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Feds Overstate Software Piracy's Link To Terrorism
Lucas123 writes "Attorney General Michael Mukasey claims that terrorists sell pirated software as a way to finance their operations, without presenting a shred of evidence for his case. He's doing it to push through a controversial piece of intellectual property legislation that would increase IP penalties, increase police power, set up a new agency to investigate IP theft, and more. 'Criminal syndicates, and in some cases even terrorist groups, view IP crime as a lucrative business, and see it as a low-risk way to fund other activities,' Mukasey told a crowd at the Tech Museum of Innovation last week."
I can't believe how shamelessly politicians are using the terrorist bogeyman, and how easily people fall for it. Well, yes I can. But really, what's next? I'd like to say it can't get any more ludicrous than this, but I bet it can.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The shreds of ships in Pearl Harbor were pretty good evidence that we needed to confront Japan.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
Normally I am very reserved when it comes to political commentary. However, this time I simply cannot help but note that the show has certainly reached a new low, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves.
It is absolutely despicable that we've become so fat and complacent, that we allow our government to pull these sorts of stunts. Looking at the proposed legislation, one should note that IP infringement might be punished more severely than rape, if these laws are to become real. Actually, we should see the whole thing as a rape... the rape of our Constitution, and every value that made our society ever so slightly better than the regimes we like to fight so much.
No no you have it all wrong. They have all the evidence they need. I think most of us here would agree that piracy does cost corporations some amount of money/profit. Well, you see, Terrorism is defined as "cutting into corporate profit" not this silly notion of killing civilians to make political statements. That's why they're insurgents in Iraq. They're making someone in the military industrial complex wads of cash!
Did I really just say that? I've been here to long.
You're thinking small. Why miniaturize the laser, when we could instead enlarge the sharks? -John Searle
Ok let me be more specific, when in this post 9/11 world, has the government presented evidence in its claims and crusades.
They overstate everything's link to terrorism.
Like the burning of the Reichstag, 9/11 (yeah, Saddam did it and so did you, for all we know), and a hundred other false flags and set-ups.
"In politics, nothing happens by accident." - Roosevelt
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
Everything that's illegal and/or generally not approved of by the US government "supports the terrorists".
Smoke locally grown pot (as most pot in the US is): you're supporting the terrorists!
Download your music through a peer to peer network: you're supporting the terrorists!
Pirate your software: you're supporting the terrorists!
It's the red scare all over again, but with a different enemy, isn't it? "Don't forget to go spend all your money on things you don't need and can't afford. If you don't spend more than you make and support our corporate buddies, you clearly want the terrorists to win."
what's that now?
I would like to thank the millions of people who voted for Bush twice (in no more than two elections), and for Congressional Republicans for something like seven or more times, for making our country both safer and freer, and operated with more integrity, just like y'all said it would be.
But I can't, because that would be a lie.
--
make install -not war
Republicans, you're getting what you wanted. Hope it works out for you.
Its not just republicans, democrats are guilty too. In fact, I would go as far as to say that conservatives (not necessarily republicans) are the lesser of two evils. I don't see the democrats supporting free software any more then republicans. I don't see democrats striking down draconian laws such as the DMCA. Now they have supported some needed things such as the toning-down of the patriot act because 85% of it wasn't needed 6 months after 9/11. The moment some candidate supports true freedom, and not burning the Constitution (That means, true freedom of speech, and also the right to bear arms) So, before you place this blame on the republicans, look at the democrats, they aren't exactly saints either.
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
The Republicans are the ones who tarnish critics of the expansion of executive power as anti-American and traitorous. The Democrats have generally failed to oppose this tendency adequately, but let us be under no illusions about where the real engine for this growth of policing state power is coming from.
Ha, way to bring up an exact opposite situation, where the majority of people wanted the government to stop appeasing the axis powers and support thier allies who were already at war, while US ship pussy footed about the pacific avoiding the war already raging all alound then between the Japanese and British fleets, the government chicken-shitted out of it until they were forced to act by the Japanese attack.
How the hell does that answer his question? Pretty big difference between "Holy fuck we're being bombed by the Japanese!" and "Terrorists abroad are selling pirated, copyrighted material. Better clamp down with draconian laws back home!"
No sig for you!!
No, the government really isn't afraid of terrorists, but making sure the citizens are allows them to expand their budgets, clamp down harder on John Q Citizen's movements and basic Constitutionally-recognised freedoms, and allows it to ignore international conventions to the point where the US has already been declared an outlaw nation. Geedubya has already told us the 'War on Terror' will last over a hundred years. That's 100 years of increased taxation, failing economy, and increased repression strictly for the gain of the politicians and their corporate masters. Our money is nearly worthless now, and it's just going to get worse as the government keeps pouring money down the Iraq/Iran/Middle East rathole. Welcome to our wonderful 21st Century, and don't forget to pray.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
If they REALLY want to go after internet sources of funding for terrorists they should start with the spam / phishing /identity theft gangs.
That's, what? Hundreds of billions a year in direct theft and extortion of people's and companies' hard-earned cash, plus more multibillions in anti-malware products, damage to data, equipment, and network infrastructure, costs to overbuild the net to handle the bogus traffic, lost revenue due to DDoSing, etc. Not to mention the ongoing construction and debugging of a technology that can be used for even more nefarious purposes - including espionage and sabotage.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Actually, on the contrary, most other people get their unpaid-for stuff from work, or borrowing CD's off friends, or they just go to the shop and buy it. Yes, they don't use torrents or FTP or other online tools. OTOH I don't need to pirate any software because everything I do has an open-source tool available for it, be it programming, word processing, finances, drawing, music playback, sound recording, 5-minute games, or educating the kids.
And if terrorists are making money from selling pirated software, then the 'terrorists' are zit-covered teenagets at swap-meets, or short, smiling, hungry-looking peddlers at down-town asian markets with their crate of CD's selling obviously incorrectly labelled software that they burnt at home.
But this is redundant because we knew all this well before this thread started.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
Bullshit. Every time someone says "the democrats and the republicans are the same" I think back to 2000 when I said something similar.. "Bush or Gore... eh it doesn't really matter, both parties are the same". And boy I don't think I've ever been so wrong about something in all my life.
The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
Yeah, the current administration is guilty of that crap.
What about the last administration and it's wagging the dog wars in Somalia and Kosovo - where there was NO US interest at all let alone oil interests? When groups opposed to the administration suddenly found themselves audited by the IRS? Where hundreds of FBI files on political opponents turned up in the White House (can you say Nixon?)
The parent poster was right. The democrats will violate your rights just as quick as the Republicans. They will just feed you a story you can swallow, instead of one the Republicans can swallow.
I don't get it. How will passing more laws change that criminals will resort to crime to make easy money? Aside from the fact the government didn't present evidence that it's occuring, *even if it is*, how will these new laws make any difference? It's kind of analogous to laws against gun ownership. Even if you pass a law against gun possession/buying/selling, criminals will still obtain the guns, and will still have a black market in guns. I mean, the terrorists are *gasp* making money off the opium trade in Afghanistan, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out they're making money off of gun running / arms sales. I'm not saying they are, but the point is, just because you criminalize something doesn't make it stop happening to any significant extent. Often it just makes the illegal conduct even *more* lucrative.
I've noticed a trend in modern politics that the answer to problems with people breaking the law is to pass more laws. Instead of, you know, trying to enforce the laws we already have. Of course, the new laws never seem to hit their nominal 'target' but instead hit other targets. In this case, isn't *selling* pirated copyrighted materials already a *criminal* offense? I was always understanding that individual, not-for-profit copying was a civil matter, while commercial piracy was a criminal matter. Is that not the case?
More great 'leadership' from our do-nothing government.
If they aren't presenting a shred of evidence (and in this case, they definitely need to), then they aren't overstating anything. They're downright creating (well, fabricating) a connection. Saying that they're overstating the problem
1. Acknowledges that the problem exists, which it may well not.
2. Furthers the lie, because now all people will begin to believe that there is a connection, and its just a question of how strong the connection is.
And thats the beauty of it (at least from the DOJs side). Despite there being absolutely no factual evidence for this at all, even skeptic sites will only attack the lack of evidence and not the claim itself. Thus, the lie DOES become fact.
Most people don't know how to get warez for free, even more people don't know where to buy warez either. Where the fuck do you buy a pirated copy of photoshop?
Dodgy bloke on the corner? No, he just has shitty DVD's.
That shifty looking geyser at the pub? Nope, All he has are the latest chart singles's and the last few Now! CDs.
My mates cousin nobby? Nah, he can chip my Xbox and sell me pirate games, but no Photoshop here.
I've seen pirated software at computer fairs a long time ago, in the days of dialup, but these days, no chance. The common way for someone who doesn't know where to get it online, is the old CD passed about, you only need 1 nerd to download it, then hte CD can go round dozen of thier mates.
the only pirate stuff I've ever seen actually sold anytime recently are console games sold to chavs with no PC. I've not seen anyone selling a pirate PC game or software since like 1996. Even back in the days of the Amiga, all the pirate stuff we had was copied off mates, either you bought the real one, or you copied a mate's real one, no-one bought a copy, all the dodgy market stalls sold fuzzy-pictured VHS, never computer games or software.
Seriously, do you know any shop, market stall, or random bloke at all who would sell you a pirate copy of photoshop, or any other PC software?
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
But seriously, am I the only one who is getting tired of the obvious whoring of our rights to the multinational corporations? At least in the old days they would TRY to keep the suspension of disbelief going. Now they are as bad as 80's pro wrestling. What we need is a CNN style news feed at the bottom when asshats like this guy talk with a running message-"This person was bought from you by-" along with the list of asses he is kissing. Just another excuse to protect record profits while screwing any chance we had of keeping anything close to fair use or not having a police state. But this is my 02c, feel free to drink the koolaid if you can stomach it.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
So, the situation in the US would be much improved if someone had the balls to clearly state terrorism manipulates senators so they pass laws that only create the impression of security. Terrorists then create so many false positives that they can hide with impunity. What was it? 1 in 300 Americans is suspected of terrorist links?
:v)
As a bonus, fixing this would get the background reasoning for senate decisions investigated and put out in the open where it should be.
Vik
Which president signed the DMCA into law?
Which Congress passed the law? Which President was burning his political capital for too many other things to risk a fight with Congress by using his veto?
Not that I'm saying he didn't support it, I'm saying you do have to look at who passed the law *first* because the veto is not an option most Presidents just wield willy-nilly. Yes, Bush signed USAPATRIOT, but I mostly blame Congress who passed the law without even reading, much less debating, the fucking thing.
The enemies of Democracy are
If Gore was president, we wouldn't be in Iraq. That "grass" is real, and it's fucking green enough for me.
The enemies of Democracy are
Its simply naive to think that it didn't in some way support Bin Ladins organization.
Of course, though the whole reason you got the response is you were replying to a post that only mention MJ -- and MJ has been specifically target as somehow funding terrorism -- with what was essentially a non sequitor about opium.
But since we're on the subject, there's two funny parts about this opium in Afghanistan thing:
1) While they were actively trying to stomp it out while in power, now that they're trying to fund an insurgency, the Taliban is absolutely A-Ok with growing and selling opium.
2) The Northern Alliance et. al., aka the warlords we pretend are the "good guys" in Afghanistan, funded their operations from opium sales both while the Taliban was in power, but especially now that the country is in chaos and they're the "good guys" so there's a lot less pressure to stop.
So actually, if you buy opium, you have at least a 50% chance of supporting our side in Afghanistan. Delicious irony.
The enemies of Democracy are
That's where terrorists get their money. And/or drugs depending on which terrorists we're talking about. Why in the hell would you sell pirated CDs for a profit of what a dollar per disc when you can just a) wait for a rich sympathizer to give you money or b) run protection for a drug trafficker for untold millions.
In other news Timothy McVeigh sold bumper stickers and so the Feds have launched a task force to crack down on bumper sticker trademark slogan piracy.
"I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department." -- Joseph McCarthy, who was never, ever compelled to show anyone the list or provide one shred of evidence to support any of his claims, and who, to this day, enjoys the posthumous support of dumbasses all across America.
This sig, aah-ah, is comin' like a ghost-sig...
Now,I wouldn't mind if the government could be convinced that terrorists are responsible for spam. True or not, I'd love to see them distract themselves with trying to solve it.
I've been saying for a while now that it's only a matter of time before the term "criminal" was used interchangeably with "terrorist".
Historically, certain forms of government have successfully employed this trick - you just need a massively stupid population and that's certainly what we've got here. The difference, I guess, is that historically certain unnamed governments have invaded other countries on false pretenses and set out to rule the world...oh, wait...
Nice joke. As with most good jokes you actually present a solution to the accused "problem".
If what he said is true there is a certain way to ensure that the terrorists do not make any money on infringing copyright. And this solution would also ensure that there is never a market for illegal copies of copyrighted works. Piracy (as the music industry is defining it) will destroy the market of the terrorists, and anybody else trying to make money off illegally copying copyright protected works.
The solution is: Non-commercial private copying of copyrighted works has to be free (ie. allowed for anybody). If anybody can freely copy and distribute copyrighted works, terrorists won't have a chance as there is no market for their illegal copies anywhere the internet is available.
Of course a "per copy" sale of digital works would be made impossible, and the music industry would have to find other ways of doing business (or die, as many other industries have done due to technological development). But is it really fair that somebody can make money forever (copyright extension will probably happen again soon) off something they have done only once?
I don't know where you are, but Palmdale, California, has a relatively-new mandatory rental property inspection process in place. The idea is to root out slumlords by discovering substandard rentals... but what do you bet it's more often used to "inspect" premises where a warrant can't (yet) be reasonably acquired? Remember once any gov't official is in the door, he can write you up for ANYTHING, and that writeup CAN be the basis for a search warrant and police raid. Even something as trivial as a cracked electrical switchplate will do.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Here's the problem with enforcing existing laws: it requires a politician to do nothing, which means that he/she cannot profit from the current situation. Passing a law - any law - will allow them to claim "I'm doing something!", regardless of whether that something is actually useful.
Yeah, I don't like politicians.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
The only benefit of having more laws is that you have more criminals.
The long campaign against Nicaragua (dating back all the way to William Walker!); the annexation of Hawaii; the Philippine war; the invasion of Grenada; the fall of Mossadeq; support for Pinochet's coup, the Uruguayan junta, and early support for the Argentine military dictatorship. This is just off the top of my head.
One of the biggest problems modern free societies face is an alleged free press that doesn't bother to check the facts about anything. If they had bothered to check the facts in this case, it should naturally lead them to the next logical question: What else is being claimed as fact with no evidence whatsoever? There's a whole lot of mis- and dis-information out there (not to mention outright lies and propaganda) and no good way for the general public to recognize it when it's spoon-fed to them. God knows the press/media isn't doing its job anymore.
Yeah... it's all "Think of the Children!" and "Prevent Terrorism!" Why aren't you supporting this bill? You must hate children and support terrorism!!
:(
So long as politicians can be un-elected by such accusations, the problem will continue.
Maybe we need a new slogan:
Won't anyone think of the Citizens??!
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Your ad here.
you are now scaring me ;(
(seriously).
I'm in norcal. bay area.
I don't like the sound of this intimidation game (of theirs).
I'm protesting because I think its a bad precedent to ALLOW these unauthorized phishing expeditions. and if that is enough to get me 'in trouble' then I think we all have a lot to worry about, in the long run.
again, this seems to be a very new thing - the last year or two, only. before that, I think I had a good 10 years or more (in the same place) of undisturbed 'quiet enjoyment' (even though I didn't know that's what I was doing with my time, lol).
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I'm not so sure.
Regime change was the official policy of the Clinton Administration.
And ya might want to read this. Gore's statements about Iraq in the wake of 9/11. The money shot: "As far as I am concerned, a final reckoning with that government should be on the table".
I do think Gore would have been better at forming a broader coalition. Democrats are better at making back-room deals, knowing how the grease the wheels. It comes from their dedication to the culture of bureaucracy.
The Iraqis have an opportunity to join modern nations with a functioning democracy - they are moving closer to being a modern democracy like Turkey every day. Still a long way away, but clearly a better situation that having Saddam or one of his psychopathic sons in charge, likely for the next half-century.
But I guess all you care about is your own green grass.
Good heavens Miss Sakamoto - you're beautiful!
Well people do sell boot-leg software cd's, and some of the people are going to be Muslims, some of the Muslims are going to donated the money, some of which will knowingly or unknowingly support Islamic terrorists it's a given. Now I seriously doubt that funds from selling bootleg software is a significant source of revenue.
A more serious matter is paid sperm donors! yes some paid sperm donors are similarly Muslims, some of the Muslims are going to donated the money, some of which will knowingly or unknowingly support Islamic terrorists so obviously we have to outlaw masturbation to protect civilization as we know it.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Studies by experts show that 100% of those running pirated software have a computer. This means that ownership of a computer may indicate involvement in software piracy, a terrorist act. Police should have new powers to arrest people who exit a computer store with a new computer. Meanwhile, real terrorists should continue firing rockets on neighboring communities while the world does nothing.
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
the republicans run up the worst federal debt ever with a disaster of a war and the consolidation of federal law enforcement into the inept department of homeland security and yet the democrats are dedicated to bureaucracy!?
pass the cool-aid and the crack when you're done with it man.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
The intelligence reports you cite came from an intelligence operation created by Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. Which was created after the CIA denied any connections between Iraq and 911.
The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
Unfortunately, in your insightful response (no sarcasm, that really was insightful and I wouldn't have caught it if you didn't say something), you stumbled upon the counter problem; if software were free, people with the ability would charge for the service instead of the software. If this theory doesn't hold up, open source will have a bit problem in the coming years. Ouch, I just realized how I've just managed to cut myself with a double edged sword.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
Regime change was the official policy of the Clinton Administration.
And ya might want to read this. Gore's statements about Iraq in the wake of 9/11. The money shot: "As far as I am concerned, a final reckoning with that government should be on the table".
Oh please. And stopping genocide in Darfur, and wherever it occurs, is the official policy of the U.N. There's a big difference between an official policy of "regime change" and devoting a huge portion of your military to invading. Bush has said the nuclear option is "on the table for" Iran. Is he doing it any time soon? Some money shot, there's no action.
The only people who were seriously talking about invading Iraq were the high-up neocons, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Cheney. Everyone else in the government apparatus had no reason to invade. Those guys though were talking about invading immediately after 9/11, as if it was the only pretense they needed. Before 9/11, even the Bush administration was giving speeches about how harmless and contained Iraq was. And don't tell me that the intelligence changed, or that other countries agreed they were a threat, because all the key intel to support the war was from before 2001, and the only intel the other countries had to judge was what we showed them, which was only the stuff that sounded good and not what made it sound sketchy. Ask Colin Powell.
If Gore was president, we would almost certainly be in Afghanistan, but it would never have even occurred to him to randomly change course to fight a secular dictator who was a counterbalance to a certain Islamic Republic in the area you may have heard of and/or wanted to invade, at the expense of our operation to eliminate the ones responsible for 9/11. Who was going to suggest it to him? George Tenet? Richard Clark? Assume nobody from PNAC counts, whose was going to push for Iraq II?
But as soon Bush started talking about "Axis of Evil", I knew exactly who they were going to invade. Or more like who not -- the ones that were actually dangerous.
The Iraqis have an opportunity to join modern nations with a functioning democracy - they are moving closer to being a modern democracy like Turkey every day. Still a long way away, but clearly a better situation that having Saddam or one of his psychopathic sons in charge, likely for the next half-century.
But I guess all you care about is your own green grass.
What grass do you care about, huh? Have you even been paying attention to this grass? I don't know if you keep up on current events, but two of Iraq's political parties were just at war with each other. They describe a normal day in the city of Basra, after the cease fire was called, as being only sporadic automatic weapons and rocket fire. All these political parties? They're religiously motivated and armed militias. In many of the militia-dominated sections of the country -- which by the way, includes both entire cities and suburbs of Baghdad which by themselves include millions of people, and only exist because the government backed by our troops is not strong enough to assert itself there. In the milita-dominated sections of the country, many of them are enforcing Islamic law, female dress codes. In any case many civilians are dying in the conflicts. You think this is somehow going to magically turn into a nice stable secular democracy like Turkey? Well this "opportunity" you're so happy to give them has yet to appear.
We gave that same opportunity to the people of Afghanistan, and it has yet to appear there either, and it's been two years longer. Shouldn't we have at least waited until after we proved we could deliver this opportunity before we tried to repeat the process? But no, because we decided to get involved in an even bigger project, Afghanistan was neglected and the Taliban allowed to regroup. Allowed to retake territory, which we have to fight to retake, and they are able to retake again the next year. With, still, the civilians caught
The enemies of Democracy are
Not so cut and dried as that. The economy is in pretty bad shape and in order to prevent a major depression in the US and potentially the world, all the politicians are aware that they have to ensure that the economy has some positive momentum not only for their re-election but for the country as a whole.
This started long before the House Market fell apart. This started back when China opened it's doors for economic growth. All the transferable bottom income jobs moved out of the US, leaving us with skilled labor, hi-tech, business management, and hair dressers (you can't out-source a haircut just yet.). But we as a nation failed to recognize that most people who is somewhere south of $50,000 a year is in jeopardy of permanently loosing there job same as the telegraph operator. The probability of job loss is inversely proportional to the salary.
As these jobs left the US, the economy naturally has to decline because there is less work and less salary being generated and so less economic momentum. But most people who lost their jobs didn't advance their capabilities into a new position, they just got another job of the same type. And that left them extremely vulnerable.
The jobs that remained in the US at the low end of the economic scale either can't be out-sourced (service jobs) or are not competing on a global scale (niche market in US) or in some way local to the US.
Now we introduce the terrorists and confidence declines. Economic momentum is like collecting Yu-Gi-Oh cards. They are valuable and long as people believe they are. But once confidence dropped there started a ripple effect of companies decreasing their orders and consumers canceling or lessening their non-vital services (hair dressers, manicures, lawn service, computer upgrades).
And now we starting hitting the housing market because people who expected a raise/advance in career didn't get it and through salary compression they started to lose the ability to fund their loans. And with the ARM coming due, they were wiped out.
Add to that the fact that most of the people who are losing their homes are not from a generation where 3% growth in a company is considered pretty decent. 1990 to 2001 represents a time of unusual economic growth and when we can no longer sustain 10-50% growth but only 5% it's considered a failure. But from 1900 to 1980 5% would have been considered good to great. The people who were moving into the McMansions had no clue how the world economy has historically operated and made a critical mistake. Personally I think it's their own fault and to bail them out is a crime in itself. But we have to keep the economic momentum.
With outsourcing, global competition, and the transfer of our lower work forces to other skills, we as a nation will be hard pressed to realize 5% growth over a continuous basis for some years to come.
And with that, we are very careful of the economic impacts we have with political decisions. Changing the economy by 3% against a nominal growth of 15% is nothing, but now we are risking 3% +/- 3% and that's too close to the edge. It's going to be a very difficult 20 years.
When has the government ever presented a shred of evidence for any of their radical claims and crusades?
The US Government hasn't even yet provided much in the way of credible evidence to backup their 9/11 conspiracy theory. So it would be expecting a lot to expect them to provide any evidence for anything more recent than about 7 years ago.
If I'm not going to buy a DVD from a store because I can get it for free from the pirate bay, why would I buy a DVD from an obvious criminal?
Honestly, I've never figured out the whole "PIRACY FUNDS CRIME" angle since well, the whole premise of piracy is that I can get digital media for free!
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
'IP' (hate that term) piracy is just small beans compared to Identity Theft, and the government doesn't even seem to be considering passing legislation that would protect the victims from identity thieves and the resulting collection hassles.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
Decades of experience shows that almost all terrorist organizations are supplied by donations from middle eastern countries, which has oil as their main product of export. NSA should arrest anyone driving a car, because they are indirectly supporting terrorism.
Read radical news here
Seeing how I certainly wouldn't want to fund such scum, and how it is impossible for a casual consumer to tell counterweight goods from genuine ones, I suppose this means that I'll have to download all of my IP stuff from BitTorrent from now on. Yes, I know, it might hurt the creators; but if you pay anyone, the money might find its way to the hands of terrorists, and we wouldn't want that, now would we ?
If you don't warez, the terrorists win ! Think of the children and keep those torrents seeding !
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.