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File Sharing — Harmful to Children and a Threat to National Security
jkrobin writes to mention that a recent report from the US Patent office calls peer-to-peer file sharing harmful to children and a threat to national security. "Interestingly, the report makes numerous references to RIAA and MPAA legal actions against file actions, as well as cites a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge."
Stop the INSANITY!
This is getting just stupid.
We live in a MEDIA driven State of Fear.
So we have a GOOD reason, for once, to comment without reading the article.
we will end no whine before its time
The ordinary pencil is, in our modern America, a flagrant excess that cannot be tolerated. Pencils can be used to copy national secrets from one piece of paper to another, and leave no identifying marks of any kind on the documents that have been copied. Their sharp ends can be used to gouge; children can inflict grevious rubber burns upon one another using the rubber end. Perhaps most shocking of all, the pencil graphite is conductive and could be used in any number of explosive devices where conductive elements are required.
The Pencil manufacturing concerns of America, however, are resolved to work with the U.S. government to mitigate this crisis. Henceforth, all pencil purchases are tracked with a unique REAL ID-coordinated identifier. Authorized use of pencils will require a tiny microchip implanted under the skin of the right hand. A left-handed version of the chip is expected to be available before 2020--until then, pencil-using left-handed Americans will have to make the sacrifice of writing less legibly until the chip is available.
Wow, I'm really bored today.
So they busted out the old terrorist chesnut and "Think of the children?" All they needed was to add something about immorality (implying Christian morality), and they would have had a perfect score.
[snip]
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
It sounds like the network administrators in said "governmental offices" should take the precautions neccessary to police the bandwidth. Furthermore, any environment in which said p2p applications are capable of leaking any private information need to be under closer scrutiny.
Don't blame the p2p networks for the actions and negligence of those in control of their own computer infrastructure.
A decade ago, the idea that copyright infringement could become a threat to national security would have seemed implausible. Now, it is a sad reality.Since when is copyright infringement, and not massively-propagating worms and keyloggers, the problem for national security. The latter causes FAR more breeches of personal identity information and credentials.
for sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
Also may cause dizziness, insomnia, psoraisis, and the Creeping Crimean Crud.
The cause of the fall of the Roman Empire? File sharing.
JFK's assassins? File sharers.
Besides, file sharing isn't mentioned in the Bible, so it must be forbidden by God.
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Oh, and while we're at it, Wolf! Woooooooooooooolf!
How ya like dat?
They say that file sharing is a "threat to our children", but did you read WHY?
So... it's file sharing's fault that the RIAA looks like profiteering litigious bastards for suing a dozen teenage kids. Somehow, file sharing made them do it
I can't believe I just read that.
gah.
I'm moving to the Czech Republic or something.
Stew
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
- Windows XP SP2 - $83
- Mac Tiger OSX - $129
- Half life 2 - $29.99
- 20Gb of music - ~$2000
- Getting all of the above with p2p - Free
- Murdering children and bringing to a halt the fabric of modern society - Priceless
- ?????
- Profit!
For this and everything else, there's Bittorrentfor sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
We need to abandon earth and become a space-faring civilization - otherwise our children's children will be plagued by potential weapons (rocks) to use against one another.
I call for a disbanding of the NRA (The national rock association)
for sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
The "When you pirate MP3s, you're downloading COMMUNISM!" poster dates back to 2000; it only took us seven years to go from wacky parody to grim reality.
> Software merely takes a generalized machine and turns it
> into a specialized machine. Clearly a unique specialized
> machine should be patentable.
No the general purpose machine is the patentable invention. Specific information (ie: software) should be protected by copyright. Pure software is not patentable and all software is pure software.
Reminds me of when my brother got busted with pot. He lost his car and about $3k in fines and court costs. My parents blamed pot. Although pot didn't do that to him the government did. Pot only ever got us high.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
Does it bother anyone that the lead author of this report is Thomas D. Sydnor II? Before joining the USPTO, he was an attorney at Arnold & Porter, the RIAA's main outside law firm. While at Arnold & Porter, he litigated patent and copyright cases. I have no clue whether he actually did work for the RIAA, but the contacts are interesting.
Come play Heroes of Might and Magic Mini online.