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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
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
And it looks sort of like this: (C)
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.
(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...
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.
Listen here punk, bring that thing NEAR a Blockbuster(TM) and I'll throw you in Jail, buddy.
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.
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.
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
It's so that you don't try to steal the FBI from them. They have bought and paid for federal harassment and intimidation of people that don't give them enough cash, and they don't want you to try and steal the FBI away to say, investigate a kidnapping and ransom.
This constitutes notice that anyone who had a contractual relationship with the FBI, that it is dissolved and the FBI will only pursue actions as necessary to increase the entertainment industry's collective revenue.
Never fear though, the Bush administration is advocating a new law enforcement agency for aiding the citizenry. Already, they have allocated $4.32 in budget through fiscal year 2006...
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
Anti Piracy Seal? Is that like Smokey, the Fire Prevention Bear?
Best Buy can have you arrested
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?
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
...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?
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
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.
That's why this logo is stupid, printing a silly message is NOT protection. It's just a scare tactic.
So by the Patriot act, doesn't that make both the MPAA and the FBI technically "terrorist" organizations?
Hmm...
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
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 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!")
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!