Slashdot Mirror
Operation FastLink Yields Three Arrests
Doomrat writes "As promised (see previous story), Operation FastLink has led to the arrests of 3 key members of the Fairlight group. NHTCU officers and local police executed search warrants and arrested three men at separate locations in Sheffield, Manchester and Belfast. Over 200 computers have been seized, along with 100 CD copiers. Raids were carried out in the UK, the U.S., Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore and Sweden."
...my pirated copy of Spiderman 2.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
They will never stop piracy 3 people at a time.
...that Osama bin Laden isn't part of that group. But then you'd think he was, the way the cops talk about them.
Well, guess when they called it quits the first time, it didn't get enough heat off of em. Though, rumor is, they were snelling.
Drink Jagermeister till ya die!
Looks like we'll have to invade.
As long as it costs $40 for a game or $100 for software there will always be people pirating.
... this is gonna be useful to somebody's career maybe, but its a good laugh if it was meant to stop piracy isnt it? its a crap game that will never stop completely dont we all know already^
...they put all that effort into hunting criminals that actually hurt people (as opposed to wallets).
Does everything include nothing?
Looks like when you post stuff to hacked (or otherwise aquired) servers, they'd turn into warez honeypots that can allow some insight into the "primary crack" levels.
So they conducted raids in 11 countries and nabbed three key people? Must be one hell of a bad day to be a lackey. :)
Join Team Slashdot at Folding@Home
Remember the Animaniacs Country Song?
Raids were carried out in the UK, the U.S., Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore and Sweden.
Add intelligence/investigative services of each country, we have a new song!
Ughhh... I need sleep.
"Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky"-Pink Floyd
When are they going to arrest some real crooks?
Say Phishers...
Average time in prison for rape: 3 years
Average time for copying games without selling: 4 years
Does anyone else see something wrong here?
melissa
...and a foreign permanent resident who is said to have been purchasing cracked software from Fairlight since 2001.
As far as I know, these releasing groups do not charge for their releases, they make them available free over FTP/IRC/USENET.
Cthulhu Saves.
I bet that most were users of the Linux operating systems and "anti" Microsoft people. Typical criminal profile.
William Stephens
MCSE,MCDST,Well Respected VBScripting Guru
williams007@yahoo.com,(212)275-4831
I think we all know, however, that what they have seized is the equivalant of several thousand cd copiers.
"I can't drive 55. It only goes 38."
...have your address?
Why can't they just grow up and catch some real criminals.
Consider the costs of pulling an international operation like this compared to the amount of funds gaming companies will be able to recover if and only if the warez market really slows down. Do you still think it was a good and/or a necessary effort? I don't. I think the operation is a total failure if only 3 people get arrested, and a couple of comps and burners get seized.
I see some tax dollars getting wasted on ridiculous crusades.
It's only a matter of time until someone does a "War on Piracy" version of Traffic. Tobey Maguire as a head of a piracy cartel?
Ashcroft announces War on IP Terrorism--Bush invades Antartica to in a preemptive strike to stop the infiltration of underwater penguin operatives bent on creating a network of secure operations.
I refuse to believe that pirating will ever be "eradicated" or even slowed down. As long as there are 'haves' and 'have-nots' there will always be people who will hack their way up in the world. If Chippendale or J & G Stickley were alive today, they'd point out the fashion in which they are imitated or flat copied in furniture design. Everything has someone copying it, right down to designer shoes and haircuts.
I believe the spirit of piracy, be it software or music or the high-seas, is a definite part of the human nature which cannot be removed. When someone is cooller or has something you want, you always find a way to get it. Lawn fertilizer, high-end cars, stylish clothing...you find a way if you are human and put those things on the top of your list of important bullshit.
Drake would copy DVDs if he were here today...and wasn't he knighted or some bullshit?
-- the only good thing the French ever did was two chicks at one time
What we need is a "War on Piracy!" The more endless wars to distract us from reality, the better, I always say.
he has a decent point.
the fact things are overpriced will lead to pirating, because the pirates will either be able to offer it for free, or for a lower cost.
pirates are competition for the companies they pirate from, illegal, yes, but competition nonetheless.
and companies also would like something like this done to legal competitors as well, kinda sad. but still, the parent has a good point.
I am surprised that they didn't use Freenet or MUTE to organize their files. Freenet also has an open source anonymous email client called Freemail you can download, its still alpha though.
Also if you want to encrypt your hard drive try open source Truecrypt, its the successor to Scramdisk.
I know it's basically useless to ask for editorial changes around here, but could the editors at least make a little note, like "Fairlight is a warez group" or something? From the submitted text, you can't tell if this "Fairlight" is a group for warez, child porn, hacking/cracking, music, or even terrorism. At least the previous article had a headline that was obvious.
As much as I hate to admit it, software "piracy" is bad and no matter what excuses peiople come up with. There are many improvements to be made with the current system but that's not the main issue at the moment. Still though, copying and cracking software is wrong. I'm not justifying it for myself either, I know it's wrong.
Then again, the bad part is that the happened on request of the US customs. ( Over here in the Netherlands at least.. ) The idea that 'my'* goverment bends over to the US will without any investigation on it's own and just raids places the US goverment tells them to, scares me. What if I suddenly become a PITA to the US goverment? Will my place be raided too?
This is something very concerning. There are so many laws and regulations that nearly any normal living person is, unwillingly and unknowingly, violating some minor laws and regs. If people really wanted to fuck you up, they could just throw any laws they can find at you until they find SOMETHING you violate. Scarey thing is, what if the US goverment decides to fuck up someone's life abroad in the name of "fighting terrorism"? Will 'my' goverment roll over, bark thrice and give a paw at the US goverment then, as well?
* ... 'My' goverment as in... "I didn't vote that lying bastard PM of ours into power, thank you." goverment.
Hate me!
Was it really 100 cd copiers or was it just 2 52x cdr drives?
Remember the funny games they play in these kind of reports like the RIAA counting every 40x copier as 4 copiers or something ridiculous like that...
Or did out of all 120(!) searches find 1 cd burner at each location! Oh wow what pc doesnt have a cd burner standard...
FLT doesn't distribute anything on CD it just goes up on the top sites and then trickles down to the average "d00d" from there. It's a "non-profit" operation.
Also the crap at the bottom about increasing Englands GDP and created 40,000 jobs! Get real! It's not creating any wealth in fact its reducing wealth because now people have to waste money on this software that would have been spent on something else. To improve the GDP production has to go up. In a way all this did was decrease over all production because now there will be less copies of this software. (true now the money will get funneled into the corporations that own the IP to these products but it's just swapping the money around not creating any new value)
It's somewhat necessary to note that Fairlight is not just a warez group, but also is a famous demoscene participant, having produced leading demos/intros/graphics and music in c64 and pc sections.
Fairlight is more than just the scum everybody will certainly take them for. The present demoscene has it's early roots in hacker and cracker groups. As a result, Fairlight is probably the longest standing group in the scene, and it is no surprise they are linked to the warez scene.
Another thing to note is that the current entertainment industry (think games and movies) is filled with loads of people working their ass off, that got to know their tricks of the trade *because* there was/is a warez scene.
The system is a hypocrit.
With great power comes great electricity bills.
[n/t]
It doesnt matter which way you look at it. If you cant afford to pay for proprietary software then it doesnt make it right to pirate it.
...
While on one hand i can understand the activism side of it, and most people i know have at least one piece of pirate software. Pirating software is doing nothing in the long run to change the way the evil companies run their business. It does nothing to hinder vendor lock-in and pirated software is a hot house for the propogation of viruses etc.
People still continue to do it. Beleive it or not there is a whole world of software that is free to copy modify and do what the hell you like with. Its called Open Source and you can find software to fulfil most of your needs. Best of all its totally legal and having it is not going to get you arrested or locked up.
I remember the last time my boss instructed us to do a software audit many of my colleagues went through the annoying process of writing down license keys, removing "illegal" software, while i just sat there and did nothing, safe in the knowledge that my linux desktop contained nothing that needed to be accounted for.
Next time you think that you are making a statement by using pirated software, consider what you are really acheiving. If you really beleive in those virtues you should bite off your tongue and use the legal alternatives. This way you can harm the people you hate, and support the rest of us who are legally fighting the software war.
nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
The people arrested were actualy laying on the interesctions of various country borders in order to make their arrest harder. A very clever tactic.
One guy was on the Franco-Sweedish-Hungarian-Israeli border, another one was on the German-Belgium-Danish-Netherlands border, and the purpored ring leader (aka "Long Larry") was sprawled out along the US-UK-Singapore border.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Or so we're constantly being told. Personally I'm beginning to think he's just a particularly tanned CIA man in a costume, who they wheel out now and then for yet another bogus video whenever they think people are becoming suspicious of the whole War on Terror(tm) deal.
But if Osama Bin Laden was a software pirate, they'd have probably caught him by now, simply because they are actually trying to catch software pirates.
Drake would copy DVDs if he were here today...and wasn't he knighted or some bullshit?
Indeed: Francis Drake was knighted on April 4, 1581 by Queen Elizabeth.
See wikipedia for details.
-kgj
-kgj
Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
Nazi groups : still available on the web
So? Do you support censorship? Just who is the nazi here?
So...many...logical falacies....too much to...bear....oh goodness.
Someone mentioned that rape carries less of a jail term than piracy does. It's very simple to understand why. Rape has nothing to do with corporate interests, thus Congress cares less about a woman being violated in the worst way possible, and more about protecting the interests of their campaign contributors.
I would -never- had bought Neverwinter Nights and its two expansions had it not been for downloading it first.
---
Never criticize religion on Slashdot. You will be modded down for "Troll" no matter how factual it is.
Indeed. The issue isn't how much damage you are doing, it's who you're doing it to. A multi-million dollar company is able to screw the hell out of you in court, and if you don't have the money to afford a lawyer of that calibur, you can kiss your ass goodbye. (Laywers, law enforcement officials, etc, etc)
Unfortunantly, the more power these companies get, the more and more likely they will be able to invade our privacy, or, as you say, make these random home searches.
...
Calm down.
Operation FastLing was a global operation. In many of those countries Nazi groups are illegal. And I suspect that the AC above copied that quote from a German forum.
"arrests of 3 key members" ... "Over 200 computers have been seized"
It's really obvious that they were doing something wrong. that's 66 computers per person. I think they should license or register computers so that we can catch people like this before the damage is done. There is no reason for anyone to ever own this number of computers it is obvious they were doing something illegal or perhaps related to terrorism.
...scientists believe there's oil under the Antarctic ice sheet...
"People will even pirate data worth 99 cents... so long as there's a price tag, there's people who try to get around it."
We had this already in the 80's with Video games.
Games were $7-10,
Mastertronic cut the price of games to 99p (about $1.5) and vastly outsold everyone. They then resigned membership of the anti-piracy trade groups (the BSAs of the day) because piracy was no longer a problem for them.
If people consider a game worth $10-$20 then you get negligible piracy if you charge $10, moderate piracy at $20 and a lot of piracy at $50.
Do you really believe this costs companies billions of dollars? I don't mean to play devils advocate, and don't jump down my throat for allegedly supporting these pirates, but the majority of the software they share online will not be bought by the people downloading anyhow. Is that really losing money?
Let me share a personal example with you. I am a gamer, and I download all the PC games I think I might like before I buy them. When I play one that I really like, I go out and buy it because I'm 100% certain that the developers deserved my money. If I were not able to try these games out first (and I mean try them out more than your average demo will allow, there's a whole other argument there), then I would not buy them at all, period. In terms of games, there is far too much crap produced for games today to take that $50 risk on something that might break and I can't return.
In the end, I delete the games I don't want to keep, and spend my money on the ones I already downloaded and enjoy. So in essence companies are making more money from me due to piracy. It's free advertising.
Before you mount a counter argument please note that I mean this in complete seriousness and I'm not just making an excuse for "illegal" activities. I understand that 90% of people who probably download pirated software are not as open minded and fair, but you should understand that piracy actually has benefits as well. If you consider that companies are actually losing more money to anti-piracy efforts, is the piracy itself really that bad?
So, by your criteria, what damage is done by spammers; should spamming be a crime; and how much resources should police devote to arresting spammers?
"The NHTCU quotes an IDC study that estimates that a 10 per cent reduction in UK piracy would contribute $17.5bn for the UK's GDP, indirectly create 40,000 jobs and generate $4.1bn in tax revenue." I love insanely inflated figures like that. Imagine what a 10% reduction in piracy could do for the US economy! We could probably save social security or institute a national health program by eliminating piracy. ;)
what they really show is the punishment for rape is too low, which really has nothing to do with the conversation.
-1 Offtopic. He admitted himself that the point he was making ahd nothing to do with the conversation.
Once again, Canada has been ignored. Bastards.
"The NHTCU quotes an IDC study that estimates that a 10 per cent reduction in UK piracy would contribute $17.5bn for the UK's GDP, indirectly create 40,000 jobs and generate $4.1bn in tax revenue."
I would ask where they pulled these numbers from...but I don't want to corrupt my innocence.
Still though, copying and cracking software is wrong.
Scenario 1 -- I have a few kids that run loose in my house. (I'm not some SOB who puts them on those leashes, wtf is that all about.) They seem to manage to get into my computer room sometimes and play frisbee with my CD's. If I didn't have a *legal thanks to fair use* copy of my software that I *paid for* I would be SOL.
Moral: Copying software is *NOT* always wrong.
Scenario 2 -- I have a killer cool gaming rig that I then go out and buy all sorts of games. I bring home a copy of latest game X and lo and behold the copy protection that the feckless losers at the publishing co installed (Note, I said publishers not developers. Most times the developers realize that protection is a waste of time and it's the damn suits who insist on the protection.) does not seem to work right with my CD-ROM drive. Now I can't play the game that I just *paid for* and when I go to try and do anything about it all the morons at BestBuy can do is sit there with their thumbs in their asses and if I'm lucky give me store credit so I can go maybe use it on some overpriced RIAA crap that will proably install deathware on my PC when I go to play it there anyway. But luckily instead of having to deal with all that I can download a crack and play the game I paid for!
Moral: Cracking software is *NOT* always wrong.
Rant mode off.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
You arent preventing a thing. Keep giving into the delusion that your preventing piracy, keep sending people to jail for 5 years for selling there used cds on ebay and sharing music while the rapist goes free, while Bin Ladin's followers fly another plane into a building. We all know the corporate lies we have been fed and they they feed us well. Trade a life for a corporate dollar without remorse, we all know the amounts of money they dontate to the government to fund our meaningless heroes the FBI so they can hunt down 12 yr old girls who share Britney Spears albums, maby the occational cracker who is replaced in seconds as your brilliant FBI team takes them down. (thx for ManHunt Razor911) This is a game of cat and mouse and we all know the cat will never catch all the mice, and we will ALWAYS get our cheese. Your Freedom is a Lie. Corporate whores.
Most of the raids were for supporting evidence.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
So? Do you support censorship? Just who is the nazi here?
Don't call it censorship. We'll just announce that they're infringing on the Nazi IP and then we can arrest them all for piracy.
With out piracy lots of software wouldnt have such a huge userbase. Windows? Photoshop? I use Photoshop 7 which I dl'd for free but other wise I would never have bought it for home use especially at $1200 CDN. Now because I would not have bought it in the first place Adobe lost no money and get free advertising as I tell eveyone Photoshop kicks ass. Now if I was making money off it and used it in a business I definatelly would pay for it.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
same old incorrect assupmtion: people would spend all their money on legitimate software if it weren't for the existence of warez.
this might be true in some cases, but i'm certain that a majority of the time people just don't have the money to buy a certain program, because:
-they are poor (software companies wouldn't get their money either way)
-they are trying a program out of curiosity and not need (software companies wouldn't get their money either way)
-they want the software only for some small aspect of it which is not alone worth anything close to the cost of the full package (software companies wouldn't get their money either way)
sometimes of course professionals pirate software out of greed. but i would be very surprised if this were anything but a small minority of cases. billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.... don't make me laugh.
if the software companies want to eliminate the petty piracy i've outlined above they should devise ways to compete. ie, highly inexpensive "lite" versions, or demo versions that actually WORK a bit, or stripping off various modules from a given software package and selling them at very lo w prices.
just some ideas.
haven't you ever wondered why nothing bad ever happens to the 2nd biggest country in the world?
The **AA is merely the first wave of our global invasion force. Vive Le Canadiens!
What moron modded this bullshit insightful?
Kiddie porn rings are busted everyday, but it's not Slashdot worthy because it doesn't in some way involve software that costs money.
Nazi groups have a right to say what they want, and you have a right to not read it.
This shit is about as insightful as suddenly realizing that the sky is blue on your 30th birthday.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
How's that for a funny coincidence!
.nfo but the lame-ness filter prevented me.
Well I was going to post the
Anyways I guess we can see Razor is still going strong...
the most ironic thing is that the leader of Razor 1911 was just sent to jail a few months ago
they're playing whack a mole!
i may have bought them if i had not downloaded them first ...
---
hypotetically, of course. shoo shoo NSA...
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Which particular companies were these raids on behalf of? It's easy to know how to vote in the next election (more resources to protect us from terrorism, indeed), but harder to know what to avoid purchasing or specifying.
11 countries 3 arrests, now how does that work. They raided in 11 countries only 3 people were found that means in 8 countries they found jack. The fact that they had so many unsuccessful raids means they were trying that many targets means even the cops know that FLT is far to large to be taken down.
Rape victims don't donate to political campaigns.
http://slashdot.org/articles/02/12/15/1759227.shtm l?tid=141
. . . when all they'd really have to do to catch every copyright misappropriator would be to release some spyware that calls home if the machine has the NFO extension associated with a text editor :).
An earlier poster already commented on the Nazi and kiddie porn lines, but you should also check your facts about Bin Laden. Unless he is hiding in the US, he is not the FBI's responsibility to catch. Remember, they are the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Are these three responsible for all the *(&^%*& crap in my inbox that's been advertising apparently legal versions of Photoshop, MS-Office, Windows and so on?
If so, I don't feel quite so sorry for them.
Ripping off poor corporations is one thing. Insulting me like this is quite another.
Cogito, ergo sig.
Bwahahhhahahahaha!!!
Does fairlight do any legal stuff too? Going back a few years now, everybody I know got all their Amiga 500 games off the Fairlight catalogue. I always presumed they were acting on behalf of all the game developers, especially since they posted their stuff in public places and newspapers all the time.
Then we can see clear evidence that all these figures thrown around about losses from piracy are utter bullshit.
I don't think they are BS, actually. I actually do think that unauthorized distribution of software is something which is surprisingly harmful to our ability to obtain quality software at low costs (or even free of charge). However, companies like Vivendi-Universal and Microsoft make it sound like they are the victims (when in fact they are the benefactors) of these crimes. Here is how it works:
Tim O'Reilly wrote an article describing "piracy" as progressive taxation. He observed, rightly, that the most commonly sold items were pirated at a disporportionate rate (i.e. MS Office is pirated many many times more often than Corel's equivalent, etc).
While this metaphore *may* hold water for the entertainment industry (where alternatives are only alternatives in so far as people have limited time and money), it is not adequate to describe piracy of Windows, Office, Photoshop, etc, because in these markets alternatives are alternatives based on other things (investment in proficiency, functionality, efficiency of accomplishing a task). Therefore, piracy of one Eminem CD does not imply the loss of a total sale in the entertainment industry, while a pirated copy of Microsoft Office does.
When someone pirates a copy of MS Office, they are willfully making the decision not to pay for a product, but they are also making the decision not to investigate other alternatives. Thus, in the absence of MS Office piracy, OpenOffice might find a larger audience. In the absense of Windows piracy, Linux would have a larger audience.
When I was in Indonesia, I witnessed the effect of a crackdown of unauthorized, unauthentic ("pirated") software. The result was, unsurprisingly, that many businesses chose to move to Linux rather than pay Microsoft for licenses.
Unlicensed distribution of software is damaging. We in the open source community are its primary victims because it denies us the opportunity to make a sale. Cracking down on piracy, therefore, is (I believe) beneficial to all of us.
I do, however sympathize with people who worry that this is part of an overall process which seeks to DRM-ize all content, but this is another question. My answer to it is simple, though it does require a life-style adjustment. Simply don't do business with bad companies, especially those presume that because you do business with them, that you are a criminal. If we do this, then the bad companies will go away, and we will be able to select which companies survive. But this takes spreading the word.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
If software was ilegal, only outlaws would have software!
[] I never purchased anything I could get a bootleg of.
[] I never used illegal copies of something I could buy.
[] I would never buy something I already have an illegal copy of.
[] I have subsequently purchased items I "tried" bootlegs of.
[] I have bootleg software I have no intention of using.
[] I have no copies of bootleg software whatsoever.
[] I regularly push little old ladies down outside of my local Best Buy and take the software they have purchased so that I can crack it and post it in a warez group.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
...don't cost corporations revenue loss.
Dustin - A different story...
I don't particularly like the heavy-handed use of the law to protect "intellectual property", but the reality is that most of us live in places where legal frameworks apply. And I guess that Israel is - most of the time - one of those nations.
Even when a nation is under great pressure, regular law enforcement doesn't suddenly stop. In fact, it often becomes more stringent - looters have frequently been shot, for example, in many countries during wartime.
If only the most heinous crimes were targeted for enforcement, the rule of law would quickly break down. I'm sure that very few people would be content if the police refused to stop muggers or burglars on the basis that "there are more important crimes to worry about."
I also dispute your characterisation of those being busted as "warez kiddies" - it looks to me like they are going after the big guys.
If your comment title says 'Re: Foo', I'm not likely to read it.
In a time where millions and millions of people are exposed to the process of software making, why do we need to "provide an incentive" to create software? If one of these millions is only willing to create such software if guaranteed a copyright, then someone else would be willing to create it for the fame or love of programming - and probably do a better job.
Do we really want a society in which it is illegal to share and copy information, where people go to prison for giving software copies to their friends? Where it is illegal to learn from and understand the information we are exposed to, and share it with others?
Is the dubiously-required incentive worth all this?
I think it is clearly outragous - and the more arrests like this one, where obviously no life is at stake, nor is there a threat on the continuation of the creation of software will ultimately turn public oppinion against copyright.
Its called FastLink and the original post was talking about the FBI's priorities and listed the existance of nazi groups being an example of how the FBI has its priorities screwed up.
Don't tell me to calm down when you're obviously wrong.
I thought all they did was make those scroll-y things. Didn't realise they were still cracking software. What about Triad? Northern Lights? OKS Import Divsion? Red Sector?
...is Fairlight.org - the website dedicated to demos and intros for the C64. A simple message rests there now, stating that the site has been taken down to avoid confusion...
Ergo.. Fairlight != Fairlight C64, even though they may have a same root.
It seems difficult to imagine how these kinds of operations promote the progress of useful arts.
What about our freedom to fulfill a fundamental human desire to parse and disseminate knowledge and information?
From the DOJ anouncement:
The investigations focused on individuals and organizations, known as ?warez? release groups, that s pecialize in the Internet distribution of pirated materials. Release groups are the first-providers - t he original source for most of the pirated works traded or distributed online. Once a release group pre pares a stolen work for distribution, the material is distributed in minutes to secure, top-level warez servers and made available to a select clientele. From there, within a matter of hours, the pirated wo rks are further distributed throughout the world, ending up on public channels on IRC and peer-to-peer file sharing networks accessible to anyone with Internet access.
What they describe is a highly efficient and cost effective file distribution method. Society should be embracing this technology and maximizing its potential instead of criminalizing those who use it.
When information is truly free the world will change in ways we cannot possibly imagine.
No one in this story (and as far as I know, anywhere else previously) was arrested for selling used software on eBay.
Last I checked, it was groups like the RIAA going after 12 year old girls, not the FBI (civil litigation vs. criminal).
Please get your facts straight before rambling on about something you obviously have no clue about.
I've been wondering recently whether it isn't actually good for the UK's economy to pirate some software.
Let's take Microsoft Windows XP for an example. This is a foreign product: there is to the best of my knowledge no "British English" version, and therefore no significant local development effort. Although there is some local profit and tax revenue to be made, it seems that the net result must be an outflow of cash from the UK to the US.
Is it therefore a patriotic duty to make unauthorised copies of Windows? I'd be interested if anyone with a more robust grasp of economics can elaborate.
If your comment title says 'Re: Foo', I'm not likely to read it.
wtf do u have against isreal are you an anti-semite???????
Was that 100 copiers? Or was it 25 quad-speed copiers?
The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy
I don't know why I'm bothering to reply to this (I have a low opinion of people who can't be bothered to employ the shift key or type even a three-letter word like you in full), but:
If your comment title says 'Re: Foo', I'm not likely to read it.
Fire up the ovens!
>> As long as it costs $40 for a game or $100 for software there will always be people pirating.
> People will even pirate data worth 99 cents...
Furthermore, people will pirate if it is priced at $0.00, see for example some GPL violations.
The first two refer to the cost of acquiring a copy as opposed to pirating one. It's impossible to break the GPL by acquiring copies.Your example refers to pirating the copyright, but there is no offer in the GPL to acquire the copyright at any cost.
Imagine you went to a GPL project and offered to buy the copyright wholesale (which may theoretically be possible with some projects like Qt or MySQL). That is the real price they're pirating. Did you think the value of the leaked Windows source code is the price tag of one retail copy? Because that's what you just suggested.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Personally I'm unhappy some of the Fairlight gang have been busted, they've done some good releases in their time.
I warez games because sometimes the warez'd full game is available before the demo and I wanna know what its like.
If I like the game I buy it - after all, I have a job, and the cost of 2 or 3 (or more) games a month hardly registers on my statements.
I DON'T buy the games when they are shite, however, which is the main reason I continue to warez. Put simply, publishers such as Electronic Arts do not deserve my money. I have numerous problems with games I've purchased from them in the past and these bugs and glitches still aren't fixed at present. The only real reason I would buy something like Battlefield Vietnam, with all its bugs and issues, is if it was just about fun enough to justify playing it with a group of friends. Fuck playing on public servers where 85% of people are assholes.
Anyway, this operation gets the 'good guys' a bit of publicity, they get to spout off about how piracy benefits organised crime and terrorism, while at the same time nothing is done about a root cause - piss poor quality control and customer support.
Interesting point...
I haven't seen these many anonymous cowards moded up since...hmmm...well never probably.
All the tin foil hat people are coming out of the wood work to show their displeasure!
Those any of the same guys who cranked out C64/Amiga demos and rips back in the day?
That doesn't give people the right to pirate anything. A copyright holder's copyright doesn't magically transfer to the eMule network because someone out there thinks something is overpriced and decided to rip it for everybody.
An amusing sidenote--I find it funny people make wisecracks and justifications whenever an MP3 or warez copyright infringement article comes up, but get all up in arms when a company violates the copyright of the GPL. Seems a bit obnoxious and one-sided, but hey, this isn't Slashdot circa 1997 when it was just cool tech news and not a haven for piracy apologists...
Well, there's is only one way I can think that stopping piracy can bring more profit for the software companies: stopping OS piracy. And, as someone alreayd said, it would be good for Linux / Open Source.
At least here in my country, Brazil, people often buy custom PC's. They go and shop for all the boards, disks and everything and assemble the computer. There are a lot of guys who make their living assembling computers for their customers. These guys often install pirated copies of Windows on these machines.
There's also a huge market for pirated software here. You can buy it on the streets of any big city. So, when we think about buying a computer, the OS cost is never an issue cause you can get it from a friend or pay 3-4 USD for a copy of Windows XP.
If the law was enforced, you'd have to buy a license for the OS or use a free alternative. These "independent computer dealers" would not pirate and the software companies would have some profit.
For other stuff like Photoshop or Office, it wouldn't bring any more profit for the software companies. You can always live without an app, but an OS is totally necessary.
But... Also already said, software piracy is unstoppable.
And pirated products keep those who can't or won't pay for the product from searching for cheaper alternatives - why investigate Linux if you can pirate Windows?
With the way Slashdot sometimes posts articles talking about some company possibly violating the copyright of the GPL in some random situation, you'd think Osama Bin Laden was the CEO for every company in the business world.
But I guess copyrights are supposed to be enforced only when it comes to something Slashdot tells you is Good(tm). Not when something is Bad(tm), like actually PAYING for shit.
GIMP is a Free program with most of the functionality of Photoshop. Much more legal than pirating Photoshop.
This is the 20th time I've seen this mentioned (and about the same amount of times it's been modded up.)
1.) It's not like this is taking up 100% of the FBI. This is being handled by the computer crimes division--the other 98% of the organization is doing whatever else they do. Give it a rest.
2.) Surprise, surprise--all laws are enforced. It's the same reason the policeman who pulls you over for running a stop sign "could be out hunting criminals that actually hurt people." I guess putting people out of work by stealing their product isn't hurting people (yes, it is theft).
3.) I bet you're one of the first to be up in arms when Slashdot posts about a company violating the copyright of the GPL. Suddenly the tune changes when it comes to warez and MP3s.
4.) And before anyone mentions it--just because you think something is "overpriced" still doesn't mean you suddenly get to pirate it. It's a distractive argument that has no relevance whatsoever. If it's too expensive, don't bother! Look for a cheap alternative or an OSS clone of the same functionality.
I think you're simply a guy who's gotten used to the convenience of downloading everything you could want, and now you're mad the government is finally taking away the free ride. What do you think the inevitable result of all this is? When Internet2 becomes the standard and you can download everything in less than a minute, why would anybody want to pay for something that's "wink-wink-nudge it's wrong but everybody does it" illegal?
Will John Carmack appreciate everyone "sampling" the "free advertising" of Doom 3 on eMule when it comes out two weeks before hitting retail? They always do nowadays. Why do you think PC sales are dying and companies are going to console where it's harder to pirate?
Sigh.
What? Do you have any idea how economics works? Look, you calculate the relative expected cost and expected value of stuff when you make economic decisions. Piracy's cost is not $0, of course, but some larger value due to the risk of being caught and the inconvenience of downloading. Furthermore, you don't get the added value of support, printed manuals (well not these days), etc.
So piracy really is competition to the real product. Let's say I decide that pirating Photoshop has a "cost" of $200 due to the relatively low probability of being caught (of course, there are big fines, etc. if I do get caught, so $200 might not be unreasonable). Now let's say Photoshop retail costs $700. If I am rational, I will download Photoshop rather than buy. So if Adobe wants me to stop pirating, they should lower the cost for Photoshop or attempt to raise the cost of piracy by increasing fines and cracking down on copyright infringement.
Of course, if I'm in Adobe's target market, the cost for piracy is much greater; my business could tank, I have employees that might snitch, etc. So maybe it would "cost" me $2000 per copy. Clearly I am better off with Photoshop retail.
Interestingly enough, with this analysis we might come to the conclusion that piracy actually helps consumers. We end up with lower prices since software makers no longer have monopoly power over their individual products. If Adobe suddenly raised the price for Photoshop to $3000 and piracy was not an option, many people would be forced to pay the new price. But Adobe knows that even businesses would begin to pirate if they raised the price high enough.
Really, none of this has to do with the article.
:P
Rape, three years? Piracy, four? All that says is that rape conviction times are too low. Irrelevant to this article.
I know apologists are trying to spin it into piracy convictions being too long, though...but if one isn't a software pirate, why should you care anyway? Oh, right--this place has become a haven for piracy backers!
Piracy is a real crime.
Are you saying it's not? Many here are implying as much...but most people here are college students and unemployed who don't write software for a living. So no wonder.
Barring the fact that this is just the beginning, you don't think it sends a message that the law is being enforced?
Why wouldn't you want the law enforced? You don't think software writers also pay taxes? You don't think they want their rights enforced?
In Spain the software industry beat pirating by lowering their prices sufficiently.
Free games are not going to come out of thin air. We need artists and they are notorious for NOT giving anything away for free.
Never knew that the place was such a thriving pirate haven... ;)
Your attempt to glorify the pirate culture notwithstanding ("0day ftz d00d" sounds so heroic, doesn't it?), laws exist and they must be enforced. It is not legal, or moral, to pirate the fruits of someone else's labor just because you've justified it as "human nature that can't be removed." Should we stop enforcing traffic laws since so many people are caught speeding, since hurrying somewhere is a part of human nature that can't be removed?
Sorry, but some people should come to grips with their human natures and stop hurting others by stealing their works.
I'm sure most of the software I use would be different if I actually had to pay for it.
As much as I hate to admit it, software "piracy" is bad and no matter what excuses peiople come up with.
Why do you hate to admit it, and why do you put quotes around the word? It's piracy. It's wrong. This isn't really a debatable issue. If it is for you, you've got serious moral issues you need to work out--stealing someone's work isn't right.
GPL software gives you permission to use their works without paying, and give you a copyright license.
I can't help but wonder if you get upset when companies violate the copyright of the GPL...I'm sure you won't hate to admit it then, and you won't be putting little quotes around the term either...
It's not creating any wealth in fact its reducing wealth because now people have to waste money on this software that would have been spent on something else.
Gee whiz, you're right, we shouldn't have to pay for software, so that we can spend our money somewhere else.
John Carmack and all commercial software writers everywhere will love you for not paying him for his work. After all, the best way to improve an economy is to not pay its workers.
There's a serious gap between technology, warez, and executives in big compagnies. I'll go on this a bit lower.
Also, if they are doing this to "save an industry that has serious money loss due to piracy", I don't like the comparison, but to put it in their perspective; when you bust a drug dealer, you just open a market for the others, when you bust a drug producer, you just clear the way for another to outsource his production. So this logic is a bit flawed. In my perspective, piracy in itself isn't the bad thing. In fact, a lot of people here probably got hold of a software because it was available cracked, and then they went in a company and made a license bought.
Going after those people won't change a thing, disrupt, maybe, change? probably not. What should be done seriously and ressources invested way more into is to hunt down and even close down (to name an example I am very familiar with) Multimedia companies producing video games/movies/web sites that run 95% off pirated software (and the 5% legit being the machines shipped with windows on it). Some of those companies are operating in over 8 digits revenues and CAN afford the license buying, even if it wouldn't be all in one shot, they could at least show sign of good faith and shell out on a regular basis on a budget.
Joe Pimple at home doesn't kill an industry, he learns a software/tool (thinking stuff like maya/xsi/autocad/etc) that he can't afford (well until recently, now most company got an educational discount or free version, i'll get to this). Those 7-8+ digits small and medium companies *ARE* the ones actually STEALING ACTUAL revenues from software manufacturer.
Yes there's the BSA... but a lot of you probably know a lot of companies that never got checked or heard about a friend working at a place that is running totally not legit. Why the heck does joe pimple gets his life fried while others are actually making way more money and are way more morally wrong than joe? Ressources like this should be helping organization like the BSA, and the BSA should be less picky on companies trying to balance their budget while trying to reach 100% legitimacy. Of course those 95% illegal companies are creating jobs, but again, that logic is wrong since they are "killing an industry" with high-tech jobs... (and most of those multimedia companies have crappy underpaid/overworked conditions where only the owners are getting filthy rich).
That's my rant. Next is the distribution channels and the fact that we're in 2004. For god's sake, why can't we just buy GTA Vice city for 20$ and leech it off a server instead of paying 40$ for a printed box, media, distribution channel, and retailer profit? Maybe *THAT* would help prevent piracy. I know for sure that I'd be jumping back in the gaming world if it wasn't so freakingly expensive to play a game. Last games I bought that were a good investment were quake 3+ team arena, and mech warrior 3. Next time I'll pay more than 40$ for a game it better grabs my attention and my addiction as bad as quake did, else it's just not worth more than 20$, period. Don't give me that "it costs to create and budget" thing, logic here is I didn't buy it because it's overpriced, I didn't pirate it, I tried a demo if it was available, found I had a bill to pay and didn't want to shell out that 40-60$. so they didn't "lose to piracy" they simply "lost because they can't adapt to what a lot of people have been asking for years and should be available in 2004". They lost a sale. Period. The price difference isn't profit loss, it's all that extra non-needed layers added to reach people that could go direct (you could have both, then you'd get the best of both world). Took too long for apple to come out with iTunes, so I guess we won't see a movie nor a game distribution channel based on this before quite some time and the dinosaurs running things will still hide behind the law to try and fix things, and unfortunately for them and also for us, it will damage more than help. People wi
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
The system is a hypocrit.
Why, because there were some demo coders who got involved in the warez scene, that means it's somehow hypocritical to stop piracy of software? What idiots modded this up to +5?
What's hypocritical is bitching about GPL copyright violations then suddenly getting all passive about copyright enforcement of commercial apps. This freeloader mentality is sickening.
Wow, you didn't bother downloading the perfectly legal demo or reading reviews. Instead, you went to some p2p network (probably eMule), downloaded the full game (thereby enabling others to pirate it from you because that's how eMule works), and then decided to buy it.
You're the exception to the rule. 99% of the users on p2p aren't "sampling" things. It's against the law, but more importantly, it's immoral to the programmers and developers who slaved away to get something out the door only to have freeloaders stick it online for people to download and play for free without paying for it. There is absolutely no valid justification.
Australia is not 373t3 enough to have warez people?
sob..
and here I was about to go and saw how technologically advanced we are
...they do that by counting every pirated copy as a lost sale, which is of course complete fiction.
then later
And to think, there's probably rapists, murderers etc... Who would maybe have been caught had the resources for this been diverted to real crimes instead of pissant cracking groups.
So you're saying not every pirated copy is a lost sale, fair enough I agree. But then you say every cop arresting a pirate is a loss arrest of a murderer: Bull Fucking Shit! That's as much complete fiction as the pirated copy = lost sale crap. You started out nicely but you ended up being yet another hypocrite. You're no better than the "software industry" you speak of. Go away.
I love it how they make these people out to be filthy criminals who are out to hurt everyone. They fail to mention the intelligence needed to crack protections such as securom or the new starforce 3. They fail to mention how this drives programmers to learn more and protect their software. Many people gain the interests and skills needed for jobs from this sort of behavior.
As stated before, people will just rise up to replace these leaders. Quit trying to scare these people and go after the huge public which gets cracks and serials off of websites and p2p. Scare the public and it goes internal to where there is damage control. Obviously Operation Bucaneer achieved nothing and the same will come from these busts.
What does this leave for software sales?
- Beginners. People that are unaware of the vast stores of pirated software that exists out there.
- People without access to a high speed Internet connection.
Everyone else gets their software for free!Was it really 100 CD Burners, or is this like that RIAA raid where they used "cd burner equivelents?" (ie. 2 x 50X speed cd burners)
Most people here, coming from the countries that exploited the rest of the world, won't understand how their precious and intagible "intellectual property" can not be "protected".
But in the end, its a few rich ppl for whom the system "works", against the majority of people in opressed countries ordered to apply the worst of neo liberalism crap with an ever increasing and never ending "debt" with certain entities like the World Bank that simply makes us say, to hell with IP and "Copyrights".
What you see is a wealthy corporate minority trying like slaves the majority. And this minority control the power in certain key and wealthy countries.
In reality, it is more like 2 against 8, with 8 being the "pirates", "outcasts", or whatever you want to call people "not playing by the rules".
This "police state" system, can't survive for ever. At least, i'm very confident in my country we would politely show you the finger. We are officially against the WTO and the WIPO. In fact USA's current administration has already tried to incite coup'd etats using the CIA many times (yes, the media has hard proof evidence of this), and we are the 3rd OIL supplier (and one of the few remaining refining corporations) for the United States of America, go figure...
In the world the majority of the people is tired, and while they can keep their fantastic IP fiasco in the countries they do control, the time is going against them. Their whole model is ruined, it only works for the wealthy, yes, there are enough wealthy people to earn a living, but, suprise, suprise, for each wealthy boy eating McDonalds burgers 3 times a day, there are more than 8 that barely can eat once (if lucky) a ration of rice a day.
Also, it won't help the fools when they start to treat much worse a guy who infringed the copyrights of a bunch of foreign corporations than, say, your average raper/thief/murderer.
Do you think, in a world like this, that you can excert an maintain power with your armies forever? Yes, the Roman Empire falled, and so will the American one.
Humans are altruistic in nature. You will always feel the urge to share with your friends. The capitalist guys will tell you its the other way around, that we are greed and only "competition" drives the system. Oops, too bad this also mean violence, so lets have a BIG global army to "enforce" THE WORLDWIDE POLICY...
You can never prevent copies from happening. For a so called "pirate" arrested, 10 or 100 more will come. As long as the injustice in the system remains, so the rebels will rebel. If you ever get your step out of your police enforced lands into "the real world", you will see how we are _just fine_ with none of that stupid IP crap. Who knows, you might even understand how stupidly useless is to "combat piracy" once you start walking in one of our streets and see the floodings of cds and guys trying to sell you 1$ burned copies of crap that in the rich countries they sell for thousands of dollars. That bunch of zeros and ones this guy Gates in 1975 started crying and screaming we all should start treating like some "property" of sorts.
If you learned your way of earning your life using this model, too bad, so did the record labels, and scribes before the printer...
Sooner or later, you will realize you are the priviledged minority, and that you are living in a fiction.
As you can see, i am particulary fine with the vision of Richard Stallman, where a world without Copyrights would make the GPL obsolete.
I don't know what the current generation of "Artists, Actors and Programmers" who only learned the current model will do, but im sure they would have to develop some alternate way of doing business. Artists and Actors can pick live performances, Programmers can work to achieve projects, like building solutions or fixing existing ones, and not watch a stupid copier working. The world will keep going, its just and old dying model against a new one that is emerging. Besides, the consumist model that th
Artix
Your Linux, your init.
Too many people around here think they're entitled to others' stuff for free, and because of that, they act like they're on the cutting edge of a new movement (witness all the sneering about selling CDs being an "outdated business models"). Most of their arguments are just rationalizations. It is bad if such people are associated with OSS in other peoples' eyes because it discredits OSS. It also makes it harder to raise legitimate complaints about things like DRM (e.g., DeCSS shutting OSS out) and the RIAA's tactics because John Q. Public, who hasn't studied the issue very much, will merely assume it's only more excuses from people who just want to steal.
Dumb windose users...
The immature mind measures.
Not much of a surprise... first Asscroft came for the bongs, then he came for the porn...when he came for the warez there was no one left to speak up.
As an AC said, GIMP is quite good. I found it to be a little different to use, but after you get the hang of it all its not that bad and it does everything i ever did in photoshop. The whole working natively under linux is good too cause i hate using windows except for games. If you *must* use photoshop, and you're a student or teacher, you can get a much cheaper copy of it as an 'academic version'. Its fully featured but you're not allowed to use it commercially. They are two options which might help with avoiding BSA bastards who seem to lack common sense.
how the FUCK is this offtopic?
For software piracy?
Give me a break.
You have people stealing actual tangable goods, and you have people murdering and raping. Regularly.
Someone's priorities are seriously backwards.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
It has been a good few years, but it is now time for Fairlight to close its doors for good. Many reasons have made us come to this judgement but we feel it is for the best. The scene is getting to be a dangerous place. Not only do we have to fear from the feds but also the unhonorable ones in the scene who lower themselves to narq the competition. Retiring on top seems to be the best decision for us. We want to thank all those throughout the years who have helped us in one way or another.
/Team FairLight
I guess they didn't follow their own advice. It seems Fairlight reactivated 2 months after that message, possibly under new management or because whatever FBI sweep was going on at the time was over.
If they haven't started hitting Korea, they really haven't done shit, have they.
Here is some proof:
Piracy--> DirecTV pirate to possibly get 30 years
Murderer--> Reckless skier homicide gets 90 days jail
Piracy--> Pirate to get 50 months prison
Drugs and Prostitution--> Darryl Strawberry get 18months for drugs and prostitution solicitation.
Priorities are in line, wouldn't you agree?
What an odd and totally irrelevant reply. I was just being silly, especially since Fairlight is just a games piracy group. Honestly, I think that the approach taken here was the right one: go after the groups initiating the software piracy -- the distribution group -- rather than play whack-a-mole with the file sharers spreading it around (wherein you cut off one distribution node amongst thousands, if not tens of thousands).
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
How come we can't find Osama, and we can't stop bombers in Madrid before the fact, but we can expend police resources on a worldwide scale to enforce "property rights".
Is this the police equivlent if the "Turkey Farm" where we use to send programmers that couldn't find the end of an IF statement with both hands? Surely we are not expending our best cops' minds on chaseing song pirates... Tell me its not so!!
Is any of the cost of this being charged back to the companies who's property they are "protecting"? I can't even call the fire department without getting a bill! Yet someone managed to obtain the services of an international organization of police forces to basically run a "stop loss" operation for an over priced product.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Hey - it may work for other crimes too! If we'd arrest all the speeders and jaywalkers, we would inarguably get at least some future rapists and murderers out of the streets and into jail. But why to stay here? We can read the books and find out some obscure two laws that are mutually exclusive, and then just bust everyone. Then the crime rate would surely go down spectacularly.
Speeders and jaywalkers don't generally get arrested unless they act like jerks to the officer, but the laws and ordinances regarding the offense are enforced. There are not enough police/courts in the world to catch/enforce punishment on each and every violation committed of each and every law. That said, when a law is broken and those in authority to enforce the law gain knowledge about the violation, that violation should be acted upon as the law allows. If a court date is necessary, then a jury of the accused's peers should be allowed to determine if the law should be enforced in that instance (U.S.A. rules).
Anyway...
People who overstay their visas know - or should know - that they stand the chance of being deported, and should be. Like your parent post said, we need to enforce the laws already on the books - we have immigration laws, let's enforce 'em. We didn't really need any new laws after 9/11 (except maybe allowing CIA/FBI to have better communication with one another), we just needed to enforce those already on the books.
I agree with your point about mutually exclusive laws on the books. Some pretty bright people we've got working for us in our State capitals and Washington, D.C.
A lawfull society has little to do with how laws are enforced, but rather how people choose to respect those laws. .... and when you have unjust laws, just people will choose not to respect them, nor should they.
Restricting what pople copy for the sake of upholding entrenched monopolies, is not just in the slightest. And copying something can never be stealing or 'piracy' either - it's bullshit morality, backed up by unjust laws that people should have every right to expect not to be on the books, but if so, at least not be enforced.
"The NHTCU quotes an IDC study that estimates that a 10 per cent reduction in UK piracy would contribute $17.5bn for the UK's GDP, indirectly create 40,000 jobs and generate $4.1bn in tax revenue. "
I'll bet this figure doesn't even come close to holding true. According to this logic the bust should show an immediate "burst" of revenue next quarter.
99% of the users on p2p aren't "sampling" things.
Independent citation please? Or even anecdotal evidence of sufficient sample size?
How many "pirates" do you know who have never bought what they have tried and continue to use?
How many plan on paying for it when they can?
Of the people who claim they will never pay for anything they pirate (though they would have if piracy were not available) how many believe they are behaving morally or fairly?
If they can't stop the creation ,movement and enjoyment of tons of drugs worldwide how can they stop the copying and enjoyment of BITS - zeros and ones for god's sake.
Well, they CAN'T.
Power to the PEOPLE you fascist oligarchs.
The greater crime, of course, is spreading RAP music. With or without permission.
The greater crime, of course, is spreading COUNTRY music. With or without permission.
The greater crime, of course, is spreading ROCK music. With or without permission.
The greater crime, of course, is spreading Britney's music. With or without permission.
I have a few kids that run loose in my house. (I'm not some SOB who puts them on those leashes, wtf is that all about.
It's about being responsible for more children than you can protect from themselves. Example: when my mother's third child (Dad off serving the military somewhere) learned to get out of the playpen she resorted to a leash. All three of us were under age five and there was no money to hire help. And all relatives were in other states.
Dear bonch,
I'm sure you've been reading slashdot for a while, so I'm wondering why you are equivocating "copyright infringement" and "stealing"? Theft requires depriving someone of something. Hence, "copyright infringement" could be theft, but it is not necessarily theft. Most importantly, beyond this possible aspect of "theft", I do not currently see how "copyright infringement" has any remaining immoral aspect. Perhaps you could explain it to me if you disagree.
The reason why many people's attitude toward the GPL is different from their attitude toward commercial licenses, while both rely upon copyright for their foundation, is because of the original intent of "copyright". Say it with me, "to promote the progress of science and useful arts". This is often viewed as the "public domain" -- i.e. the sum of knowledge that can be used and shared openly and freely by all. Logically, what other reason could there be for creating copyright than benefiting all of society?
While the GPL does restrict sharing in that it requires that the source accompany all binary code, its obvious and encompassing purpose is to enforce a freely shareable quasi-"public domain", which is becoming more and more necessary in this day and age where copyrights do not expire and legally enforceable restrictions upon modification are commonplace. Hence, in a very real sense, the GPL builds and protects the public domain (the intent of copyright), while commercial licenses starve the public domain (allowed by current copyright law).
i.e. the GPL is helping to account for the failure of the modern copyright system to feed the public domain, ironically, by using that very same copyright system. Hence, copyleft to balance copyright.
e.g. If software copyrights expired after several years and, as a result, the source code was added to the public domain, I don't think there would be as much use for the GPL (except to effectively eliminate usage in commercial software).
Copyright can be very useful, but it is important not to lose sight of the fact that it is an artificial construct which restricts everyone's freedoms for a purpose. If that purpose is not being met, perhaps "copyright" should be reconsidered?
I own an iPod and thus I wish to have my music in MP3/AAC. The rips I find on the net are rarely satisfying and annoys me more often than they entertain me, so I want to rip the music myself.
If a CD I buy has some 'copy protection' (read 'playback protection') I will still buy it. However, I will crack the protection, rip it and then return it to the store and complain it is faulty and demand a cash refund since it was not working as expected.
I try to be legit, but they make it really hard for me.
Granted, the same issues are not valid when it comes to software, but the measures they take to prevent piracy [1] is bringing the value of the product down. If I have to buy a new CD each time it gets broken, they must lower the cost to do so.
[1] Their agenda is not all about piracy, though...
It's only compelling if every unauthorized copy equals a sale at market value. However, it's a common misperception companies use to drum up support, when they want the government to take action.
Photoshop and Windows wouldn't be as popular, if people didn't warez them. Why didn't they crack down or made a big fuss, when they were nobodies? Why aren't they raiding China and other countries where people can't afford commercial software? Does it sound more like bait and switch?
Koplan, the ex-CEO of Corel, once said he wouldn't mind people warez Corel's software more than his competitions', namely MS.
I wonder if people would know any alternatives exist, if warez didn't exist.
The first two refer to the cost of acquiring a copy as opposed to pirating one.
All three of them refer to "pirating", i.e. "copying illegally", i.e. "going beyond what is allowed by the union of copyright law and whatever license is applicable".
Did you think the value of the leaked Windows source code is the price tag of one retail copy? Because that's what you just suggested.
No. I carefully said "price", not "value".
Forget the GPL example. The price tag of Sun Java is also $0.00, but you are required to download it yourself (or something like that). With such a license, people will still copy illegally since it is more convenient to borrow a CD than it is to download Java through a 28k modem.
Britain's GDP. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
That sucks! Fairlight was a good group of good people.
...The home of the real crackers
They've been on the scene since 1986 and the C=64, which is a very long time in the cracking scene. They've had lots of quality releases, and were
To wheather so many chages and platforms and still stay in the game is an outstanding achievement by itself.
Fairlight, I salute you! There are still those who have not forgotten you.
The FBI, who in spite of recent Human Rights Reports that rank USA as first (#1!) in the world for homocide incidences, kept to their convictions to protect righteous corporations(afterall, dead people can't bribe politicians.) Recent reports indicate that the US murder rate has risen 1.1 percent since 2002, and rape has risen 4.0 percent. US also refused to relinquish its #1 rank in private ownership of guns, which helped them take a significantly lead in worldwide Gun-related crimes. According to US National Center for Health statistics 56.5 percent of americans who committed suicide used guns, involving over 16,586 people in 2003 alone. According to National Youth Gang Center there are 21,500 violent gangs operating in the United States as of 2002, with a combined membership of 731,000. The rise in gangs also provoked New York Police to impose a citywide state of emergency during the summer of 2003. Statistics released by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that the number of people who have contracted AIDs has risen 2.2 percent to reach 42,136 over 2002. So just like USA was #1 in Hockey in 1980, they seemed to have kept that pace of being the Best at things in 2002-2004. So its no wonder that John Ashcroft felt it was necessary to spend more of the Governments budget on Operation Buccaneer and Fastlink than they do investigating murder and rape crimes on a yearly basis. He can't afford to lose out to other #1 countries like Haiti, or North Korea. So I applaud the Bush Administration for bravely going after non-violent Internet Pirates, and keeping America safe for us all. Now there is certainly no need to ever have to lock my door or car anymore. Who cares if you guys piss off terrorists enough to provoke them into attacking us. As long as I don't have to live in fear of my child accidentally watching a movie before its in theatres, I can goto sleep without worrying. I also proudly salute the Bush Administration, and the Fight for OIL. Without it our tanks wouldn't move to storm over other countries.
If you have an idea that you want to own, don't tell ANYONE. Then, you and you alone own it. In other words, shut the f*ck up.
Because when you open that festering gob of yours to broadcast your idea to the world, the idea no longer belongs to you. Any law attempting to skirt this fact will be as long-term effective as a law that says pi is equal to 3 1/7. It just does not, nor will it ever, fit reality.
As I understand it, the idea behind intellectual property laws is that a person should enjoy the "fruits" of their intellectual labor. If that's so, under this way of thinking, then shouldn't a person ALSO be responsible for their "intellectual liabilities"? If a person can make money for their good ideas, then they should also have to pay, in real dollars, for their bad ones.
The world got along fine for thousands and thousands of years without IP laws. I saw one argument stating that IP laws were necessary because they assist the economy. Here's another equally stupid and equally arbitrary law that could be used to assist the economy: you must spend at least 98.5% of your post-tax dollars on goods and services; saving more than 1.5% of your income will land you in jail.
Maybe we need to rethink the idea of IP.
I don't think this all adds up. FLT is a release group which means that they don't need more than shells, access to topsites and cracking skills.
They would never sell games nor they would need 100 cd copiers. It's part of the "code of honour".
You could argue that this is just what they say but a 18 year-old group (yes that's right) was one that actually MADE the rules and not one that just followed.
This is why I hate these articles. I'm positive that this doesn't have one single fact apart from the actual raid.
-- Would it be acceptable to just put my name on my sig?
Also of note, this is the second time they've been busted for the same thing. The last time was in the early 90s then The Humble Babe(old member of The Humble Guys) got poped with the sysop of BBS-A-Holic for using stolen credit cards to by software and hardware. They used to be called USA/FLT (fairlight).
First of all, by definition the act of stealing requires that someone (i.e. the victim) has been deprived of there possessions, all concerned parties in this still have all the CD's they made. What they are claiming as a loss is an imaginary dollar figure that is purely an estimate. They cannot prove that the people who have a copy of the data, had the money to buy it in the first place. Secondly, it costs nothing to reproduce and distribute the data. If something can be reproduced and distributed among the masses with zero costs to the maker, why shouldn't we have it? It is immoral and greedy to with-hold something useful to all of society (like music, art and software utilities) if it can be had by all at a cost of nothing. That says that the only people who can enjoy music, entertainment or utilities are the ones who can afford it. That is just wrong, especially when the people claiming to be victim are living a lifestyle of gross spending on useless junk like a friggin marble toilet or gold platted butt wipe. "oh no, the poor are getting our stuff and I didn't get what little money they had. Now I can't afford that helicopter, THROW THEM IN JAIL!" There is good reason most of the artists are not running around claiming theft, its because they want everyone listening to there music, they know that the people as a whole need things like that. They make plenty of money doing tours and selling themselves, in fact, the more people who save money on downloading the music will more then likely spend it on a concert ticket (if the music was any good that is) and that puts the money in their pockets, not some Fat Cat CEO who is gouging the people in the first place. I say lets take the greedy corporations out of the equation. If all of society benefits from the data being made, then then it is the governments responsibility to support the creation of that data and also its free distribution to the people. It would make the people happy. Well, except the people who can't buy the gold platted butt wipe. But really, if they stop buying all the gold, the price of gold will drop and we all can wipe our butts with gold! haha And one last thing, if it costs so like for me to make a copy, why does the price of a cd cost 1,000 times what it would cost me to make? Sounds like lazy executives who don't want to adapt their business models to the changes in society.
I live in one of the Dutch studentflats where some servers were confiscated. Since that afternoon our networktraffic dropped dramatically, possibly also because a lot of students shut down there own little ftp-server afraid of being caught.
Traffic statistics here
Repeat after me: We are all individuals
YHBT. YHL. HAND.
Next thing he'll say is that free doesn't count because it's illegal, but that's just head in the sand thinking. It's every real capitalist's dirty secret (from which bonch is excluded): Black markets are the epitome of capitalism in action.