FBI Anti-Piracy Seal

Supp0rtLinux writes "Looks like the FBI is giving a new anti-piracy seal for entertainment and software products. Looks like now the RIAA and MPAA pursuits will add a new federal level to future prosecutions." I'm pretty sure that our forms of media already contain warnings against unauthorized duplication, rebroadcasting, and public performance, but now it's in logo form!

Comments

a new federal level ?

[forevermore]

Since when is federal involvement new? Wasn't it the DMCA that added the addendum to copyright violation law saying that if the violation involved something "digital" it was an instant criminal offense, regardless of profit (which used to be the civil/criminal difference)?

Doublespeak ... or just lies

[fname]

Well, the official propaganda arm of the USA, the Voice of America, has an article on the matter. I'll pull out one choice quote:

"It allows the average citizen who rents movies or movies or software or games to understand what is correct activity and what is incorrect activity," he said. "They need to understand that there is a law involved and that law is very important, and they should abide by it."

So, amyone want to bet that the RIAA doesn't note any of the "correct" ways we can our media, such as sharing with friends, making backup copies or selling them?

(By the way, I know that VOA isn't really a propaganda machine in the same sense as the Bush press office is. But it sounds funny.)

Re:But it already exists

[LostCluster]

Actually, they're further with it... they've allready wedged the (C) symbol into ASCII at number 169, and also the USPTO has gotten their (R) in as ASCII number 174...

Re:Not a big deal..

[Josh Booth]

...and I use MPlayer for DVDs.

(Note: MPlayer has no seek/fast foreward restrictions)

Quite the notice....

[InnovativeCX]

For those too lazy to shop around for a link, the logo is visible on the FBI homepage along with a fairly extensive notice.

The wording is what really gets me...very colloquial for such a terse organization:

PIRATES IN CYBERSPACE
Not Exactly Fun and Games
Does the number THREE BILLION DOLLARS get your attention?
...
Did you notice that "new" FBI seal in the corner? Only 5 stars; no laurel leaves; shield moved up to the top of the blue field. That's the official FBI Anti-Piracy seal, just unveiled today... and you'll be seeing a lot of it in the days to come. Not just on the warning screens of videos and DVDs, but on the millions and millions of CDs, games, software packages, and other digital media that are produced each year.
Oh, and one last thing:

Protect yourself!

Great stuff. Of course, I'd always thought of the red, black, and white FBI WARNING screen on VHS and DVD's as somewhat of a, well, warning...but hey, new times, new logo.

They consider this an effort to combat piracy. I somehow doubt that half an hour in Photoshop will do much to address the problem.

Granted, I'm all for the protection of artists and such, but the usual practice of protecting the 'big stars' (who tend to fall short of being 'artists') while leaving independent musicians and filmmakers out in the cold isn't exactly what I'd had in mind.

These efforts specifically target criminal enterprises -- and link the considerable resources and efforts of private sector companies and trade associations with law enforcement partnerships (on local, state, federal, and international levels) to identify and stop them.
And that's not all.

Here's hoping there will some benefit to those that still create their work rather than serve as a mere mouthpiece.

Re:no

[child_of_mercy]

newspeak, Orwell, 1984.

I thought he was being pretty funny with that useage.

Re:no

[pla]

Yeah, but you sure as shit can't do it with DVDs. Lost in Translation came with a nice warning followed by 10 minutes of trailers I couldn't skip.

Sure you can...

See my other comment on this topic.

It sounds like you buy used DVDs from rental places, since I've never seen a retail DVD with unskippable commercials, but that doesn't really matter - Just because you paid less for it, you did buy it, why the hell shouldn't you have the right to enjoy it without ads or annoying FBI warning?

Personally, my biggest peeve comes from the imports. Not only do they have an FBI warning, but a similar warning from half a dozen countries, in as many languages. Talk about pissing the customer off...

Re:no

[ncc74656]

I think the next time I have to re-activate DVDXcopy because I've upgraded my hardware (again), I'm just going to "activate it myself".

Why bother paying for what you can get for free? DVD Decrypter, DVDStripper, and DVD Shrink will edit out unwanted material and squeeze any movie down to where it'll fit on a DVD-R, and they're all free (as in beer, anyway, which is more than you can say for DVDXcopy).

Re:Not a big deal..

[1u3hr]

Back in the day (early 80s) we'd copy whole tapes, FBI warning and all. Didn't seem to scare us teenage evildoers.

The Chinese bootlegs usually have that too. Sometimes thay have a high quality FBI warning and a preview which makes you think that you have a DVD dupe if you check it in the shop. Then you get home and find that the actual movie is camcorder video, complete with rustling chip packets, caughing and shadows.