be outlawed (which would apparently be Microsoft's own position), then the FBI should raid Bill Gates's home today, arrest him, and shutdown Microsoft immediately.
After all, when we arrest KSM and these other guys and start taking stuff off of their computers, I'd bet 99% of them are running Windows, the terrorists are probably e-mailing each other with Outlook and keeping track of the funds with Excel.
Understanding is a three edged sword. - Ambassador Kosh Naranek, Babylon 5
How can something that costs almost nothing fund anything? A pirate cant really get prime payment for pirated gods so i dont see how this would be a big cashcow. It seems that everything is a terrorist. The big rubberstamp is out giving license to do anything to the poor sod it is used on.
;D
Not one single idiot in upper management in the USA seems to wonder WHY in gods name someone becomes a terrorist? Can it be that that 12 year old who saw his house be torned down without trial, rason or sanity becomes a terrorist in Palestine? The countless people who will have relatives killed in iraq, will they love USA more after they have bombed them to pieces and installed a capitalistic gov ran by USA sucking natural resources and giving nothing back like in latin america?
Pirating where people copy instead of buying is more of a problem. But hey, if anyone sucessfully target that kind of pirating we will se an enormous uptake in open source software. How many Windows users can say they dont have one app installed that is either pirated or misused shareware?
Make them pay and theyll run like hell
HTTP/1.1 400
What is the number one answer some people give when confronted to drugs funding terrorism? Legalize them! If people that want drugs could get them for a reasonable cost, it wouldn't be attractive for illegal entities. Remember the prohibition and all the Al Capone's it generated.
Can we say the same for software? If we moved to open source and/or abolished laws that condenm piracy all software would be available for prices slightly above their marginal cost, taking away the incentives for the high profit pirating activities.
If we do what Microsoft and the RIAA are looking for giving this statements, we will make software more scarse, and more money will go to terrorism, mafias, and illegal entities.
Fh
the problem with your theory is that the US hasn't been funding him for years. Everyone likes to just on the US for "funding sadam" the truth is a little more complicated than that. At the time, Iran was much more powerful and very anti-american (remember the 1979 hostage crisis). So the US sided supported Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war (this was important since the Soviets were supporting Iran) Since that time the US has not supported Iraq, especially not after the gulf war. Some other countries, like France for example, make lots of money from Iraq and Saddam, mostly from selling him arms and oil equipment. Fool me once Saddam, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times, its proof that I want to be fooled.
----- Question authority, but not ours. Hate the man, but we're not him.
Geez... since they are grasping for the inane they should have just said "Open source funds terrorism"
i've got to agree with you there. the responsibility of the US governement is NOT to police the world and to keep world economies flowing. the responsibility of the US governement, as outlined in that meaningless constitution, is to protect the borders of the nation. it doesn't cost 100Billion$ to protect the borders. before the US dropped that H-Bomb or whatever it was on Japan, and the rest of the world said "oh, shit", americans we just fine keeping to themselves. since then, well, we've gotten social security, income taxes, a nice lovely arms race, and a wonderfull few trips to the moon.
back to work..
yes, minding their own business while slaughtering thousands upon thousands of innocent people. You may want to get up to speed on Saddam and his history. Saddam is nothing but a mini Stalin. And Iraq is "entitled" to a sea access?? Like they are the only land locked country in the world?
----- Question authority, but not ours. Hate the man, but we're not him.
This is the pirated DVD that Jack bought. This is the guy who sold the pirated DVD that Jack bought. This is the terrorist cell operative who burned the pirated DVD for the guy who sold the DVD that Jack bought. This is the terrorist cell leader who bought the legal copy of the DVD that the cell operative pirated and burned a copy for the guy who sold it to Jack. This is the movie company that made the legal copy of the DVD that the terrorist cell leader bought so that the cell operative pirated to burn a copy for the guy who sold it to Jack. This is the movie executive telling Congress that he doesn't support terrorists.
It's all fun and games until someone loses the key to the handcuffs.
If there was ever a case made against closed source, this is it. One only needs to look at the profit margains of Open Source(GPL) companies, to realize that if only Open Source(GPL) was on the market, that people couldn't be making a hell of alot of money(incl. terrorist), if it was all free anyway!
http://www.americanfreedomnews.com/afn_articles/bu shsecrets.htm
Bush family's dirty little secret:
President's oil companies funded by Bin Laden family and wealthy Saudis who financed Osama bin Laden
I think Tycho from Penny Arcade had a pretty good take: (emphasis mine)
:)
-----
"These groups will not hesitate to threaten or injure those who tend to interfere with their operations," Malcolm said.
This is the first statement I have ever read where Manga speechlessness - "..." - is the only valid response.
Statements of this kind gnaw at the sensible mind, they chew on it and try to eat it. I won't even gauge the clumsiness with which these two incongruous concepts are lashed together. If you want to see triple-x, explicit evidence of corporations with their hands up your government's ass, working the their jaws like some malevolent Howdy Doody with chilling ramifications for personal liberty, well, there you go. Peer-to-peer file sharing and Terror? Terror? Do they not have dictionaries there? There's another T word you cocks might like, too - give it a try: it's called "Tenuous." The only people terrorized by peer-to-peer file sharing are vastly potent multinational businesses, gripped by the realization that they sell carriages in a world of bullet trains.
-----
I pleadge allegience
to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the republic
for which it stands
one nation
indivisable
with liberty and justice for all.
But then again, since when do we really have "liberty and justice for all?"
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
Honest. I apologize for the horrible spelling in that post. That was worse than normal. :(
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I guess we now have to ask, "What would Jesus download?"
I think we all know the answer to that question...
Blink-182, of course!
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Yeah, that car your momie bought you will eat enough oil to buy armored vehicle. Continue on into the haze, Milo, the world will still be there when you crawl out of the punishing little environment you are making for yourself. You might not be able to hear it so well and your lungs won't work but the world will be there.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Honestly, you want to stop the flow of money from criminal activities to Terrorists? Take the money out of Criminal activities. Sound all to easy huh?
Want to stop the war on Drugs, legalize drugs then regulate and tax it. And use the profits to help those that become addicts to become drug free. Addicts are addicts from birth and usually become preachers or very religious not because they kicked the habit but because they exchange one addiction for another.
If you want to stop Piracy then don't be greedy and attempt over charge for movies, titles and software that isn't worth much more than the plastic its burnt on.
Movie studios shouldn't take millions of dollars promoting movies like " The Animal" so it can rake in a whopping 1-2 million in the theaters and then go video and try to get us to watch it for 19.99. And make us pay for there mistakes. Great Entertainers used to die penniless, not because they didn't manage there money well, but because entertaining was just a job like any other. Now you see people bringing in money in numbers that would make the Rockafellers(sp) take notice.
If studios didn't take a 10 cent piece of plastic and the heap all the crappy decisions and luxuries, catering by Wolfgang Puke, limo rides, gifts and kickbacks to lobbyists and then tell us its really worth 19.99 - 59.00 people wouldn't be looking for a 2 dollar copy of "Surviver the first season".
Is it our faults as consumers that we just want an honest deal. And the only people we can trust are those that we know are criminals?
paying my taxes funds terrorism. the united states is an occupying country that funds other occupying countries. occupation is the worst form of terror known to man. why don't we focus on making peace with the terrorists vs. killing them. let them get their damn money. if they don't wanna kill anyone then it doesn't fucking matter. i think my favorite piece of shit on what funds terror has to be the drug war. buying drugs has the potential to fund terror.... but think of all the jobs that you help provide with that money. you think its easy to find work down in columbia???? buying cocaine helps feed the children of that nation. by stopping drug traffic we are starving children, raising unemployment, and in general pissing a whole lot of people off.
Thoughtcrime.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
>LIFE SUPPORTS TERRORISM.
it must have been this way:
Unjust law, repressive governments and aggressive foreign policies are among the root causes of terrorism.
It's that kind civil resistance, that turns normal cilians into evil, ruthless terrorists.
Unjust law fosters civil disobedience.
Good point. We have a "war on drugs", not a "war on the drug trade". In this case we need a "war on closed source" not a "war on piracy". If these scum bags didn't keep producing proprietary code, we wouldn't have to worry about our kids using it.
I'm moving to montana and raising dental floss.
..Free Live Free...
You just described Cuba! Don't forget the experiments to prove there is no God, such as watering one plant and praying for another.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Everyone knows that its the CIA that funds terrorism.
Woops, forgot the most important part didn't you. "UNDER GOD".
from detroitproject.com in real format(sorry):
I like my suv
The gas that george bought.
We have the best government that money can buy.
most black market activity in independant former soviet union territories (balkans, *istan) probably contributes directly or indirectly to terrorist funding. Selling pirated software is one thing, sharing it is another. I cant see how sharing pirated software would contribute to terrorism in any way.
Don't forget that we've supplied arms and training to the Taliban as well as Iraq in support of their wars against other countries.
Try investing in a dictionary. Being a republic is in no way incompatible with being a democracy. This is like saying "that can't be an antique, look here I can prove it's a table!"
For a second, I thought you were actually quoting Bush's autobiography.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
There is nothing complex about the truth. You funded this man and now that he does not fit in your political agenda, you want him out. You did the same in Panama and in Chile. No theories involved here, just the facts.
But forget about the funding, the double morale of the US lies in the fact that you sold, assisted and even ignored his use of WMD during the 80s. Why didn't you just sold him conventional weapons back then? Or did your government thought he was just going to assemble a biology research lab?
How do you expect any support from the world when you have been directly involved in the creation and empowerment of this madman? Shouldn't the world be imposing sanctions on the US for providing him with the means for doing such a thing?
And since you are turning on France for making money out of Iraq, why don't you take your terrrorism problems up with Saudi Arabia? Or is it he fact the Saudi Arabia provides you with your much needed oil has to do anything with this? After all, Saudi Arabia has been a much more involved country when it comes to financing and supporting terrorism than Iraq.
My other OS is the MCP!
I doubt enough people will "'fully understand the ramifications'" enough to "'better appreciate the disastrous ramifications.'"
The United States funded Al-Qaeda and the Taliban with, you guessed it, Taxpayer money. Al-Qaeda (not Iraq) took town the WTC using CIA training. When you pay your taxes you fund terrorism, repressive regimes, and reduction of civil liberties. That means that you can't get around funding terrorism, even if you wanted to. Don't pay your taxes, go to jail. Don't agree with the government, get labeled a terrorist, go to jail without a trial.
How can we avoid funding terrorism? I'm glad you asked! All it takes is one country. If only one country in the world refused to fund terrorists, prohibit marijuana (you couldnt even lie about it funding terrorists if it was legal), allow fair use of music and software, become energy independent, and generally not turn victimless activities that you disagree with into crimes which create black markets and violence we could all move there.
Seriously, if we spent half as much money solving social problems at home as we do creating problems abroad there is no telling where we would be. We need a country with a carbon copy of the U.S. constitution that would respect it so that freedom loving citizens of the world could finally live in peace. I am tired of funding the slaughter of (mostly dark skinned) civilians both here and abroad every time I pay my taxes.
Now, Whose coming with me?
Do me a favor and double it!
Or should we just sling it right back at them?
"The MPAA funds terrorism by making movies available."
How about "The MPAA funds terrorism by overpricing its movies and making cheap legal copies UNavailable."
But I'm not too hopeful that will take. If the drug warriors can get away with "Drug Users Fund Terrorism." without getting "The Drug War Funds Terrorism (by creating a lucrative illegal market for otherwise cheap drugs)" thrown in their faces, what hope do we nerds have in the "Marketplace of Public Opinion" - where virtually all the markets are owned and operated by media megacorporations?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Are we to take it that Microsoft and the MPAA are accusing Russia and China of being terrorist nations? But that can't be! They're reformed and not evil respectively!
Wait.... d'oh. :)
Isn't the ultimate conclusion that intellectual property supports terrorism? Legalize drugs and there won't be any drug dealers. Make Microsoft (who would name themselves that?) illegal and piracy disappears. End of problem.
Penguins are so sensitive to my needs - Lyle Lovett
Am I the only one who's appalled by these shallow attempts by special interests to "get their cause noticed" by *somehow* linking it to terrorism?
"We think SUVs are an economic and environmental hazard...uh, and they help fund terrorism!"
"We think narcotics are a societal and economic hazard...uh, and they help fund terrorism!"
"We think people [sharing] our [horribly overpriced] content is detrimental to our multi-billion dollar industry...uh, and they help fund terrorism!"
Granted, the motive behind some of these arguments are noble while others aren't quite so, but does anyone stop to think that *perhaps* cluttering up the concept of terrorism with so many periphery concerns is only going to hurt the "fight" against terrorism in the long run?
According to many Fans (Fen!) Science fiction is that at which I am pointing when I point at something and say "That's S.F."!
The Bush Administration has a similar definition of Terrorist.. (kinda like the Mc Carthyite definition of 'RED'... or the Puritan/Salem definition of "Witch")
Pretty stupid claim I think.
1. The biggest problem with piracy is that
people do not pay at all to anybody:
installing on more than one machine or getting
soft/music from the web
2. Most of Russians and Chinese are against
any Muslim extremist as they have problems with
them as well (though Russia well deserves it
for masacres in Chechenya)
Obviously, if copying was not illegal, it could not become a source of funds for criminals. Conversely, the more illegal it is, the higher the profits are.
Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
And so is buying petroleum-based products. What's their point? Nearly anything can be made to "fund terrorism". I wouldn't be surprised if terrorist groups owned a couple of t-shirt factories in third world countries.
--sdem
The security in Microsoft's various WinXX platforms, and the apps that run on them, are so weak that terrorists can pirate them will little or no effort, and terrorists can also hack into financial, political and military website with little more effort than a 13 year old script kiddie employes.
Such blantant lack of security can only mean that MS does not care about freedom or security. In fact, Jim Alchin testified in court that Windows security is so poor that it scares him to think about it, and access to the source would adversely affect US national security. One year later Microsoft give the source to both Russia and China, and an attempt to keep them from switching to Linux. Is Iraq next? So much for Microsoft's 'concern' for terrorism.
Besides, criminal gangs are smarter than to use an OS that is as insecure as Windows. They want to keep their secrets to themselves.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
Thousands of Americans Arrested for Supporting Terrorism!
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the United States' federal government placed thousands of civilians and millitary personel under arrest for their suspected involvement in funding Middle East terrorist groups. A spokesperson for the FBI was quoted as saying "Each of these people, within the last 90 days, has purchased oil, gasoline, or petrolium products from within US borders. A special operation, in aliance with the Department of Treasury and the Federal Trade Commission, was able to trace this money's destination all the way back to Middle Eastern hands." When asked if the government realized how fucking retarded they where being for believing such a thing, the spokesperson said "I have no comment at this time except to say that we have someone looking at such a possibility."
Later on at the White House, George W. Bush was seen arresting himself through oval office windows, by a Reuters cameraman who was there to shoot stock photography of the building...
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Someone obviously didn't graduate, and doesn't understand what a dictionary is. Or a spell-checker.
First, it's spelled "Democracy". As in "rule of the people". This is defined in the dictionary as either "direct rule", as in all citizens vote on all issues, or "rule by representation", where the people elect someone to represent them on issues.
"Republic" is defined as "A political order whose head of state is not a monarch and in modern times is usually a president."
So, the United States is a "Democratic Republic", meaning that the head of state is not a monarch, and is elected by the people. We are also classed as a "Representative Democracy", meaning that instead of directly voting on EVERY measure, law, treaty, etc, (which would take too much time to be effective), we elect people to represent our interests and vote for us.
Note this difference. Iraq is technically a Republic, as Hussien is not a monarch. However, You can't really claim that it's a Democratic Republic, since no one actually voted him in to office. And he obviously doesn't have the best interests of "the people" in mind.
I've been called a "Fucking Dick" by better people than you.
Under Clinton/democrats absolutely everything had to be passed or funded "for the children" ...
...
Now under Bush/republicans, absolutely everything has to be passed or funded "to fight terrorism"
same party goals, different propoganda.
And yet the people fall for it - every time.
I was about to say that Benevolence International [benevolence.org] is only alleged to have contributed to terrorist orgs and that nothing has been decided yet. Apparently this is not the case, as you can read at The Economist [economist.com] or Google News [google.com] (don't forget to disable the cookie!)
Interestingly, while some Muslim (or other!) charities may fund terrorists, others appear to be falsely accused of doing so.
For instance: Charities that give aid to widows, orphans, and/or starving unemployed in Palestine are accused of funding terrorism if they include the families of suicide bombers in their programs. (This accusation might have substance for any that SELECTIVELY support such people - creating an incentive to become a bomber in order to feed your family. But if they don't discriminate? Are the starving children of a terrorist less worthy of charity than the starving children of a non-terrorist?)
Similarly, the Israeli army routinely destroys any vehicles or official buildings operated by the Palestinian Authority - including especially ambulances and occasionally hospitals - in their retaliatory raids. And charities that supply replacement ambulances are apparently high on the list of alleged "charities supporting terrorism" - specifically because they provide the Palestinian Authority with vehicles. (Did I miss a report of Palestinian Ambulances being used as car bombs, armored personnel carriers, or tanks?)
One faction of the Israeli power structure seems to view infrastructure destruction and Palestinian removal as a desirable goal - which makes infrastructure reconstruction and charity for Palestinians, in their view, something to be stopped. Accusations of "supporting terrorism" against, not just charities actually supporting terrorism, but ALL charities supporting Palestinian people or infrastructure reconstruction efforts, further their agenda.
So while there may be terrorist funding operations masquerading as charities (and taking advantage of Islam's charity-giving mandates), I'd say that there's good reason not to halt a Muslim charity's work unless it is PROVED that they actually ARE supporting terrorism, rather than freezing their accounts upon accusation.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
they say free market found terror.
-Bob
The copyright bodies in Ireland/UK have been trying this one on for years saying the IRA is behind all piracy there (probably were doing some of it). It was a convenient way to get the Government to pay for criminal pursuit of what is essentially a civil matter that the copyright holders should be pursuing (and paying for) through the civil courts not the criminal justice system. Its a great scam, blame the bogeyman of the day for piracy and get the government to take on the cost of enforcing your copyrights & it probably helps with their legislative agenda too.
You can either eliminate the piracy or eliminate what is being pirated. :-)
Support your country, use P2P!
They'll say anything get attention. This just proves something we already know..Microsoft, the RIAA, and MPAA are truely pathetic.
This SUV owner just chooses carefully which gas stations to buy gas from so as not to fund terrorism, so despite the fact that your car may use less gas, unless you do the same you are funding terrorism more than I am.
See here for a list of which companies do and don't get their oil from the middle east:
http://www.boycot-middle-east-oil/
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Sorry, typo in the URL. It's actually supposed to be:
http://www.boycott-middle-east-oil.com/
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
because i had normal mod points when i saw this, but unfortuneately the story submitter is an IDIOT, and michael is also an IDIOT, and many of the people posting responses haven't read ANYTHING related to the article except the posted blurb by the first IDIOT, and thus look like IDIOTS themselves.
f
The slashdot submissions clearly says that microsoft and the MPAA are both testifying that piracy supports terrorism.
"[Yesterday's] Oversight Hearing on "International Copyright Piracy: Links to Organized Crime and Terrorism" featured the MPAA and Microsoft testifying that software and movie DVD counterfeiting is an acute problem, with criminal gangs operating factories in Russia, Malaysia and other countries that have weak copyright laws. They further claim that intellectual property piracy is a vehicle for financing or supporting acts of terror."
BULLSHIT
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/lamagna031303.pd
Here is the exact testimony of the microsoft lawyer. Terrorism is not mentioned a single time.
Microsoft's only contention here is that the majority of large scale piracy is done by very well funded operations with links to organized crime, primarily backed by and operating in countries with less strict or non-existant IP laws. It then goes on to say that much of the profit (and its nearly ALL profit) of these operations goes to funding other activity within those crime organizations, some of which is violent crime. There is PROOF of this cited in the comments. The only part of it that is conjecture is the estimated revenue and job losses due to piracy, the arguments against which are well known and do not need to be repeated here.
Nowhere in the microsoft testimony, nor in the ZDNET article is there any link between MS testimony and terrorism _at all_. Nowhere is MS claiming that piracy causes terrorism. Nowhere is there anything to indicate that MS and the MPAA are best friends in crushing your inner child.
This website might as well change its name to "microsoft_enquierer" or "microsoftdailysun" or some similar such tabloid name.
Oh wait! we already have theregister (which nearly every MS related article on slashdot invariably links to as an authoritative or credible source of "journalism")
If slashdot is going to try and act as a political or any other kind of entity, stick to the facts, clearly differentiate conjecture from reality, and at least make a half hearted attempt at being accurate.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
Such as Seymour Hersh, for example. One of the pillars of what remains of US investigative journalism, his exposé in last week's New Yorker examined how Defense Policy Board chair Richard Perle -- the architect of the war on Iraq -- stands to personally profit from the war through business dealings. Nice work if you can get it! Asked about this matter last weekend on CNN, Perle went berserk and told Wolf Blitzer that Hersh is "the closest thing in US journalism to a terrorist."
It should go without saying that real terrorism is a vile and deplorable act of violence against the innocent, and that muddying or diluting the definition makes the word (and, in fact, the world) less honest. Orwell explained all this to us more than fifty years ago.
But such is our present discourse, dragged into the gutter of constant, effortless accusation by the right wing, that the term is being debased and distorted when our future very well may depend upon our being clear, honest and just today. The new McCarthyism has shown its willingness to brand anyone who crosses the wishes of the Bush regime (or its flunkies) as a terrorist or terrorist ally. In such a climate, can you blame industry hacks at the MPAA or Microsoft for merely cashing in on the reigning ignorance? You, for instance. You, running that DRM-free PC -- why, you...terrorist!
Being that NOTHING is more important than fighting terrorists, they'll be slashing their prices to kill the black market!
NO?!? We need a new resolution from Congress tonight. It's nice out, I guess I'll open the freedoms and watch a liberty on cable.
Mod parent up. This is the gaping, Mack Truck-sized hole in the argument.
[...]
If all piracy takes place on P2P networks, there's no cash, and thus no profit for Al-Qaida or Iraq.
I'd like you go back and read the article. Did you see "P2P" at all in it? I didn't. The closest that it came was referencing piracy, which although it implies a reference to people who simply use the software without paying for it, the rest of the article made it clear that was about people who resell the software. The article also said that copyright laws should be stronger, which would hurt those same casual pirates, but did not make any verbal attack at all on those casual pirates.
Yes, the copyright cartel associations are using every trick in the book to make P2P look bad. Talk has even begun about how P2P enables pedophiles. There's little dispute here on Slashdot that they're a rather nasty company, so your flames are welcome here. And I'm sure that somewhere the MPAA is making the argument that P2P does encourage terrorism. However, it was not in this article. So go ahead and bash the MPAA / RIAA / BSA. But could you at least not build your post around a strawman?
Think before you type. The action happens to be more important than karma.
This is an ad hominem attack of the most blatant kind.
Yes, because the RIAA essentially said "Software piracy is bad because software pirates are [stupid / evil / ugly / smelly].
Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
If they held an all-vegan fundraiser, who would buy the stuff? Vegans. They would get some money from their friends but not their foes.
If they held a sausage sizzlefest, then the money of meateaters would go into their hands. Like someone said, it would be delicious (no pun intended) irony for them to take the money from their foes and use it for themselves.
Any extremist group will be willing to go against its own ideals if it hurts the opposing group enough to be worth it.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
You cant take religion away without giving something back to the human psyche, the unconscious needs the symbols and Archetypes that are found in religions, if you take them away probably the strong religous beliefs people wont find a meaning for life anymore and, and more likely are going to fight back to get them back.
You can replace the symbols and achetypes with rational descision making. What a concept!
it was an excel file. more than enough evidence to arrest Bill G, i say.
---- oh no - it's the RIAA and their $100000000 fine. I'm gonna take that so seriously...
Ever notice if you say a word repeatedly, it starts to sound like gibberish?
A few years down the road, how will we quickly label and villify anyone responsible for some horrible attack, when terrorist has been completely watered to down to mean nothing at all?
Microsoft has yet again claimed that their recent woes are due to something other than being retarded, and thus the war on terrorism continues. On a side note... hey, if I claim that I have a smaller than average penis due to terrorist efforts, can I be a national hero too? We really have lost sight of what the word TERRORIST means, and now instead apply it to basically every criminal on the market. Sorry to say so, US citizens, but we're falling apart at the seams... and Osama bin Laden is laughing his ass off while we do it.
SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue > 0
0 rows returned
Note that the Christians started the crusades to kill the unbelievers. Of course, the word "crusade" is politically correct in this country, but its arabic equivalent, "jihad", is not.
Wrong again. The Crusades were a reaction to the violent, kingdom conquering nature of Early Islam. Many kingdoms that were neither Christian, nor Muslim were overthrown by Muslims in the very first several hundred years. When Islam started making headroom and setting up a warring shop next to Christians, then they got an organized response. Keep in mind that kings had enough trouble keeping their own people in check. Think about how things were run. The Crusades were not a pleasure cruise. The Moors were in Spain. Think about it. By the way, I am not justifying killing.
Besides, that was several hundred years ago. SEVERAL HUNDRED. The fact that those people in the Middle East are using 600+ year old justifications for killing anyone not like them is complete and utter horseshit. The fact that you bought into this long-dead-I-cannot-believe-you-are-talking-about-
Honestly, if anyone brings up a 600 year old argument to shop around for some violence, may I suggest Prozac.
IF YOU NEED ANY EXCUSE FOR YOUR BEHAVIOR, EITHER RACIST OR VIOLENT, I've got a few Middle Easterners you need to talk to. They pretty much got the xenophobia and open racial anger thing down cold. Oh, and the wife ass kicking thing too.
Me? I don't do religions. Its all a bunch of crap... although I do appreciate a little bit of what Buddha and Jesus were talking about.
I just worry that Iraq and its surrounding nations will propagandize this (as history shows they have before) and use it as a tool to create more, not less terrorism.
Those people propagandize everything into a racist excuse for why they need to kill others. Their religion teaches it. This cannot be avoided.
I am serious here. Take the most educated Muslim man you know (and I mean one of the brilliant ones that come to any Western country... the real physics whiz kids) and sit him down. Ask him about Middle Eastern politics. You'll see in about 30 seconds how his mind has been screwed so logically backwards when it comes to the sanctity of human life that you'll be scared. Then you'll see it for what it is. ONE OF THE GUYS THAT IS WAY SMARTER THAN YOU, THE SMARTEST OF THE SMART, CAN'T GET PAST THIS RELIGIOUS BULLSHIT. Can't see people as human beings. The only humans are Muslims. You are technically a sub-human. So therefore, even the most murderous Muslim is better than you. The murderous Muslim should never be turned in to the infidels. Period.
They are, as one would say, permanently screwed in the head since birth. They are maintained by their religion to be murderous bigots. Told that getting a choice spot in heaven is to be a really good murderous bigot.
Then you'll really see why the whole world has been at arms length, and hasn't wanted a f'n thing to do with them for centuries.
I guess that means GNU is anti-terrorist since it removes the monitary motivation.
PS.. I hope some arm of the US government doesn't come knocking on my door and throw me in the slammer for treason because I installed MS-Word without a license at home. (Theoretical of course... my hard drive hasn't even seen MS-Word thanks to OpenOffice.)
The time is 1955. You work in Hollywood and are accused of being a communist sympathizer. You plead your innocence repeatedly, but no one listens. The brave are not brave. And the free do not live here. We are all gripped with the POSSIBILITY that someone we know is a communist... a red... one of them! Accusation is enough to condemn and villify as guilty.
Flash forward to the future and now it is the name terrorist....
There are bad men and women in this world and there always will be. The hope of the free is not in MINDLESS classifications, which once given to someone, obtain no further thought. The hope of the free is in being brave and in realizing their true destiny is not to hopelessly, mindlessly, ferrit out every last communist. This can never be obtained. The hope of the free is to THINK and be free.
Oh and sorry, but is it any great shock that Microsoft would attempt to profit by attempting to append to today's Black List for it's own benefit. Don't think, they say, just listen and condemn those who we say!
For the later half of the 20th century, it was the dreaded "communist". The commies were responsible for all the bad things in the world. Now we found an even greater evil: The terrorist! You can dig out all the old propaganda files, movies, leaflets etc and replace "communist" with "terrorist" and there you have it.
t pig} sympethizer and should be shipped off to an {detention camp on cuba|concentration camp|gulag in siberia}. And it justifies the bloated defense budget.
Let's face it, if you want to keep your people occupied and in check, you need a popular enemy. They won't complain about the strict (some may say opressive) laws you pass, because, afterall, it's for national security and if you disagree, why, you must be an {commie|undemocratic|unamerican|unaryan|capitalis
I am really, REALLY tired of people abusing terrorists as a justification to further their own ends. If anything, this claim by the MPAA and Microsoft makes me want to download movies over P2P simply to deny these two organizations any source of income.
If you are in America, please, write your gov't to end the madness.... and elect someone decent next time around. Pretty please?
Next thing you know masturbating will be supporting terrorism
HELLO, PEOPLE!
This has nothing to do with file sharing. That is a completely separate issue. (There isn't much money in it, so how could it be funding terrorism?)
Microsoft is talking about counterfeiting. There is a lot of money to be made by selling rip-off copies at discount prices. Think: it costs $.50 to burn a CD. If you can sell it for $10 to $20 bucks by ignoring copyright laws, you can make a lot of money. It is a profitable business. And it is very possible that some of the money made from this is used to support terrorism.
Basically, if there is a black market for something, some of the people making money from it are probably sending some of the money to "terrorist" causes. Software/Music/Movie counterfeiting is probably no different from any other black market industry. No worse, no better. Microsoft is just using this fact to try to get the government to crack down on it.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Piracy funds terrorism.
Good thing I burn my own disks.
Drugs fund terrorism.
Good thing I grow my own pot.
SUVs burn up a lot of gas which comes from oil which funds terrorism.
Good thing I only drive an SUV and not a fuel guzzling private jet like the self-righteous asses who make these stupid commercials.
Does this
That's a sticker that I've ironically put on my car.
But I do ride my bicycle to work nearly every day.
When the Partnership ads came out, I was thinking a more interesting parody would be "Everytime you buy gasoline, you are supporting terrorism." I'd like to put that on my car, but wonder how the gas station attendance might react. And I feel like I've been lazy, using my car to see my girlfriend, or pick up groceries. It was a lot easier when I didn't have a choice by owning a car.
Anyway, I think a lot of the animosity about SUVs is that in a car you can't see around the darn things, as well as that many of them are badly designed and very dangerous. (And ironically people buy them because they feel safer in them.) My father has one of the better designed SUVs, that is built on a car chasis, and even driving that I felt like I had to be very careful about rollover. (Is this getting off topic enough yet?)
Anyway, I've that "They" say that if we could just have better efficancy, we would be able to support all our gasoline needs without needing to import. So while it might be a misguided tactic to focus on SUV drivers, fuel efficancy is part of the cumulative effect. Just like riding a bicycle whenever you can plays a part.
And I do appreciate the information from the web site you refer to, and I'll try to avoid gas stations that use Middle East oil, just like I do not do business with Shell because of their actions in Nigeria. (hmmm.... just thought, I wonder if Shell has anything to do with those 419 scams? Nah!)
This signature used to contain a cute kitty virus with ansii art. Please set the slashdot editors on fire. Thank you
So you are essentially saying America is a dictatorship which does not recognize the basic rules of democracy?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Okay- for A start I never buy pirate software. If I am gonna copy it, I would just copy it off my mates. Number two the cracks are made by freaks who enjoy that sorta thing for the sake of it. To some people- being up until three am hacking a peice of software is supreme art and relaxation - I know - I used to be one. I didnt expect any payment, and I would quite happily give my results- although I might keep the best ones for myself as a matter of pride.
As copyright control technology becomes more sophisticated the small guys drop off and its left to big operations to do it, who would charge for it, and fund those terrorist organisations.
But to me its all academic - as I neither copy or buy software anymore. I use linux and free software, and only buy software I can succesfully run in wine or on PS2.
</rant>
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol
This is basically the insurance approach -- scare people to get what you want. Or the mouthwash approach, the preacher approach, etc. It goes on forever.
In 1890 you could not sell people toilet paper. Now you can sell them anything, even this terror crap. People (on average) have become surprisingly stupid. There is nothing you can do about it; you cannot explain things to stupidity, or fix it somehow. It must be a consequence of natural selection -- the average person is required to be less intelligent than we have been. Perhaps increased population density and constricted resource availability create a predilection for decreased awareness.
Since there are evidently still smart people (here, at least) and they tend to hang out together maybe "humanity" will bifurcate into sub-species of smart people and powerful people. The dumb people will always be telling the smart people: "That's interesting that you think that. Now shut up and get back in your workstation where you belong. You're lucky we even feed you."
That's sort of what I get.
I'll get back to work now.
Oh yes, that's right, the US is invading Iraq in order to STOP the ATROCITIES!
Of course, there are atrocities being perpetrated in China, Korea, the USA... but not a lot of effort is going into stopping those.
I wonder why not?
Of course, it sure is useful for a government to have the support of honest people, who believe what they are doing is helping.
So is "War on drugs" now bringing awfull lot of money to narco-barons.
I'm expecting emergence of some terms like "content-pitates(TM)" in conjunction to some "War on Content Pirates". With that - higher prices of both legal and illegal content and also higher taxes.
hany
balderdash. Muslims are forbidden from using any form of intoxicant, however mild. Clearly stated in the koran. Gambling and all games of chance are forbidden, too. Even drinking is forbidden. Pls get your facts straight, eh?
Right now, piracy is not economically viable for terrorists. Terrorists don't have ready access to consumer technology, they don't have easy access to our lucrative markets, and the risk-to-reward ratio means that they would be competing with yuppie twelve year olds from all over the World.
In other words,
PROHIBITION => GREATER RISK => GREATER PROFIT => TERRORISM
A famous Lisp Hacker noticed an Undergraduate sitting in front of a Xerox
1108, trying to edit a complex Klone network via a browser. Wanting to
help, the Hacker clicked one of the nodes in the network with the mouse,
and asked "what do you see?" Very earnestly, the Undergraduate replied "I
see a cursor." The Hacker then quickly pressed the boot toggle at the back
of the keyboard, while simultaneously hitting the Undergraduate over the head
with a thick Interlisp Manual. The Undergraduate was then Enlightened.
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