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Film Piracy, Organized Crime and Terrorism

Posted by Soulskill on from the fair-and-balanced dept.

flip-flop writes "The RAND Corporation has just released a lengthy report titled "Film Piracy, Organized Crime, and Terrorism" which attempts to link all three. The authors suggest that organized crime might be financing itself in part through movie piracy (PDF) — and in three out of 14 of their international case studies, they claim that profits from piracy end up with suspected terrorist organizations. But now for the interesting part! Quote from the preface: 'The study was made possible by a grant from the Motion Picture Association (MPA).' Ah, what a surprise..." The RAND Corporation has made a video summary of the report as well. TorrentFreak has an article disputing some of the report's claims, focusing criticism on RAND's interchangeable use of the terms "piracy" and "counterfeiting" — the report deals with the physical distribution of DVDs, making only brief mention of digital downloads. The MPAA and others have barked up this tree before.

1 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Re:me thinks that RAND don't protest too much. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Ah - these days we have the 'terrorist ghost', earlier we had the 'communist ghost'.

    I wonder what's next.

    The worst thing is that the gullible public falls for it. Especially those that aren't up to date with all details - like members of various courts.

    Do you really think it is so implausible that organized crime would profit from an illegal industry? Al Qaeda is a "terrorist group." On a day to day basis, it is an organized crime group.

    You seem to think that the proceeds from bootleg DVDs is small. If it was, nobody would bother bootlegging. Al Qaeda is known to have substantial capital, and they are the kind of group that requires a (relatively) fixed source of income to continue their operations. DVD sales would do fine in this respect. So would Afghan opium, which the Taliban has extensively invested in.

    Considering that the RAND Corporation has done actual research -- and you have done nothing --I see no substantial reason to doubt their conclusions. Even the MPA connection is fine by me, despite the submitter's insinuations.