Slashdot Mirror
11-Nation Raid on Net Pirates
Cobb writes "The US Justice Department announce a global crack-down on large scale internet pirates distributing first run movies. According to the article: "FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches starting Wednesday, arresting four people and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works, a Justice official said. Authorities also seized hundreds of computers in raids in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.""
Authorities also seized hundreds of computers in raids in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
Hmm....mabye that's why I haven't been able to telnet into my server at home all day... ^_^
Seriously, though, Sweeden is conspicuously absent from the 11-nation 'coalition of the willing' listed above, which means that The Pirate Bay will be staying up, at least... =P
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I just can't believe our friends in the Chinese government didn't want to get in on this crackdown...
I am not left-handed, either!
This is not meant to be a flame, but...
If the US Justice Department can coordinate such an effort among 11 different nations and justice systems, why can't we find Osama Bin Laden?
Successfully condensing fact from the vapor of nuance since 1998.
Pirate the ones that the MPAA are unwilling to admit to making, and you're safe!
Nobody ever got arrested for pirating 'Gigli'
I still don't see why they don't go after the real pirates, who make and distribute these things commercially, and mostly in foreign countries. Seems to me that the non net pirates are probably a bigger threat. But they wouldn't need an international crack down force to find them (just walk through manhatten sometime), so I imagine they have to spend money on something. A shame.
This signature has Super Cow Powers
I thought there were no copywrong laws in canada.
"A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'" - DNA
Shouldn't this store be filed under "Your rights online"?
I read
this whole thing would have happened earlier, but the FBI had to figure out how to say "Avast you scallawags" and "Aaaar!" in 11 different languages.
and only 4 people arrested? Man, industry seems to be able to buy a lot of "justice" nowadays...
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/June/05_crm_353.h tm
More rumors on http://www.scene-busts.org/index2.html
I realize that most of the /. crows has an anti **AA stance and to a certain extent I do as well. However, it is people like this who cause the damages cited by the **AA types, which in turn lead to the heavy handed **AA policies. It is nice to see those most responsible for the problem caught. Good riddance.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
At least until the new Swedish law goes into effect tomorrow.
...to Wil Wheaton:
0 6/27/0926218/
"I'm no expert, but it seems like the MPAA would get a much bigger return on their investment if they stopped going after college students and went after the factories that turn out legitimate movies by day, and switch over to pirated material at night."
--From the Wil Wheaton Slashdot interview
http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
couldn't they atleast think of a cool name?
Wow, an 11 nation RAID? Now that is redundancy!
Shit. My desktop at home still has monkey island installed... Guybrush Threepwood may only be a wannabe software pirate, but better safe than sorry.
Makes me want make the Tshirt:
Osama Bin Laden is pirating music
NOW will you go catch the fucker?
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Not that I have any particular sympathy for them, but you'd think these people would learn. This is the same kind of thing we've seen for the past decade with international raids against groups like DoD.
And I don't mean "learn" as in, stop pirating. But there is software out there that would make them more or less invulnerable to this sort of sting operation. Duh.
I'm sure if OBL regularly seeded jihad material it would be much easier to find him.
... for the corporations to arbitrate and exploit (legally) with the backup of politicians and law enforcement agencies.
I knew it that my crazy uncle was right when he said that:
police is there to protect the rich from the poor. Nothing else.
Don't worry uncle I have faith in the system. For each pirate server they shut down, three more will spring out.
On other news today: Software piracy in its last throes. Exclusive interview with Joe Sixpack Pirate. Administrator officials have been regularly holding meetings with pirates...
Yam, yam, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade
And from TFA:
Those groups are believed responsible for stealing and distributing copyrighted works including films "Star War Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,"...
It's not like these warez groups broke into George's office and stole his film reel.. why don't they focus on the person that leaked it from Lucasfilm in the first place?
When they raided last year in Operation Fastlink I saw some significant changes in traffic patterns. This time, I am not seeing anything.
I'm gonna fight 'em all ... ...
Eleven-nation army couldn't hold me back
I'm gonna rip it off
Taking their films right behind their back
And if I catch 'em coming back my way
I'm gonna serve 'em to you
And that aint what they want to hear
But thats what I'll do
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
Dear Mr. Sheep^W^H^H^HSFanBoi,
Software piracy is copyright infringement and possibly a crime in your part of the world. It isn't theft unless something physical is involved. So unless these guys are boarding ships in international waters and looting the said ships for DVDs and CDs, it isn't really piracy or theft.
Thanks,
your local diction nazi.
I wonder how many constitutional rights were violated by the US Justice Department and those various "authorities"...
It's time for anonymous encrypted filesharing and software like Freenet: http://freenet.sourceforge.net/
Enjoy!
like students who can't fight back with huge money lawyer.
Better to leave alone corporate criminals, drug cartels who hide behind political connections and big money lawyers.
FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches starting Wednesday, arresting four people and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works
In other news, 78 people are shaken up from being raided over something as stupid as filesharing.
The FBI, brought to you by the RIAA
Myth and Centropy are old skool and HUGE.
as of 5/31 "Rumors have it that Centropy is going INTERNAL on all future releases"
Looks like too little, too late.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I love how the FBI is wasting our money doing this shit. I know, financially, a few people are hurting b/c of piracy. But, I can think of a few better things for the feds to target right now. But I guess all the pedophiles in Florida or extremists in Indonesia aren't deserving of the FBI's time anymore. Let's target some geeks.
Ahuh, yeah, you betchya.
And all that 10s of dollars that they make off the stolen movies will now go directly the the MPAA, and of course, the actual people who made the movie.
Ahuh, yeah, you betchya.
(This post has been exagerated for your protection.)
Perhaps Sweden isn't a big player in the global entertainment industry and that's why they don't really care. Nah, you're probably right, it's because the government is ignoring murderers and rapists. The police just aren't thinking of the children.
...is if they made a MMORPG where you could get xp for reporting pirates. That way you could turn in your friends who run ftp servers full of games and movies for epic level items. There are a lot of MMORPG players out there and I'm sure they could catch all the pirates. You could call the game "Buccaneer's Bounty" and it could be awesome. If I wasn't so busy inventing True A.I. I'd probably make that game myself. If properly marketed it could make billions!
"But theres things mightier than a sword, and there are things mightier than pens. Guns and rap." - CrazyJim1
okay... these are shut down, now where the hell are the raids on the CoolWebSearch servers?! I mean, I know its never been a secret that lobbyists run the show, but could they be any more blatant? Maybe they could go after the people who are making a living screwing up the internet rather than nailing a few warez hackers who are keeping to themselves. I'm not saying piracy is right, but for gods sake, if they can coordinate 11 nations and spend untold amounts to take down software pirates, certainly they can spare a portion of it to fight the virus makers!
To err is human, to really foul up requires a computer
Also...
So the law signed by Pres. Howdy Doody says a file/movie pirate can spend ten YEARS in jail?? Yet, people who rape and murder often get less. I see now that our priorities are finally straight. How much faster can we go downhill?
I think it's cool to be able to get whatever online too... but... hey, it's not legal and that carries a penalty when you get caught. It's not quite a "speeding ticket" but I feel pretty much the same way about that too... I speed and when I get caught, I pay my ticket (or get a lawyer to fix it or something). Whoever you are doing whatever it is you're doing, be prepared to lose whatever it is you have when you're playing this game 'cause once in a while, they'll come down on you... and just like this time, it's a coordinated ton of bricks.
I suppose "seized some major online distribution servers" sounds better than "nicked about a thousand bucks worth of equipment from some joe who never saw a dime from all the evil, evil crime he did.
Besides, busting down some dorks' doors must be a whole lot easier than running around after, y'know, violent people.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
When instead of going after international rings that actually do harm to society like spammers, shild pornographers, DDOSers, we go after those that our big industry complains about the most.
I wonder if they planned this crackdown timeframe with the MPAA so that the 'big' movie releases wouldn't be 'harmed' from the piracy of their movies?
It seems a little conspicuous
"Oh, you hate your job? There's a support group for that, it's called everyone, they meet at the bar."
that they focusing on the important issues, like copyright infringement and not the child sex trade.
This the kind of shit that happens when a corporations pocket book means more than the people that government was meant to server.
Maybe we need to tell the MPAA and RIAA that Osama is a huge pirate of first-run copyrighted works, and then they'll get their friends in international law enforcement to find him and shut him down. :)
This is brilliant. Whay hasn't anyone thought of it before?
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
Good thing you can get 10 years in prison for pirating a movie... and only 5 for raping a child. Our society sure has it priorities straight!
Recently I ran across the link for The Scene, http://www.welcometothescene.com/ Yeah, I know I'm a bit slow on some things and this has been out for some time (9 episodes already available with #10 coming out very soon) It is a "made for the Internet series" whose storyline revolves around this very topic, distributing pirated movies. Available by bittorrent. Check it out.
From TFA: President Bush signed a new law last month setting tough penalties of up to 10 years in prison for anyone caught distributing a movie or song before its commercial release.
MPAA/RIAA: we're pleased to release a movie/song that has never been released before. To all you smart asses out there, say no to piracy!
FBI: you said, it's never been commercially released?
MPAA/RIAA: no, it's the hottest new release ever!
FBI: okay, I'll have to put you in jail.
MPAA/RIAA: why?
FBI: this movie/song has never been commercially released before so you're violating a law. Sorry. See you in jail.
I once had a signature.
Well, at least we will be able to see the great effect this has on *AA's bottom line. If they don't report several billion dollar increase in revenue, I'd be shocked! Shocked, I'm tellin' ya'...
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
p0wn3d!
bad_outlook
--
Is this vague enough for you?
That was sarcasm, you dolt.
We're catching plenty of miscellaneous insurgents and Talibani. That's because there are lots of them and only one Osama bin Laden.
They went out after pirates, and found some. They didn't say how many specific pirates they missed.
And, to echo other posters, it's a lot easier to coordinate with other European countries than it is with the Islamic countries in Asia and/or Africa where they might like to raid.
Not to mention that Osama's life is dedicated to hiding; these guys didn't even realize the FBI was after them. If the FBI had announced a reward on their heads, it would have been a lot harder to catch them.
Arrrrgg... Ze net pirates of the seas with nevar be defeated!
"Top-level release groups like those targeted in the operation are primary suppliers to the for-profit criminal distribution networks that cost the copyright industry billions of dollars each year."
Interesting. The gun manufacturers are the primary suppliers of guns used in murder.
By the way, is it just me, or isn't it incredibly annoying that these press releases uses "illegal" or "theft" (or "stolen") in every freaking paragraph?
One really does have to wonder if this will do anything to slow distribution of pirated works, though. Actually, no, you don't... it hasn't changed much in the past, and it's not likely to change much now... except for these guys facing chages, that is. It definitely changes things for them.
Actually it's in Tulsa, OK. :)
This is a worthwhile venture for citizens tax dollars.
All the effort put forth, planning, execution. And they managed to get 4 really hardened criminals off the streets.
In an unrelated story, 700 elderly people died in the US today, from heat stroke after having their power turned off because they couldn't pay their bill.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
I'm so glad that all *real* threats to society have been eradicated, and now my tax dollars are being spent on *civil* issues.
Issues that most people dont even feel are wrong.
What a farce. Remove them all from office and positions of power. They dont deserve it.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Uh, the current movies out are Bewitched, Longest Yard, Batman, and Herbie.
The songs are just made on computer based on what they think will sell. The market is artifically created by propaganda and the manipulation of teenage angst. Further, anything more than a few weeks old is sent to the dustbin to be replaced by a newer song.
Of course, the fact that they release horrible crap with no shelf life has NOTHING to do with any perceived loss in profit.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
I am unfortunate enough to know of 2 people who went to prison for such acts:
#1 - raped his 2 year old son, 5 years in prison
#2 - raped his daughter from 11 till she ratted him out at 17, he started touching her around 7, 8 years in prison, will most likely be out in 5 (early next year)
So if you get popped for pirating a movie, rest easy in the knowledge that you could have raped a child instead, and gotten less prison time than "stealing" that movie.
--- www.f-theocean.com
If these pirates had been smart, they would have just stolen the movies from their local walmart and given them away. That is a much less serious offense (shoplifting vs violating the DMCA). One gets you a fine and community service, the other gets you years of ass rape in prison.
Since when did operating systems become a religion?
I tried computer vision and it was hard. Most of the problem was in trying to read a picture in c++. Micro$oft make everything impossible. Maybe they don't want me to figure out True A.I. I gave up after 8 days, and played Warcraft III, where I was the first to 10,000 wins. My theories on A.I. can be a bit like soap operas. I don't want to discuss soap operas, I'm not the street on operas. I am the street on video games, and that is where True A.I. is really gonna impact the world.
"But theres things mightier than a sword, and there are things mightier than pens. Guns and rap." - CrazyJim1
nt
And I was all about my RAID 5 setup... bah...
who aided in the rape and death of her own little sister, amongst others, was released from jail today, having spent 12 years behind bars...
Oh well, what the hell...
Nothing. Utterly nothing. Movies and music will be pirated. They will be distributed on the 'net and on disc. People will download and watch them. And the big corporations will make more or less the same gigantic profits that they do now.
So what was accomplished?
Oh right, millions of teenagers will now stop "stealing" music....
Three Squirrels
Seriously, given the questionable legality of a lot of the movie industry (dubious contracts, the "zero profit syndrome", affiliations with drugs and prostitution rackets, the church of scientology - oops, that one's not illegal), the Governments involved are in essence assisting criminals with profiting from their crimes.
Now, I don't know about most of the countries listed, but I know the US has laws against such profiting.
Britain is a slightly different case, in that Common Law defines a "reasonable man" and largely protects anything that a reasonable man might do as, well, reasonable. I am not sure piracy, per se, could be called "reasonable", but it might be construed as reasonable for people to see what they're getting in advance of paying. I don't think all British judges would see it that way, but there's a number of fairly "innovative" and "creative" judges out there who might well do so. (Judge Pickles tended to deliver some, ummm, novel lines, for example.) As such, a prosecution in England tends to be rather unpredictable, especially on controversial issues.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I hope this isn't the beginning of a smear campaign against everyone involved in technology related to this, discussion of it, technical proofs of concept, and people they merely said "hello" to. I have a feeling that it's going to go beyond the infringers, what with the recent SCOTUS decision. It's a shame if bittorrent were to be relegated to the underground, because I *don't* want to go back to getting 1 byte a second off some crappy HTTP mirror that wastes more bandwidth on ads than downloads.
I have a feeling it's going to go that way, though. Preemptive law enforcement is very trendy these days, despite the fact that it's a huge waste of resources.
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
But slashdot told me that IP laws only apply in the US, and by passing and enforcing them the US will just be at a disadvantage compared to "the rest of the world".
Could it be that all civilized countries act together in these matters? Could slashdot really be wrong?
I see people using this definition of theft a lot on slashdot. Does anyone have any references to verify if it is correct?
It will take them days to set up 8 new servers.
He makes sense, dammit.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
That's pretty funny. I know I'd get one if I saw it for sale.
...Ahhh....I guess cancer must be cured as well.
Silly scumbag media cartels...fighting a losing battle.
Blar.
My wife and I manage an apartment building; yesterday the RCMP showed up at 6:30am asking for a suite master key. They had a search warrant, so we gave them the key. When I left for work later that morning, they were loading about a dozen PCs into a minivan.
They had told us it was a large, coordinated effort, so seeing the computers my first thought was child porn. We have two kids, 5 and 3, so at that point I wanted to know which of our tenants it was. They assured us it was nothing of the sort, however, so I declined to press further (the guy's innocent until proven guilty, after all, and while a warrant means probable cause it wasn't for something violent). I assumed it was something like this announcement -- most likely, I thought, selling DVDs of software and movies on eBay or in the local classified paper, i.e. profiting from piracy, rather than facilitating individual copying. Looks like I got it only partly right.
How about those priorites over there at Justice. Hey, Alberto, WHERE'S OSAMA? Didn't you rationalize torturing those people we bought from Afghan warlords, in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, to get them to talk? After blowing the only conviction of a 9/11/2001 terrorist, your FBI has a lot of catching up to do. I guess that now that your Justice Department has bungled it's conviction of the Frist family's pet CEO, HealthSouth's Scrushy, it can find the time to move on to keeping the Internet safe for movie pay-per-view. Maybe the only thing you can get the Gitmo kidnapees to talk about is their favorite movies. So I guess it's all worth it.
--
make install -not war
...if they were successful, if I can't watch War of the Worlds after dinner.
(from my desk)
My guess is that's the total amount of movies/warez/etc that passed through their server during the 2 years they ran it.
I'm guessing that because the article says "Ultimately, 27 terabytes..."
As for changing things... read the note in this nfo
gotta love 'em
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Indeed. There would be less premise for a war on terror without Osama at large.
I wouldn't be surprised if they _had_ captured him for that matter.
Peace
(first post woo hooo!)Synk
...on those terrorists across the world that are watching our movies... for free! Let the world unite against this terrorist threat against Hollywood profits... huzzah!
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/busines s/12021852.htm
You mean "Bork, bork, bork."
those who pirate for revenge. A friend of mine told me about someone who bought a game and it sucked. Then he never bought an original console game again.
I thought Real Pirates did things like taking over ships at sea and murdering their crews. This is a nasty craime that still takes place in some parts of the world. How did this term get attached to copyright violations? Should we be using it?
See, they freely trade in lwyers and FBI agents
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
A handful of media pirates get busted, but wouldn't it be great to see: "11 Nation Action Nets Scores of Al Quaida members In Joint Agency Raids" for once? Just for once could the government stay focused on the real threat out there or is just too lucrative to be on the payroll of Hollywood?
... piracy. Wil runs a successful boutique-app company called Delicious Monster and is something of a geek celeb in the Mac world.
Replace "applications" with "movies" and I bet it still applies.
It is my informed impression that the large majority of the people downloading this stuff (i.e., the market) either A) can't afford it due to youth or income and therefore wouldn't have bought it anyway (i.e., it's not a lost sale), or B) don't have it available to them via normal channels.
If you like what Wil had to say about this, definitely check out the PDF of his presentation on "doing your own thing". It is pretty inspiring stuff if you are a creative geek who is tired of not doing what you'd really like to be doing.
Bombing of the USS Cole: 17 deaths.
World trade center: 2,726 deaths.
Iraq conflict: 1932 deaths.
Downloading appz, gamez, mp3s, and movies: 0 deaths.
There are some things terror can't buy. For everything else, there's the Terror Card.
If only the terrorists start trading appz, gamez, mp3s, and movies, maybe then will the FBI be able to find them. Apparently they can only effectively hunt people down in Cyberspace... *sigh*
Well, you had to have known that corporate America would be in there, if it hasn't been for the past few years already _
Get yer tshirts! http://www.cafepress.com/amalgamatedimag
... if only the FBI had been so efficient before 9/11.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
the fbi spent time doing this while Osama Bin Laden sips wine and eats bread in his safe cave.
Is there something wrong with this picture?
According to the article on slyck
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=844
The " law enforcement " were breaking the law in order to catch others , they were running servers for people to download files from and upload files to.
This is what the article said if it is true,
" The FBI had been posing for a considerable amount of time as server operators, inviting people to upload and download material. Once a solid relationship had been established between the FBI and top warez sites, the trap had been set. It was only a matter of time until the FBI had collected enough evidence to make an arrest. While the FBI has only announced the arrest of one individual, it is expected that more information will be released today implicating additional people.
According to Restless.ugtech.net, who broke this news event, the FBI ran a server name "Chud" and "Lad". They were administered by an undercover agent named "Griffen." The warrant, which was released yesterday, named "killaz, marvel/cartel, cin, sidar, dact, korax, bourbon, and burner." When more information is released today, more specific information on these individuals will be available.
"
So they allowed people to break the law ( with their help ) and helped to distribute files , then changed up once they were satisfied.
How is that legal , for them ?
Why... China is not on the list??
everyone knows those are the hacker homelands - so the raid basically didn't work.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Oh god they got Myth!!!! :(((( Nooooooo
Sure. An 11-nation search to grab evil copyright infringers, we can do that. Osama? Can't find him. Why don't you try a Google Maps search.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
What a fucking waste of tax dollars!
ugh... It's just a movie.
If the cost of seeing one was a little lower then none would pirate them.
I want a refund on my tax dollars!
I don't want a pickle; I just want a Motor-Cycle! A four foot cop arrived with a five foot gun!
Its not redundancy, its fast! I just wonder how they get the controller cards to connect across that distance.
Gravity Sucks
One busted hacker was quoted as saying,
"I'm going to Wichita, Far from this opera for evermore"
Now I have that song stuck in my head... Crafty pale white people...
From the article:
The announcement about the investigation follows Monday's unanimous Supreme Court ruling that developers of file sharing software can be held liable if consumers use the software to download copyrighted music, movies or other materials.
I see they are forgetting to include the promoting infringing use for profit part of that decision, just as CNN did. Man, even Fox got that part right.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
KTVU reported that the FBI raided "Juarez sites" based in the Bay area. Then I realized the announcer was trying to say "warez."
they can conduct an international raid on movie copiers in 11 different nations, yet they cant track down Osama Bin Laden...hmmm....priorities...
It takes just a moment and an action to destroy. It takes some time and thought to create.
Actually 27TB is only 27,000 GB. A friend said that he noticed one participant on a dc hub had just hit the 1TB share the other day and that was in a reggae hub with only a few movies included in the share.
27TB is a lot but its not that surprising. As for traffic, i imagine that was in the peta region [I think thats the next step up isn't it]
Looks like someone on the inside has confirmed that the Feds were in fact running some topsites:B rought.To.You.BY.-FBi.nfo
http://restless.ugtech.net/Todays.Raids.UPDATED..
LND est ~1995?, RiSC(ISO) est ~1995?, and Myth est 1998.
..i forget. Vengeance (VGN) was a couriering group as well.
t .html
LND = Legends Never Die is a group that releases the ripped version of applications from CD's and DVD's (e.g. autocad, photoshop, etc). I guess they are dead now, but they may surprise the Feds yet.
RiSCISO = is the ISO division (or a group that releases the full unripped CD/DVD version of high end applications, e.g. autocad with all the plugins and documentation left intact) of Rise In Superior Couriering. Couriering is the competition of moving files as quickly as possible between sites frequented by other couriers.
Myth = this group releases ripped versions of games from the CD/DVD's without music, cut scene movies, and of course the annoying CD protection. This group was formed from what was Paradigm and some other group
Here's a picture of the guy and some more info: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/062905_nw_fed_bus
Despite the apparent calm at IKEA Atlanta's grand opening this week, the damage was already done. To confiscate computers without disrupting the flow of office demo displays The Man gutted all HP desktops and laptops before opening day leaving only shells.
Nothing to see here, soccer moms and Jeff Foxworthy fans. Move on along.
I'll be your candy shop of infinite deliciousity if you'll be my discotheque of endless rump-shaking.
stealing millions of dollars from your employees... 10 years in prison4 /enron01 1404.htm)
u th_scrush y.html?.v=25)
3 701119.h tm)
k /index_np.html
(http://www.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel0
inflating your companies earnings by $2.7 billion dollars, so you can get rich off the stock...acquittal on 36 counts.
(http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050628/healthso
using what amounts to slave labor to fatten your pockets...become the largest and richest company in the world.
(http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_40/b
revealing the identity of an undercover cia officer because her husband doesn't like your president...get off scot free.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/10/02/nova
sharing a movie with friends...5 years in prison.
this is insane.
Warez (pronounced "wares")
I'm sure glad they cleared that one up!
Everything I need to know about copyrights I learned from Slashdot.
"Those groups are believed responsible for stealing and distributing copyrighted works including... and Autodesk's Autocad 2006 and Adobe's Photoshop software."
--AP
Autocad 2006 is $3,750. Photoshop is equally prohibitively expensive. And yet, the worth of the product itself (a $0.50 disc) as well as the research that went into is only worth a fraction of what they're charging.
It's the equivalent of someone selling you a $4 paintbrush for $600. Since no one person in their right mind is able to afford that, the individual decides to copy the paintbrush and produce their own [at their expense]. The original maker did not loose a paintbrush in the process.
So when this article makes claims of theft; I ask in return: Who is stealing from who exactly? I am against "piracy"; but I am more against companies that blatantly rip off their consumers every which way.
"...arresting four people and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works, a Justice official said. Authorities also seized hundreds of computers in raids..."
Let's see, thats 2 major online distribution servers per person, and at least 50 (hundreds is plural) computers per person as well.
Whew! I'm safe. I only have 4 computers and don't run a single major online distribution server. This strikes fear into the hearts of the 0.000007% of the people in the world (my guess is 500 out of 7 billion) that run major online distribution servers and own 50 or more computers.
I personally will continue my "risky" pirate ways.
Bonus nerd points for anyone who catches the reference.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20 020313-8.html
...don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?
Q:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.
But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became -- we shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train his al Qaeda killers anymore.
United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom
As an (yes, American) OCD nerd who appreciates order, why would one place the US first and then strive to put the rest in perfect order?
Just an observation.
Well, here in Sweden we are from today really fscked... Why? Because today, our newly changed copyright law is "enabled". Previously it was, like in many countries, illegal to upload copyrighted content. Today it is also illegal to *download* it, something I haven't heard any other country has. Yet... This morning, hundreds of thousands of Swedes (we are only 9 million) woke up being criminals, while our file sharing apps was downloading the latest piece of music or movies.
:(
These are dark times, very dark...
The entertainment industry has always churned out a ton of crap; for every Lord of the Rings, they make at least 10 steaming piles like Battlefield Earth, Gigli, and Alien Vs. Predator. Ever watch Mystery Science Theater 3000? Someone, somewhere, paid good money to see those movies in the theater. They've been a sequel mill forever, too... Friday the 13th, anyone?
People aren't going to the theaters because they can watch movies at home without the hassle of traffic, lines, astronomical ticket and concession prices, and assholes with cell phones. It's just part of an ongoing shift that started with VHS.
For sale: one sig space, gently used. Inquire for details.
Woops, didn't know the moderator was pro-piracy. Sorry I bitched about yer loved-ones dude.
I am willing to bet that store went up shortly after you read my comment. How creative of you. BTW, I would suggest before anyone buy one of these, you simply make your own cafepress store with the exact same shirt. It's free, and you'll save a few bucks.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
There is an interesting aspect in the whole copyright argument that I think is not being discussed enough.
Why, in the first place, do people want to accumulate so much software/movies/music, most of which will never be looked at again after download?
The desire to possess can be part of the justification, but I believe there is a further issue: the desire, almost the compelling need to save material from disappearing. Think about the retrogames saved from distruction, fragments of television advertising, old time radio, music videos and the such. Isn't this part of what humans have always done, preserving their history?
The worrying part is that, while copyright laws have good reasons to exist, their enforcement is in direct contradiction with the aforementioned need. Libraries would never have been invented in modern times: they would have been raided by police. For instance, they store CDs that anyone can listen to and copy. Does that not mean they facilitate piracy? Another example: a person duplicating a show on a tape can be seen as violating copyrights today. Yet, in 50 years, that tape might be the only copy of the show in existance. And so the list goes on.
My point is that copyright laws exist in order to preserve the ability of content producers to make money. But an exception should ALWAYS be made for archival purposes, on a level that legislators should care to define. That need is not catered for when software or digital content is involved today. As a result, we risk losing a tremendously important part of our history.
In general, yes. However, the // to indicate a comment was _not_ actually a C-style comment until (relatively) very recently, that was first introduced with C++, but most modern compiler suites have recognized the // convention as an extention to the language for awhile.
/* */ commenting convention. Thus, // comment was often included in modern C compilers, but it wasn't officially adopted until ISO 9899:1999 (C99), which, unsurprisingly enough, came out in just 6 years ago. Granted, this sig is only about 4 years old, but hey.
The original ANSI specification (and I have a copy of the Kernighan & Ritchie book, which is pre ANSI) only included the
/* This was the only way to comment-out one line of text. */
The
Ref
--- What
Software piracy is illegal. Software piracy is not theft.
Employees are just automatically on it. When offenders are hired its one less step in the process!
They forgot Poland.
When I say "They" I mean the government in all it's many facets. Government should be spending the money budgeted for pleasing the medial cartels on new medical procedures, helping the poor, maybe even better intelligence!
You know...better than the intelligence that told the President of the USA that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq? Yeah...that bad intelligence that started a war? You fucking think that maybe the money spent on these cops who are chasing copyright infringers could be better spent on intelligence? Or medical research?
You don't think these two goals are more important to humanity than chasing down some idiots who trade first-run movies?
Shit man...you got some learning to do.
Blar.
At 5 bucks a pop, they do brisk business, especially in poorer neighborhoods where going to the movies and/or buying a full price dvd is a costly proposition.
Agreed. This is the point which the MPAA is missing: For the poor and dispossessed, the cost of going to watch a movie in the cinema is prohibitive.
It is likely that these pirate DVDs are counted as lost sales, when in fact they are not. If the poor had no access to these cheap, pirated materials, they simply would have stayed away from the theatres and waited for it to appear on television.
Piracy by the middle classes may be a nightmarish proposition for the studios, but for those at the bottom of society, the impact for the copyright holders is negligible.
The lives of the poor are hard enough. It is too bad for the movie distributors that they are unwilling to create a cheap way for the ragged masses to watch their films legitimately.