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US Fed Gov. Says All Music Downloads Are Theft

BenEnglishAtHome writes "Nearly all US government employees and contractors are subject to mandatory annual information security briefings. This year the official briefing flatly states that all downloaded music is stolen. The occasionally breathless tone of the briefing and the various minor errors contained therein are funny but the real eye-opener is a 'secure the building' exercise where employees stumble across security problems and resolve them. According to the material, the correct response to an employee who is downloading music is to shout 'That's stealing!' No mention is made of more-free licenses, public domain works, or any other legitimate download. If this were a single agency or department that had made a mistake in their training material it might not be so shocking. But this is a government-wide training package that's being absorbed by hundreds of thousands of federal employees, both civilian and military. If you see a co-worker downloading music, they're stealing. Period. Who woulda thunk it? Somebody should mirror this. Who wants to bet that copies will become hard to find if clued-in technogeeks take notice and start making noise?" Warning: this site gives a whole new meaning to "Flash heavy."

5 of 451 comments (clear)

  1. Closed minded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    It just shows how closed minded government employees can be.

  2. Someone needs to make a website... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Someone needs to make a simple website in the vein of lmgify.com to show people in no uncertain terms and using many monosyllabic words the difference between IP infringement and theft. Yes, both are illegal, but there is a difference between going one mile an hour over the speed limit, and a violent felony.

  3. Re:Lol by A.+B3ttik · · Score: -1, Troll

    That's how government contracts work. They overspend money to create sub-par pieces of crap, and there's nothing the government can do about it since they can't back out of a contract or even fire anyone without being taken to court. Yes, I have plenty of first hand experience with this. Government contracts are pure bureaucratic bloat where you merely have to prove that money is spent in order to get a check for the following fiscal year.

    And everyone agrees with me. +5 Insightful.

    But suddenly I say: and some people want this same government in charge of our healthcare and now I'll be modded troll into oblivion.

  4. Re:Lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Your post is very strange considering my only experience with the acronym CBT is Cock & Ball Torture. *shrug* No mod for you.

  5. Re:Non-Flash Equivalent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I wonder if the JEWS could possibly be behind this!

    No, I forget - they're too busy working on all those manual jobs - you know, digging roads, picking crops, canning factories, factory work, making clothes...

    No, I'm mistaken - that would be THEIR 'CATTLE' who do all of those jobs, wouldn't it...

    Oy vey... ve can't have ze poor Jews getting their hands dirty, can we! After all, they are "God's chosen people", apparently. How modest. And not at all 'racist' or anything like that.