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.

Comments

Okay...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Bullshiiiiiiitttttt

[Pxtl]

Actually, the Opium production in Afghanistan went _up_ after the americans saved it. Yes, there was a drug trade in Afghanistan at the time, but the Taliban was not responsible for it. Not that I'm defending them, I just think you should hate people for what they did, not what they didn't.

To be fair...

[gilroy]

... it isn't clear that Microsoft or the MPAA made the terrorism charge. 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.

For now, at least, the corporations are not exactly synonymous with the government.... even if they do pull the strings.

Re:Bullshiiiiiiitttttt

[bheerssen]

Well, the Taliban made a lot of the money that kept them in power in Afghanistan by growing and selling opium ...

Uh.. The Taliban had very strict laws against opium production. In fact, poppy cultivation has increased by 95% in Afganistan since the Taliban were removed. While I have no sympathy for the Taliban (certainly a brutally repressive regime), U.S. claims that they used opium production to finance terrorism seem specious to say the least. If there were terrorist groups making money by growing opium in Afganistan, they were most probably doing so without Taliban approval.

Re:We can laugh...

[scenic]

While I want to agree with your point, be careful with your facts. 299 people have been put to death in Texas since 1982 when capital punishment was reinstated. Your statment

Where, in the month of March, nearly 300 men have been put to death in Texas alone.

is misleading no matter how I read it. Also, you're omitting certain facts about the three men who were arrested... for example facts about the charitable group they were donating to and the specific donations they had.

Your most cogent point is the last one you made... a war will simply continue the cycle of hate that has prospered in these times. In fact, my main concern is that no comprehensive plan and, more importantly in today's world, no long-term money has been committed to the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan. If we drop that ball, so to speak, we're going to just create more hate and more terrorists.

Sujal

Re:We can laugh...

[bel_slashdot]

How is this any different from America? Where, in the month of March, nearly 300 men have been put to death in Texas alone.

In point of fact, only 300 people have been executed in TOTAL since the death penalty was reinstated in Texas, not just in the month of March.

Here is a story from back in January predicting the 300th execution in Texas. I recently saw on the local news in Houston that they just now executed the 300th inmate.

Belgarion

i wish i had ARTICLE mod points

[bmajik]

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.

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.pdf

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.