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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!
It's not like anyone paid attention ever to the FBI warnings at the beginning or end of VHS tapes.
Help me. I've been modbombed by a few people with entirely too much time on their hands.
Great now anyone who buys a cd will have to listen to a 40 year old man tell you to report piracy. It almost makes me want to get piranted cds more that way.
Why not just cut to the chase and arrest people the moment they buy the movie?
So does that mean that I have to update the warnning message on all my downloaded movies?
There are 10 kinds of people in the world > > Those who understand binary and those who don't
It's a label.
It spells out explicitly that the product is covered by copyright and it also specifies the maximum penalty for violation of the copyright.
No harm, no foul.
I have been pwned because my
Oh my god... A LOGO! I think I'm gonna pause... and then keep going. I mean, come on. You have that stuff there. All a logo's gonna do is make people glance at it, then copy it. ESRB anyone?
503 Sig Unavailable
The Signature could not be accessed. Please try again later or contact the administrator
There's been an "FBI WARNING!!!" on videotapes since the 1980s. CDs, holding music or software, deserve the same level of copyright protection, so why not?
If you haven't gotten the clue that digitally sharing the latest thing that came out of Hollywood isn't the smartest idea by now, where have you been?
From the article:
The seal would enable the music and movie industries to deliver on their stated belief that education is as important as enforcement in combating piracy.
That makes no sense whatsoever, the people that control the original content are not capable of putting in little blurbs? They need an FBI seal for education purposes? Which can be stripped out just as easy as anything the RIAA/MPAA could put in....
Riiiiggghtttt.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
So will this mean that when programs load they will have a 'Blue screen of Theft'?
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
Can we get a "piracy" seal then for works whose copyright owners intend for them to be abused? Negativland should get on this right away.
And it looks sort of like this: (C)
Having this Seal of Approval would at least give me some assurance that I have bought the Authentic thing. I would feel better thinking my money has gone to the creators of of this entertainment, not to those scumbag pirates.
We should all be grateful that the FBI is helping protect the creative individuals of America.
SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
Now we know which products to boycott!
DRM sucks
You mean you didn't pay attention to the FBI warning message? It's illegal to skip it!
I hope you had expressed written permission, rather than just implied moral consent, to ignore it. If not, you could be next.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
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)?
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
(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.)
... According to the article.
Occam's Razor says that this means 6 out of 10 movies are crap, not that 90% of people are thieves.
-- Your mother uses Emacs.
You'd think they had more importaint things to do like prevent another 9/11.
I hate this line of thinking. As though an organization only focuses on one thing at a time. "I guess they don't have more important things to do." As though deciding to put out an anti-piracy logo consumed 100% of their resources and manpower. They probably hired some marketing company to do it anyway.
"Keith Kupferschmid, VP of the anti-piracy division of the SIIA, said piracy also remains rampant in the software industry, costing U.S. companies about $12 billion a year in lost licensing revenue....."While the seal will not solve the problem, we feel it will aid the software industry in its war against piracy.""
So let me get that last part straight - "We're trying this anyway, and it's not going to work."
So why bother, and/or what strategy might work?
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
Movie execs also are worried about lost revenue from DVD sales and rentals. "We absolutely need downstream revenue to survive," said Ken Jacobsen, senior VP and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA, noting that only four of 10 movies earn enough at the box office to recoup the average of $89 million spent on producing and marketing a film.
Maybe if they stop hiring the 20 million 'bennifer' actors/actresses and start spending just a 10th of that money on the script and they might see some profit.
Neither seal, nor EULA, nor copy-protection, nor IP issues, nor ethical ramifications will dissuade the determined pirate.
The coolest voice ever.
But this is only encouraging piracy! Let me explain. This seal will have to be visible right? So now we have not only "Explicit Lyrics" stickers, but also "FBI Anti-Piracy" stickers. Soon to follow is "PEPSI, you can also download this music for free!" stickers, and "SCO - this crap was digitally mastered on a linux platform so you owe us $699" stickers. And EULA stickers, and "Stickers against stickers association" stickers..
So here's the situation: you enter the record store and you can't find your CD because they're all covered with stickers. So you begin to peel some of them off, and the clerk comes to you and asks what the hell you're doing with their property. Then you reply something like "Oh sorry.. i was just about to go home and start up kazaa, anyway."
So you see! It leads to piracy!
So they think adding more annoying popups to other devices and services will help stop copyright infringment? Ya, that FBI warning in evey video type is a big problem for the pirates, that FF>> button is So hard to push. Of course we get DVD's that force you to watch them, but if you backup the dvd with a little IFO hacking you can remove the warning. That is if your not luckly enough to have a player that ignores the user prohibition codes. Why not instead of spamming us with more useless stuff they figure out away to encourge us not to want to pirate the content in the first place. Like Sell cut rate on movie tickets or early sneak peaks if you buy the DVD up front. Or other real world advantages. Sooner or later these companies are going to see that forceing the status quo is tilting at windmills, they need to learn to innovate and get people excited about buying their products instead of being viewed as a nesicary evil to recive any decent content
Does anyone think that this will be as helpful to people as the "Tipper" stickers are?
Parent: "Hmm this is copyrighted...Nope, son you can't listen to this."
Child: "Can I get the latest Eminem CD then?"
Parent: "Well, as long as it isn't copyrighted, it's fine by me!"
EVERYDAY IS CATURDAY
> "We absolutely need downstream revenue to
> survive," said Ken Jacobsen, senior VP and
> director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for
> the MPAA, noting that only four of 10 movies earn
> enough at the box office to recoup the average of
> $89 million spent on producing and marketing a
> film.
I think the MPAA should be looking at two other issues in addition to piracy:
- why do only 40% of movies actually make money? I find it hard to believe that wholesale copyright infringement is ripping that much off the bottom line; very few people actually have the bandwidth to download movies, and not all of those have DVD burners
- why does the average file cost $89m to make and market? I can remember only about 10 years ago that $100m was considered an obscene amount to spend on making a film (refer to "Waterworld" and "Last Action Hero" as examples); now it's only slightly above average?
I think these guys have got to have a bit of a reality check if they're spending $89m per film and complaining about not recovering costs. *Someone* has had a very big salary hike...
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:
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.
Here's hoping there will some benefit to those that still create their work rather than serve as a mere mouthpiece.3rd highest priority is cybercrime!?!?
This is more important that say forensics???
My god if that doesn't smack of special interests gone horribly, horribly, wrong.
And that's without even addressing what how slippery a slope the prevention of virtual crimes would seem to be.
I wish that there was a Special logo on every dollar and every paid invoice to these companies that would
remind them that they do not own us and it is a privilege to serve it's valued customers instead of treating
us like lambs waiting to be shorn, wearing retention collars and being fed confinement loaf.
Whatever happened to the common carrier laws?
i.e. you are not responsible for the acts of you users, you are only required to comply with subponeas,etc.
Listen here punk, bring that thing NEAR a Blockbuster(TM) and I'll throw you in Jail, buddy.
Well, The man said that preventing and prosecuting cybercrimes is now the FBI's No. 3 priority. So it looks like they'll spend more time chasing 12 year old "pirates" before they start looking for the next John Gotti, or kidnappers, or other "real" criminals.
What?
He is considered armed and dangerous, bearing several semi-automatic, uh, video cameras. But don't worry, folks - the trusty FBI is hard at work hunting him down so that small children can sleep soundly at night.
Moral consent, in that you can fast forward your own damn tape in your own damn house on your own damn tv without the FBI interfering.
If anyone is offended by my language, please s/damn/double plus unnice/ now.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
No one reads license agreements anymore. This seal should stand out to parents of younger kids (teens always seem to love to make their friends copies of things...).
Jana Monroe, assistant director of the FBI's cyberdivision, said the unit, created 18 months ago in large part to help hunt perpetrators of digital copyright infringement, will continue to get significant funding from the bureau. Monroe said preventing and prosecuting cybercrimes is now the FBI's No. 3 priority, behind anti-terrorism efforts and counterintelligence operations.
The FBI's nubmer 3 priority! Piracy is ahead of domestic security, corporate crime, drug enforcement (etcetera ad nauseum)...Yes! I needed a new logo for my windows boot screen!
The first thing I did when I bought a TV card for my computer, was to capture the FBI warning for a boot screen. It does nothing to prevent copying except to give the cracker something else to write 'owned' on.
Useless.
THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!!! eventually.
I mean, you just smack 'em in the face with a club. The little fellas rarely put up much of a fight...
Why is this even posted? Does this really matter at all? Referring to the article, did any consumer (honestly) claim that they didn't know this material was copyrighted? And referring to why this was posted, did anyone on slashdot think otherwise?
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!
Which is why this article is a waste of time. Do you think the screen at the beginning of VHS tapes isn't a logo already? Has that changed? It looks standardized to me. A new one may not be needed, but this doesn't change any laws or sentencing guidelines, nor is it another shady $IAA tactic. It has no real effect, save allowing slashdot posters to complain about how needless this is while giving us an opportunity to criticize the industry for something that, relative to their current behavior, is mostly harmless.
"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?
And that's certainly no surprise. Which is why we should focus on something other than a stupid logo. If everyone took the time they used to reply on slashdot and craft an original letter to their congressmen, maybe something would *start* to change. And even if it doesn't, it sure feels better knowing you shared your opinion with people who don't agree than preaching to the choir.
Someone has to be able to find an article with more meaning than this.
Why are people even responding? I'm embarassed I've typed this much.
oh dang!
Next we'll have logo's saying terrorism is illegal.
In what shape or form does this help the problem at all? It does absolutely nothing but cost marketing money. Nothing more than my hard earned tax dollars going to waste.
Those who trade in their freedom for security, deserve neither.
Put yourself in their position, you're working for what you believe is the right cause, you do as your told, and you glide into a pension after service moving into the private sector afterwards. Bottom line.
As for the sticker... Means nothing and yes you can attribute piracy in some form to illegal activities. Although you see this from a downloading-does-no-evil perspective, fact is there are organizations that make money off of these things, and yes they can somehow can intertwined with terrorism. For example, out here in NYC where tax free bootleg cigarettes are the rage for those looking to make a quick buck, do you think Joe Blow average is bringing in truckloads to sell them to lower level sellers? Sure people run off to Indian reservations to buy and resell, but it's not an uncommon notion to think how easy it would be to make some mega black market cash to fund something more sinister.
So while the typical /.'er trolls along thinking about how evil this is, I personally think this was done to appease those with money making noise (RIAA), and as a means of saying "We're watching you", beyond that I doubt if the FBI is going to run around and arrest little Jack Horner for trading songs with Little Bo Peep, but rather would focus on factories who do this on a mass scale. Then again this is my perception of it all, and I am definitely not one to be an expert solely one who looks at things from a different angle. And in case anyone has forgotten, a law is a law is a law. Like it or not.
MoFscker
I hate this line of thinking. As though an organization only focuses on one thing at a time. "I guess they don't have more important things to do." As though deciding to put out an anti-piracy logo consumed 100% of their resources and manpower. They probably hired some marketing company to do it anyway.
So what percentage of money/time do you feel is valid in creating a symbol that is widely ignored, and ineffective?
http://use.perl.org
...or it could also be deployed as a pop-up screen during software installation.
So if I were to hold down shift, copy it off of the CD/DVD, and then send it to the Taliban I would get thrown in jail for DMCA violation, copyright infringement, and "funding" a terrorist. That would make for a Bad Day; good thing I'd have a lawyer watching out for my rights...er, damnit!
:wq
Common carrier only applies to regulated facilities like phone, cable or shippers, not ISPs and not IRC servers.
[Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
For sure, those logos are actually RFID circuits. The FBI would use them to track down legitimate buyers. Anybody who hasn't bought anything in a month AND has internet access will be automatically sued by RIAA for unpatriotic behaviour.
Anti Piracy Seal? Is that like Smokey, the Fire Prevention Bear?
Best Buy can have you arrested
We need something akin to those, "Heros don't use drugs" screens on arcades in between the demos when nobody was playing. My suggestion is an FBI agent pointing and saying, "Heros respect intellectual property!"
This anti-piracy Seal, he's like a highly trained anti-piracy agent, whose stealth and clandestine methods of operation allows him to conduct multiple anti-piracy missions against targets that larger forces cannot approach undetected? He's been selected from the best of the best for his discipline, skill, and bravery? He'll strike terror into the hearts of media pirates near large bodies of water everywhere?
.I dunno. . .logo or stamp or something on the damn disks saying "piracy is bad, m'kay?". Bloody lame if you ask me.
No? Not that kind of seal?
Then I expect he'll amuse children and adults alike with his antics, balancing balls on his adorable snout and clapping his flippers together, all the while conveying a powerful anti-piracy message to our youth?
No? Aw c'mon! You're not seriously telling me that the FBI signed up a washed-up early 90's soul singer to convey their anti piracy message? That's just so lame. It probably would have been more effective for them to just put some kind of. .
I want the fire back.
Not only do cybercrimes have the potential to endanger lives
So the highly unlikely possibility of death makes cybercrimes the 3rd priority of the FBI.
Terrorism would be number 1, so would murder, or serial rapists be number 4?
http://use.perl.org
... so I can slap a circle & slash on it for my own stuff.
How this rebranded "Don't Copy that Floppy" seal is going to deter piracy is beyond me. I'm sure it was as much of a deterrent as that William H. Sessions "Winners don't use drugs" campaign that showed up in arcades in the 90s.
Now it will be easy to tell what CD's are put out by RIAA members will have a handy marker on them... wait a few months till they put the Logo on all their shit then start a "Do Not Buy" campaign
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Just get one of these stickers from downhillbattle and place it over the stupid FBI Warning.
Real Pirate upon seeing the Warning: "Oooooh I'm sooooo scared!"
Yeah this stuff is just there so that you can't give try excuse that you didn't know it was illegal. However, I would be happier if in addition to this the companies spelled out the purchaser's fair use rights along with this stuff.
From the article:
"only four of 10 movies earn enough at the box office to recoup"(the money)"spent on producing and marketing a film"
Look, they're saying about box office. Now from the 60 minutes about internet movie "piracy":
"Fifty percent of the revenues for any movie come out of home video"
The quote from the first article gives the impression that most movies are not profitable.
Does anyone also think they were manipulating numbers there?
...just don't buy any of this crap. However, the downside is enforcing it, at this moment in time all i can do is stop myself.
Jonathanjk.com
I wonder how this sticker is supposed to discourage pirates, as they will never even see it. When was the last time you saw an FBI warning on a pirated movie?
As a taxpayer I can think of a hell of a lot of things the FBI should be spending it's time on WAY before jailing bootleggers.
Well, at least they are making a distinction between terrorists, spies, and copyright infringers.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Or we'll make even bigger warning labels! Big bright ones with popup stop signs and menacing pictures of fingers wagging in disapproval!
"Winners Don't Do Drugs" messages on PC games too.
HOW'S MY POSTING? CALL 1-800-POSTING
How is Joe Mouthbreather supposed to be able to recognize a real FBI Anti-Piracy sticker, compared to a Counterfeit FBI anti-piracy sticker?
I know.. they should put a logo like NASCAR and Major League Baseball do.. "Authentic", with a little hologram Fox Mulder, or Charlies Angles with the guns all pointing, do you think Hollywood would let them use the Angles logo? Aw heck, they should just do it anyways, how is anyone gonna know..
Or isn't that the problem in the first place...
Nevermind..
I hate spyware and spies
...but cybercrimes covers a vast number of crimes.
Therein lies another problem. They're painting this with a very broad brush, like terrorism. They can tack on huge sentences for the most trivial of violations, simply because it falls under the category of cybercrime or terrorism. I understand your point about safety related issues, but we're talking about money here. Hardly a valid point compared to murder, rape, assault, etc. They've put corporate profits ahead of all these.
What?
Why don't they just prepend everything copyrighted with "Don't copy that floppy!" everyone would finally understand.
It seems to me that insuring an agency of the highest moral values ranks much higher than producing meaningless logos.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
first time I read the title I thought it said "FBI Anti-PRIVACY seal".
:)
pretty much the same thing, no?
Shouldn't /. take a stand of principle, and do not use the word "piracy" to describe unauthorized software copying?
Sigged!
WASHINGTON, DC (UPI) - Vowing to put a dent in an illegal practice that robs the entertainment industry of three billion dollars a year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has unleashed a new tool in the fight against online music pirates. In a media event this afternoon at FBI Headquarters in Washington, Director Robert Mueller unveiled Chester, the bureau's official Anti-Piracy Seal. Chester, a seven year-old harp seal that was rescued from a fisherman's net off the coast of Maine, has been recruited by the bureau to "inform America's youth about the harmful practice of copyright infringement," according to Mueller. "We hope that he will teach our children that it is wrong to steal music from the Internet."
Chester impressed a crowd of roughly 100 reporters, music industry representatives, teachers, and students by balancing a copy of Hoobastank's latest CD The Reason on his nose while holding a copy of Incubus' Crow Left of the Murder between his front flippers. At one point in the press conference, an actor portraying an online music pirate attempted to take the Incubus album from Chester, at which point the seal snarled and bit off the would-be-thief's left pinky. Chester also demonstrated that he was able to use lawn darts to burst large balloons that were imprinted with the logos of Kazaa, Morpheus, Gnutella, and other popular Internet P2P ("peer-to-peer") file sharing applications.
"He's quite the talented creature," beamed Mueller.
After the press conference was over, Mueller loaded Chester up in an unmarked Chevy Malibu and took him to Millard Fillmore Elementary School in suburban Washington, D.C. for a classroom visit. The popular seal captured the hearts of Mrs. Eleanor Richards' third grade class when he waddled around the room with a bucketful of FBI/RIAA anti-piracy literature hanging from his nose. "Chester taught me that it is real, real bad to steal music," said nine year-old Timmy Jacobson, of Alexandria, VA.
"I learned that Adolf Hitler also stoled music," pointed out ten year-old Kaitlyn Frankenhoff.
Chester is scheduled to visit five schools a week during an extended tour that is expected to last eighteen months. His initial weeks will take him from the Beltway south through the Carolinas, to Georgia and Florida, and finally to New Orleans, LA. Mueller is excited about the impact of Chester's mission. "We will get the truth about music sharing out," he said. "The next generation of American children will understand the value of honesty and the reward of a hard day's work." According to Mueller, Chester is also able to "answer the telephone", "close car doors", and "play sand volleyball." When he's not fighting music pirates, Chester enjoys dining on rotten fish and soft serve ice cream.
Hillary Rosen contributed to this story.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
will it make things go faster like they do for some cars?
meant to be a funny, btw.
I wonder why law enforcement didn't think to give me a seal to put on my car when my speakers got ripped off at college. Now that I think about, I wonder why they refused to even come out to investigate when half the cars on the street got busted into. I guess my neighborhood didn't buy enough justice.
Ok every year there are some new protection schemes released. Safedisc v1, v2 etc etc...
This FBI sticker thing is just plain weak. RIAA needs to go back to the copy/read-protection strategy. Don't threaten the public with these lame tricks when you don't even have enough room in jail for all of us.
My kingdom for a DVD player that can skip the feeb warning and the trailers before the menu! Pressing ff or next chapter just brings up a little black circle with a slash through it in the corner of the screen (rca, first dvd player under $100 IIRC).
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
What, you think preventing and prosecuting bank robbers isn't looking out for special interests? Personally, I'd rather they focus on crimes where people actually get killed or injured, but that's just me...
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Then again, I don't think I ever won an arcade game either. Of course, the statement tells us nothing about "Losers" in particular, so I'm not a contradiction to the rule!
Do they think the warez groups will put the seal in the .nfo? Will teenage girls now download Britney_Spears.Random_Marketed_Commercial_Crap.FBI _Says_Dont_Copy_This.Sharereactor.mp3?
IMO this is a crap idea as a deterrent. People already know it's illegal (with the exception of the few who actually believe that 24 hour crap). The only ones who see it are those who will buy the software- warez kiddies, who might pay attention out of fear of the consequences, don't. The ones who pirate and buy are those who seek to appraise before spending(whether to check quality or see if it will run on their machine) -the warning is wasted on them, as they believe (rightly, IMO) that they aren't actually doing anything wrong provided that they really do buy anything they like and want to keep
Worried you might not keep your virginity forever? Try new Linux(TM), guaranteed twice as effective as LARPing
Here's the deal. If large corporations agree to pay their taxes like everyone else, and not use illegal tax shelters, generally show a bit of civic responsibility, I'll agree to not pirate ANYTHING. /me just finished watching Frontline.
a x/
Look here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/t
Sound fair? Good. You cannot have your cake and and pie and cream puffs and every last damn thing you want AND eat it too. Greedy bastards.
I don't understand why they're developing an anti-piracy seal. I mean MacGruff the crime dog made sense, but when I think of anti-pirate animals, I mostly think of that alligator from Peter Pan.
so can we put this sticker on open source software or what?
get the FBI behind the GPL, that'll have 'em quakin in their boots!
lol
Now I'm kinder, gentler and so happy
It's lovely, lovely...
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
when beaurocrats get bored.
"Hey Brian, what are we going to do, today?"
"The same thing we do every day, Paul! Try to take over the world!"
"But we did that yesterday, Brian."
"Oh, right. Well, then... are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That now would be a great time to make some logos?"
"...Actually, that's not a half-bad idea, now that we have that whole world thing out of the way."
Or when beaurocrats have to defend their jobs.
"...That's what this staff meeting is all about! That's what happened at the CIA last year. You have to interview with a consultant and they bring in efficiency experts. You're interviewing for your own job!"
"Maybe we could... do something. You know, to convince them to let us keep our jobs."
"Like what?"
"I don't know... make a new logo?"
"Sounds good to me. I'm in."
This attempt at humor brought to you by:
~UP
Eat the Path.
They're simply trying to move into the present...logo's are all the rage, right? Image recognition....literally.
Not that anyone here gives a flying rectal expulsion, but hey, nothiing else seems to be working for them, so 'Don't Copy' the Clown gets to join the ranks of Smokey Bear and Ruff the Crime Dog.
>>pursuits will add a new federal level
Copyright infringement is already at a federal level. The FBI warning is merely informing that you are violating copyright if you copy the stuff, and saying "we will get you if you pirate this".
Copyright is a federally assured protection, therefore is federal by default, with or without the FBI warning. That little c on the back cover is all that is legally required. The rest of us have to pay. The pirates just cut out the annoying delay and FBI message.
That's why copyright is far superiour to the "mail it to yourself" trick for music protection. If you only mail it to yourself you only have federal proof that you had the recording on a given date, meaning it is good enough for evidence.
Since you aren't protected by a copyright certificate, you need to fight the court battles in all 50 states to sue for infringement. Basically you are almost as screwed as doing nothing at all.... You are protected, but do you have the money for that kind of fight? Most mail it to yourselfer's don't.
Copyright doesn't matter anyway, since it all ends up somewhere on line anyway and not even the federal gov can really kill it.
This sucks because we might be up for a possible signing deal soon. Even if I get signed, I won't ever make anything : ( Luckily I am not in it for the money.
l8,
neilio
The FBI is an essential and necessary part of the U.S. government. To give them credit, they have done a great deal in investigating and prosecuting government corruption, organized crime, child abductions, and many other serious crimes.
Unfortunately the FBI, through no fault of their own, are being coerced by politicians at the behest of the entertainment industry (whose multi million dollar campaign contributions have had an undue influence on public policy) to become more and more a private law enforcement agency for powerful and wealthy organizations, propping up archaic and inefficient business models, who should be financing their own investigations. (I doubt the FBI would pursue GPL violations.)
I encourage all taxpayers to lobby their respective representatives with the aim of curtailing this waste of our important resources.
The downloading of copyrighted videos and music is now largely done via P2P networks. Unless it concerns national security, espionage, terrorism, or organized crime, etc., the FBI should not be spending its resources on prosecuting Internet file sharers.
Monroe said preventing and prosecuting cybercrimes is now the FBI's No. 3 priority, behind anti-terrorism efforts and counterintelligence operations.
:)
What a relief. Once again, it's safe for tradition to come out of the basement.
We can all go back to counterfeiting $100.00 bills and transporting drunken underage hookers across state lines
- WARNING! Buying This CD Funds Lawsuits Against Children and Families
$10.00 for a pack of one hundred, including postage. Alternately the page has artwork you can download to print your own.Request your free CD of my piano music.
Not joking: but when I have a flick bought in China (I live in HK) I am always happy to see the copyright warning: that more or less ensures it is a reasonable quality copy, normally from another DVD.
Without that copyright warning in the beginning it is most likely a recording from the cinema... those recordings are not worth RMB15! (almost USD2, the current going-price for a pirated DVD).
Wouter.
Clearly, as good citizens we must support this effort and do what we can to support it. Now, nobody ever reads those text warnings, they're just too dull. The FBI needs something eyecatching for this.
Therefore I have taken the initiative to create such a seal as a suggestion to the FBI, and give them full permission to use my image for this purpose.
You can see this image at FBI Anti-Piracy Seal
Teen Angel - a Ghost Story
cybercrime also includes crackers, Kiddy porn rings, internet fraud, etc.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Pirate Captain: [Looking at the FBI Warning on the video.] Ohhh, I'm so scared.
How many minutes until the new logo is pirated?
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
Ok, a few points here:
Robbery is a violent crime. It ain't a property crime. It requires the use of force/violence/threat of violence, etc.
The world really works on future expectation. If you take a look at damn-near-anything(tm) closely, you will see that unexpected outcomes are what cause the fit to hit the shan....
I, and I'll be so bold as to say most actors, expect [heck bank on] my money being 'safe' in bank.
Without 'banking' you get a lot less utility out of life. I know that sounds like crap, but it really is true. ['any of all yalls' sense]
Oh and you pay me back when my FDIC insured account gets hosed.[all yalls sense]
So how do we define when something is for special interests? Yes banks, and rent-a-cops have an especially poignant interest in preventing bank robbery, but societies interest in doing so is FAR greater.
Who would seriously argue that protecting the RIAA/MPAA/etc. is the 3rd most important use of the FBI?
RANT
For the record, I think that the Federal Cops should do things that a)should be done, and b)they can do better / more efficiently than an aggregate of local Cops. And while that would be the really whacked out stuff that the FBI can much more efficiently develop the needed expertise in than your town's police dept. If it satisfies (a) at all, being the entertainment industries gestapo Sure As Shit ain't 3rd down from the top on that list...
/RANT
You realise you are inherently agreeing with my position right?
In order to make that correction, you are saying that the 'prevention and prosecution of cybercrime' is a type of crime.
And while I really do have responses for the rest, you're an AC.
It depends on whether or not its holographic.
It's holographic? Why didn't you say so?
I'm all for that. Just make them limited edition!
http://use.perl.org
Ok, let me get this straight.
It's a logo. And it means "the warning formerly spelled out in words"?
Hasn't this been tried before?
As I recall, Prince, the artist formerly known by a random logo that meant "the artist formerly known as Prince", and formerly known as Prince, tried this already. And, well, he's back to using a real name, more or less.
So I'm thinking if "do not copy this movie under penalty of prison and $100,000 fine" doesn't cut it, then 'squiggle' won't either. But what do I know? I'm past 20, so I'm clearly not hip enough 4 teh coo' kidz.
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
Granted, I did overlook those subcategories...
In my defense:
Aside from cracking... IANAL But is 'Internet Fraud' significantly different [criminally speaking] than wire or mail fraud? Isn't the essence of fraud that an identifiable actor, with intent to decieve, caused actual harm to an identifiable victim? The fact that a computer was used doesn't seem that core.
Ugg KP; speaking of slippery slopes, damn. Am I going too far if I say that I'm far more worried about the people abusing the children, and that happens in fleshspace?
Also, if you reread the quote:
It is directly inferred that the majority of their cybercrimes are being owned by digital copyright infringement. To what degree I conciously thought about that while writing my original post, I shall never say.You still sank my crackership tho.
I, for one, DO NOT welcome our new RIAA overlords...
Not forgetting of course that it has been shown that nearly 80% of illegal movie copies come from film industry insiders, not "pirates."
But the size of a problem has never stopped the government from pretending to accomplish something with a gung-ho, high-visibility campaign.
Like Smokey the Bear...
Or Tux the Penguin...
Oh, wait...
How about a packrat?
I mean, most downloaders don't even play half the stuff they download and damn sure wouldn't pay money for it...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
"Cybercrime" includes identity theft (or identity abuse to those of you who don't like using the words "steal" or "theft" in this context).
I wonder if this wonderful new self-adhesive artwork will increase the price of CD/DVDs? Like oh, maybe a $1 a media? How about the Recording Industry^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HCartel then decides that the Artist must pay this fee as part of the contract, also?
a little off-topic, but it seems rather topical. anyone else get an email like this one?
...
n g: base64
---------
From - Wed Feb 18 16:55:05 2004
X-UIDL: 40330bda00000021
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 1a000000
Return-Path:
Received: from ns12-1.futurepoint.com (root@localhost)
by the-junkyard.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id i1IE9r824340
for ; Wed, 18 Feb 2004 09:09:53 -0500
X-ClientAddr: 80.181.221.127
Received: from SCODA.com (host127-221.pool80181.interbusiness.it [80.181.221.127])
by ns12-1.futurepoint.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id i1IE9kS24311
for ; Wed, 18 Feb 2004 09:09:46 -0500
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 09:09:46 -0500
From: bill@lavoro-a-domicilio.com
To: news@the-junkyard.net
Subject: You use illegal File Sharing
Importance: Normal
X-Mailer: Xfworks
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="SCODA7a911414cb96"
Status: O
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--SCODA7a911414cb96
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Downloading of Movies, MP3s and Software is illegal and punishable by law.
We hereby inform you that your computer was scanned under the IP 195.38.50.145 . The
contents of your computer were confiscated as an evidence, and you will be indicated.
You get the charge in writing, in the next days.
In the Reference code: #9983, are all files, that we found on your computer.
The sender address of this mail was masked, to fend off mail bombs.
- You get more detailed information by the Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-
- Department for "Illegal Internet Downloads", Room 7350
- 935 Pennsylvania Avenue
- Washington, DC 20535, USA
- (202) 324-3000
--SCODA7a911414cb96
Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=refcode9983.txt.scr
Content-Transfer-Encodi
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="refcode9983.txt.scr"
[followed by a 100kb virus. don't recall which one]
grey wolf
LET FORTRAN DIE!
Hey, if this works as good as parental advisory stickers then every 14 year old between here and D.C. should have 30 gigs of tunes by weeks end.
Need cheap, customized, and quality bandwidth or hosting on any business scale? Visit www.ENetpresence.com
Where's a William Proxmire when you really need him? A Proxmire impersonator would do just as well.
Now we'll find out who all the Baby Boomers are. Are rather who isn't. (They'll be all the people postings ``Huh?'' and ``Who's that?'' replies. :-)
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
I have just one question about the anti-piracy seal. Will I be required to feed him large quantities of fish, or will the pirates be enough food for him?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
We don't have terrorists in Australia, so they obviously work like a charm.
Maybe these stickers will stop software piracy as well.
...just bought the DVD at the store and bingo, intolerably cruel, unskippable commercials. Not even the STOP button works! The only trick that works with these is to eject the disk. Upon reinserting it, my DVD player luckily remembers it had already started playing the preamble and goes straight to the main menu.
According to the FA: "criminal copyright infringement is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000." I think you can murder someone and have a lesser punishment than that.
Perhaps we should come up with a "Copy all you want, we won't sue!" logo or seal for Open Source and/or Free Software? Since the FBI is trying to get more public recognition that you're not supposed to make unauthorized copies of proprietary software, maybe there's a corresponding opportunity to make the benefits of Open Source a little more visible.
I think the MPAA should be looking at two other issues in addition to piracy:
- why do only 40% of movies actually make money? I find it hard to believe that wholesale copyright infringement is ripping that much off the bottom line; very few people actually have the bandwidth to download movies, and not all of those have DVD burners
You ever wonder why the RIAA is so much more rabid about going after people than the MPAA? Probably because it's quite feasible to toss around MP3s, even over a modem, but movies require a fancier setup. It's unlikely that all that many movies are actually pirated by people online. When you consider that a music album doesn't cost that much less than a DVD, and that a typical MP3-ized album might be 60MB, as opposed to at *least* ten times that for a ripped movie, the MPAA/RIAA positions start to make more sense.
- why does the average file cost $89m to make and market? I can remember only about 10 years ago that $100m was considered an obscene amount to spend on making a film (refer to "Waterworld" and "Last Action Hero" as examples); now it's only slightly above average?
Inflation is some of that. Larger audiences are some of that.
Movies are a lousy business to be in. It's really, really hard to come up with a reliable model for what will do well, You can make a semi-reliable model by learning to market the bajeezus out of things and getting an N dollar return per dollar spent on marketing, but it's hard to say that director A plus cast B plus scriptwriters C for dollars D will make a good movie. It usually doesn't take all that much money to *make* a good movie (I have nice memories of Monty Python). It's just hard to do so predictably.
May we never see th
"As though an organization only focuses on one thing at a time"
No, that's not what it means.
It means that since the FBI failed to prevent 9/11 last time, it means they need to spend MORE effort next time.
Since their resources are finite, it would be better by far to prevent another 9/11. The way to do this would be to stop being the protection ARM of the MPAA and RIAA (et al).
I hope that's clear.
Moron.
Indeed, and it takes less to convict you of © infringement.
Now if murderers, rapists, etc cut into the 'profits' that people claim they loose over piracy (which has been proven a lie) we will see some action taken agains them.
Im glad
"The FBI doesn't prosecute murderers, the states do, you dumb fuck."
The FBI doesn't prosecute anybody; they leave that to district attornies, both state, federal, and local.
But more to the point, *of course* they're involved in murders; they get involved routinely either because it (a) crosses state lines (b) at the request of the local police department (c) whenever the Attorney General feels there would be value by having the FBI involved.
The recent sniper case in the Washington DC area involved the FBI.
So before you call anybody Moron, you might want to look in the mirror and understand you fit the bill.
From the Article: "preventing and prosecuting cybercrimes is now the FBI's No. 3 priority, behind anti-terrorism efforts and counterintelligence operations."
Glad to see the FBI has it's priorities in order. God forbid we start to think that our other problems are more important than some people dubbing a tape or downloading a few MP3s.
I couldn't resist creating an Open Source variation of this logo. I mean, I want to have shiny logos on my software, too! It's just all Open Source stuff, though! ;^)
Anyway, here you go. ("Don't worry, it's Open Source!")
It's a joke. Anytime you hand people a bucket of bits, they're going to decide what they want to do with it. I mean, do people really think it's a great idea to sue their customers, and then dump shitloads of money into Washington to pass all sorts of draconian laws designed to totally curb freedom, in order to maximize their own profits?
Well, that's how those people work, and you know what, it is making them a whole lot of money. Meanwhile, as a small independent movie producer, I place every dollar I got in to my films, am constantly criticized for my low production quality, and am constantly mocked by people to the extent that it's easy to copy my movie, and instead of buying it, you should just download it.
Is that enough to make me frustrated? Sure. Frustrated enough to sue everyone. No.
I mean, anyone with half a brain can see from the disk that I used neither region encoding nor did I use CSS. Why is that you ask? Well, CSS is totally broken, for starters. Besides, even if it weren't broken, CSS does nothing to stop the copying of an entire disk. Video pirates routinely take a disk, make an exact copy of it, and it works just fine, CSS and all. So really, what's the point? What's the point of CSS, but to further munge up the data files. As far as region encoding goes. I do a lot of traveling, and it's annoying and insulting that I can't pick up some local DVDs from my travels and take them home and play them. Sure I can get a special dvd player, or a special software, but what about my Mac? What about my friend's players? I wouldn't want to live in a world where something as stupid as geography determines what you can and can't watch (although that seems to mostly be the case now). Even if I have to see it happening around me, I'll be damned if I'm going to contribute to it.
So yes, people have figured that my DVD can easily be copied, played anywhere in the world, and I won't even sue.
As far as this new FBI seal goes, it's just more advertising for the FBI. The major players in the movie industry get the FBI to do their bidding like little lapdogs. Meanwhile this gang of thugs continue to do all sorts of civil liberties violations. I'll never include it in anything I do (as if the FBI would ever lift a finger to help me out, even if I did become evil, and actually decide that I wanted their help). In return for the FBI being hired thugs for the movie industry, the movie industry gives them all sorts of free publicity, and further legitimizes them, and increases their hold over the hearts and minds of the general public.
I'll never use this seal, and I'll continue to poke fun at the FBI and MPAA any chance I get. Other people will continue to poke fun at me any chance they get. Life goes on. Of course, I'll probably never own a private jet, produce a movie like Lord of the Rings, or have enough money to buy several congressmen. The MPAA has all this and more. I wonder which companies ideology will end up winning in the long run, mine or theirs.
HaXXXor.com - Naked Chicks Teach You How To Ha
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
I don't think this helps anyone, because consumers will still want to share music. How about telling them what they ARE allowed to do, such as copying music for themselves or to have friends listen to under "fair use"? Instead of giving customers a dead end and having them break through anyway, why not just point them to the correct avenue?
.sig: Open Source, Open Mind
You'd think they had more importaint things to do like prevent another 9/11.
I know the FBI is a powerful agency, but do they really have the ability to stop dates occurring? And more importantly, if they do manage it, what will come after the 10th of September each year? Will they change the 10th so that it has 48hrs? A 10th of September, part 2?
Enquiring minds want to know.
Are you crazy? Number 4 is of course "consumption of illicit drugs".
--
"The more prohibitions there are, The poorer the people will be" -- Lao Tse
One of Frank Zappa's movies had the FBI warning at the very end. You'd only see it if no one bothered to shut it off after the movie ended. I liked that...
"Support our Oops."
From what I can tell, the pirated copies will not include these warnings, so I'd get an instant win from buying pirated versions. I very much doubt its makes an ounce of difference to whether the material is pirated or not. So what's the gain? Does it stop a significant percentage of pirating crime?
Powered by onion juice.
How the hell can you call "copyright infringement" piracy, when there's a real, big, and evil piracy-problem on the world? Hundreds of people get killed every year by pirates, and the FBI is whining about "copyright infringement" and calling it their number 3 problem? How fucking wrong can you set your priorities???
--
"The more prohibitions there are, The poorer the people will be" -- Lao Tse
"Oh well, just remember to duck and cover."
And wrap your house in plastic and duct tape.
Recently got one of them new-fangled copyguarded CDs, and you know that thing would not play in the stereo, would not play in the DVD player, would not play in the Walkman, would not play in the car...but played just fine in my CD burner. So we made copies of it to listen to in the car, in the Walkman, on the stereo...
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
For a moment then my sleep deprived brain was trying to formulate some sort of gun toting seal,working under cover for the FBI, splashing through the waves hunting down drug smugglers..I couldn't really work out how the seal held the gun..(of course the rest all made perfect sense :-) )
I really agree with this sentiment. Its happening a lot faster these days with newer tv shows. Within a year, they're putting out a Season 1 DVD and making gobs of money off it.
$50 US seems like a great deal for 3~5 DVDs with an entire season on 'em. For that kind of money, you get anywhere from 4~5 hours (Simpsons, Family guy), 10ish (Sopranos), all the way to 16+ hrs (stargate sg-1). Its also a good measure of how badly a movie flopped if the DVD shows up retail w/in a few months of its cinema debut.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I don't mean a OSS logo, I mean a GPL logo.
It seems like all the antipiracy measures taken lead people to two standard outcomes:
1. More piracy: Every "fail-proof" antipiracy measure either due to incompatibility, or because it's still easily solved.
2. General apathy towards that entertainment product: People aren't buying CDs. Yes, this hurts major labels, but the indie scene us suffering immensely. Major labels will continue to put out items that will more surely sell, but indie label marketing has become increasingly challenging. As a rep for a couple indie labels, this is really upsetting. This also spirals into lower concert attendance.
I'm part of the problem too. I've bought fewer CDs because of the jacked prices. I've gone to fewer concerts because even Peter Gabriel isn't worth $110 - and he's on our side.
*grumble*
"ARRRP!! ARRRP!! ARRRP!!"
translation
"Put that DVD-R down! Now give me a fish, I was as effective as could be expected!"
a law is a law is a law. Like it or not.
Laws are written by people. Laws are meant to be changed and broken. They are just a reflection of what the current society believes in. In the Inca tribe, ritual human sacrifice was completely normal. Now we say its against the law. And besides thats what the Supreme Court does. It rules on whether laws are legal or not.
Vote for new mod!!! Score:-2,Imbecile
(From their website)
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
If you are convicted of battery, assault, rape, rape against a minor, armed robbery, you may be let out with a slap on the wrist (ie Carlie Bruccia's murder didnt have to happen), but if you even think of copying or downloading a CD or DVD federal law provides fines up to $250, 000 or a 5 year term sentence? WTF, where did we go wrong? By the way, the logo sucks too, I think I can come up with a better logo than they did, using Windows XP Paint than they did. And well since they are in a way allowing recording companies to use their label freely, I guess it will make my music purchases easier since I dont buy anything related to the RIAA.
A wholey 0wn3d subsidiary of the MPAA and the RIAA. I can't wait to get a copy of the logo - buch parody potential, I think.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
And those horrible cassette recorers in the 70's almost KILLED the music industry off.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
As I've written before, Slashdotters feel their niche mindset applies to absolutely everybody. You might ignore the the symbol, but the rest of society might not.
Should they pretend piracy isn't happening? What exactly is the big deal? It's just a little symbol. Are you arguing that money and time should not be contributed to attempts at stopping piracy?
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
Incidentally, a security advisory dated today states there is an exploit in kernels up to 2.4.24 and 2.6.2
What do you think I was referring to in my sig?
"As though an organization only focuses on one thing at a time"
No, that's not what it means.
Yes, that's what implied.
It means that since the FBI failed to prevent 9/11 last time, it means they need to spend MORE effort next time.
Who says they aren't? Besides, it's really the CIA's fault 9/11 happened. What exactly are you arguing here, that the FBI should completely ignore all domestic issues to prevent terrorist threats? You do realize they've been preventing terrorist threats for decades, don't you?
Since their resources are finite, it would be better by far to prevent another 9/11. The way to do this would be to stop being the protection ARM of the MPAA and RIAA (et al).
They are the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Their sole job is not to prevent another 9/11. The FBI is involved with all sorts of things. You speak as though they're just some ragtag group of investigators who don't have the time to--gasp--hire some logo guy to draw up a logo for distribution. My god, the resources spent on THAT one. Please.
I hope that's clear.
Moron.
It's okay, I know you're just a downloader trying to battle any sort of anti-piracy movement that might threaten the convenience you've grown used to all these years. But I'm sorry to inform you that what you're doing is illegal...and immoral. But that doesn't matter, right? "Moron."
I agree with you. I was just pointing out that police forces have ALWAYS looked out for special interests. Remember, rich and poor alike are forbidden from sleeping under bridges or begging in the streets... that's equal justice, isn't it?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Ya, that FBI warning in evey video type is a big problem for the pirates, that FF>> button is So hard to push.
True on VHS, but who sells new VHS titles anymore? On some DVD titles, when I push FF or NEXT during the FBI warning, nothing happens except that a Norwegian letter appears in the top right corner of the screen. I cannot reproduce this letter in this comment ecause Slashdot blocks all languages other than U.S. English, but it is ISO 8859-1 codepoint 216.
If there are good reasons for the existence of the FBI, you haven't offered them.
Guess what...that everyday joe gets paid just as much as if you pirate the movie or don't...It's not like he's on a profit sharing plan. Pirating screws over the people who actually make money off the movies. The guy in the anti piracy commercial could care less how many times you copy the movie, so long as his check clears.
Perhaps we should come up with a "Copy all you want, we won't sue!" logo or seal for Open Source and/or Free Software?
There already is: OSI Certified(tm) open source software.
Good points made all round here. But let's not get off track. Wether the FBI is necessary or essential is besides the point (I probably shouldn't have said that as it obfuscates the issue). What irks me is that the entertainment industry, after spending millions on lobbying (both parties) to get their DMCA passed is now able to solicit the FBI to help them prop up their archaic and dying business model.
The entertainment industry has enough resources to fund their own enforcement without calling on taxpayers to help them.
There are currently dozens of unsolved serious crimes that the FBI needs to be working on. And going after P2P users is not one of them. I think we can all at least agree our tax money could be put to better use.
Thanks for your comments.
If a jury of twelve of your own peers decide that you should not be punished, then you will not be punished.
Judges will not let a case even go to the jury if one side proves that no material factual issues remain. Please look up "summary judgment."
I really have to disagree with the comments that say only the savvy are doing this. Its not rocket science people. You also don't need bandwidth. DVD Burner: $90 DVD Blank: $1 Software: suprnova Semi-Pro DVD copying machine can do 14 a shot: $3200 Time investment: Set it and forget it. Your local Dvd rental place: A fucking candy store.
The recent sniper case in the Washington DC area involved the FBI.
Washington, D.C. has no statehood. They make a federal case out of everything.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
And wrap your house in plastic and duct tape.
I'm willing to try that just to keep the melting snow from seeping into my basement and damaging my equipment and furniture.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
"And now you shall learn the secret of boot to the head"
And I thought copyright infringement is copyright infringement, and theft was theft. Is nobody there satisfied with actually describing crimes/torts/violations/whatever with their actual descriptions?
Yes, and given how few actual arrests have been recorded in the RIAA's mass-lawsuit fiasco, I have to believe the the Federal, State and local law enforcement officials themselves feel they have better things to do that go after minor bits of copyright infringement. Granted, the RIAA and the MPAA may truly believe that the copying of their media (even the legal kind, such as permitted by fair-use exceptions) should be punishable by slow death from fire ants, but the truth is that the Feds just really aren't that interested. I mean, how much karma the average prosecutor going to gain by nailing Joe Downloader? Not much, I wager.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Why would pubic wigs shop at Walmart?