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FBI, DoJ Add 35 Positions For Intellectual Property Battle
coondoggie writes "The FBI and Department of Justice said they were going to go hard after intellectual property crimes this year and so far they seem to be keeping their word, as today the agencies appointed 15 new Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) positions and 20 FBI Special Agents dedicated to fighting domestic and international IP crimes. The 15 new AUSAs will work closely with the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section to aggressively pursue high tech crime, including computer crime and intellectual property offenses. The new positions will be located in California, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. The 20 FBI Special Agents will be deployed to specifically boost four geographic areas with intellectual property squads, and increase investigative capacity in other locations around the country where intellectual property crimes are of particular concern. The four squads will be located in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the District of Columbia."
This news makes me want to use Handbrake to edit a few minutes from The Downfall where it shows Hitler planning his movements and attacks on a map and replace the captions with English describing 35 new positions in California, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington (while he's moving the markers across the maps of Europe).
Unfortunately that's no longer possible as Youtube/Google seems to have outlawed parodies and freedom of expression/dissent in favor of draconian law.
How appropriate.
My work here is dung.
In most cases what they deem to be "Intellectual Property" certainly is a crime. I think tax money could be better spent fixing the system.
$government++
There are far more child pornography distributors/collectors than IP violators. Maybe we should think about spending a bit of money saving children from abuse instead of going after Chinese people trying to make a living.
20 FBI Special Agents dedicated to fighting domestic and international IP crimes.
So does that mean the FBI is going to be investigating US Citizens for IP of international origin, or somehow extending their Jurisdiction beyond the states?
Everyone knows the biggest file sharers in the world are Canadian.
Going after the big-time bootleggers churning out counterfeits and selling fake Photoshop and DVDs online = fine and good. Going after j. random filesharing = gaaak.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
According to the article, these new squads are not just for tech-related IP issues, but also counterfeit medicine and electronics. FWIW, we do need someone to go after those making counterfeit medicine before it enters the US supply stream. Also according to the article, even the Department of Defense has had run-ins with fake electronics. That kind of thing could lead to serious consequences, and therefor must be taken seriously.
I wish that movies/music/software "sharing" was separated from movie/music/software counterfeiting and fake medicine and goods of course, but either way the American public needs to be protected from those threats.
This 1 minute scene from the British comedy, The IT Crowd.
Relevantly, the assasin at the end is an FBI agent. FBI as copyright police
I point of thought, he is on foreign soil enforcing US DMCA. As a side note the makers of this series have strong opinions in this area.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Back once upon a time, copyright infringement was a civil matter, not a criminal matter. Problem was (from the corporations' viewpoint), that meant they had to pay for lots of lawyers and lawsuits against individual file sharers. So they lobbied to make copyright infringement, at least in certain forms, into a criminal matter. That meant that the corporations were off the hook as far as paying for enforcement, now that burden would fall on the taxpayers. The Feds liked it too, as they now had another reason to legally spy on the populous, plus they could ask for bigger budgets to support all this spying and prosecution. As far as the corporations and government are concerned, criminalizing file sharing is a win/win. The only looser is the citizen.
Yes we can!
From a historical perspective, the illegal file-sharing crowd reminds me of the hacking crowd of the 80s and 90s. LOD, Control-C, Kevin Mitnick, and E911. By hackers I mean crackers, although they didn't view themselves that way.
They saw their actions as morally justified. They were seeking knowledge (of other people's systems, nevermind that they could have gotten more knowledge from a college degree). They weren't in it for the money. They hacked the 911 emergency system, and came up with justifications for why it was ok (basically, it was what they wanted to do). They had aspirations to change the political system in the US (but had no clue how power actually works in the world).
Slowly, as law is slow, the legal system caught up to them, and the police started going after them. Now the hackers of that style are gone, they've either become parts of criminal organizations or white/grey hat hackers. The closest thing we have these days is DEFCON, but even they make efforts to stay within the law.
It may end up the same with file-sharers. Eventually the law will catch up with what they are doing, chase them down, and make the potential cost of sharing too much higher than the cost of music/movies. That's clearly what these guys are trying to do.
Qxe4
They went into great detail in the article discussing counterfeit goods of all sorts that threaten health and safety and then merged and drifted over to counterfeit computer software that threatens stability and privacy. (That's malware, not infringed copyrighted software... malware like Sony's rootkit) And of course it's really all about **AA interests in digital media mentioned in the article as "digital products." Accurately, they state that there is no government agency that is tracking copyright infringement or the extent of it.
The article goes to great lengths to fill the details with things other than "digital product" infringement... things that have been historically handled by these same people who tracked down and nailed groups who created and sold counterfeit Cisco network equipment. This stuff has been dealt with and managed without adding 35 new positions. So clearly these new positions are intended to deal with a newer agenda rather than an older one.
I would like for the article to be true in the sense that I would love to see a crack down on sales of counterfeit medicines and other physical goods. Sadly, I don't think this is going to be the case. The spam and scam will continue as it always has while the real crackdown will be felt by individuals at home engaged in file sharing.
Anyone else getting redirects to http://frodocomeon.net/ since this morning?
(such as http://frodocomeon.net/in.cgi?12 which loads a fake virus-scanning page, Windows XP style)
P.S. to moderators: yes this is off-topic but please don't mod down so people can see the post and reply.
Great response.
Such as in the SEC so they can have some people that actually police industry, instead of watching porn all day???
Your government in action!
I take no responsibility for what I say. Even though I'm never wrong
The War on File Sharing is the new War on Drugs.
The approach being taken is quite similar: manipulated and fabricated studies and evidence, draconian international treaties to make sure no country is allowed to implement sane policies, suspension of basic civil liberties in the name of the war, etc.
Because jails are not full enough with non-violent 'criminals' already, maybe the US is trying to raise the incarceration rate to over 90%?
"When in doubt, use brute force." Ken Thompson
Google is a private entity, unless you think that they are somehow owned/run by the government... and thus do not have to allow *anything* on their site. It may not follow their "do not evil" mantra, but it's well within their rights, and it's now being "outlawed".
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
It may end up the same with file-sharers. Eventually the law will catch up with what they are doing, chase them down, and make the potential cost of sharing too much higher than the cost of music/movies. That's clearly what these guys are trying to do.
It won't happen. Whereas in the '80s or '90s there were perhaps a few thousand hackers, in 2010 there are millions. Public perception is changing, the vast majority of teenagers see that there really isn't anything wrong with file-sharing. Governments get their power from the people, eventually, we will have to have more relaxed copyright laws. Perhaps not in 2010, perhaps not in 2015, but soon.
Computer literacy was much, much, lower in the '80s or '90s, it was really reasonable that someone didn't have a computer or internet/BBS access at their house. Today? Almost everyone has access to a computer and knows how to use it. File sharing is going to continue to grow as long as bandwidth speed continues to grow and media size doesn't increase too much before internet speed.
Hacking (cracking) also violated the basic rights of others in that it could cause damage, disrupt or destroy computer systems. While in the vast majority of cases it didn't, the media could easily control a fearful, computer-illiterate world of the 'dangers' of crackers. Today, artists are on the web, facts have been released, its cheaper than ever to get out a product. Its becoming more and more clear that P2P is -helping- artists, not harming them. Its becoming clearer and clearer that artists produce albums not to make millions off of them (they rarely do) but rather to promote live concerts, something that filesharing can never replicate. The 'traditional' media is failing and new media is taking over.
Its becoming more and more clear to the general person that if an artist is good at what they do, they can make a living one only needs to look at Homestar Runner to see that, or Xkcd, or any number of sites that survive on ad revenue/donations. The public is realizing this, the more this happens, the more laws will need to change.
So, no. Filesharing will not die out over time like cracking did. Its really hard to justify cracking (in most cases) while in most cases P2P helps the artist.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Nice job buy the media lobbyists. Get you and I to pay for the enforcement of their civil cases. IP issues are still a civil matter correct? Who is getting the fine money?
When my actual physical property is stolen, I am stuck with the very limited resources of the local overworked police force that pretty much does nothing but file a report for me to give to my insurance company. Even if they catch the perp, it is still a civil matter for me to get the value of my lost goods back. The media companies gets entire teams of federal officials at my expense to track down when their property is "stolen".
Some company in China sold ATmega328 slugs to SparkFun.
You just need to hire the actors, cameramen, make up artists, etc. yourself. At some point it stops being fair use. Taken to the extreme, I could hot wire your car and drive it down the road at insanely high speeds making fun of your stodgy, law abiding habits and then claim it's all just a parody man.
I'm not saying that endless Hitler dubbings are on one side or another, but the parody defense is really meant to protect people who are actively working with the original characters. In other words the folks who turn "Snow White" into a stripper.
Makes no distinction? This is a US-centric thread, so I'm using USC here. Counterfeiting, Trademark, Patents, and Copyright are all treated differently. In addition, there are separate rules for counterfeit Trademarks, counterfeit Coins (18 U.S.C. 485), counterfeit Dollars (18 U.S.C. 471), and counterfeit coins and dollars that are not exact copies but appear to be legit such as a $3 or $1000000000000 bill (18 U.S.C. 475 and 489). That's pretty specific, and the law does make very fine-grained distinctions.
that aside, I'd like to see any US law which says "1 kid sharing a song with a friend? GO TO JAIL". One court case would be acceptable, unless it was turned over on appeal. Lots of people copy stuff and sell it to people and get jail time, but "1 kid sharing a song with a friend" does not qualify. In fact, I'm not aware of any examples where "1 kid sharing a song with a friend" was ever prosecuted - it is sharing with numerous strangers which gets you noticed by MAFIAA lawsuits.
In short, I don't think you have the faintest idea what you're talking about. I'd love to read more.
"Intellectual property crime", "IP offence"... George Orwell should rise from the grave and sue for "IP theft".
"Blah blah blah." - [citation needed]
You probably bought into the propaganda for this guy...sorry! You probably thought this government was to be, as his campaign touted "Open and Honest", but clearly neither is true. I can't find a single promise kept.
What he/they WANT is to have the tiniest hint of legitimacy in dealing with the net, so they can tax and censor it. Scaling up on IP means being on the net to show a "Demon" to fight, just like AIG, just like Goldman, so they can do whatever it takes to control that part of our lives, too.
You guys 'bomb' me all the time for being a troll...this is a very liberal enclave. But this man and his comrades in the congress are taking it all away from us. I've known the nature of this 'new America' for almost two years.
Don't be fooled...again...that this government is doing anything for openness nor fairness. It's all about control.
Not opinion: just look at the news stories. Look at the 150 banks put out of business, the health insurance companies about to fold, and the nationalization of industries.
It just might be that we're not permitted on the net, come November. He'll need every vote he can beg, borrow, steal, or fraud to stay in power.
Now: MARK ME AS A TROLL FOR WARNING YOU.
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
Once upon a time, we were Citizen. Citizens had rights. Now, we're mere consumers. Consumers think they have rights (but don't).
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
A person breaks into your car and steals 10 CD's from your sun visor CD holder. You get nothing and will never get them back and maybe you will be lucky to get an officer to even file a report for that. On the flip side, downloading 10 CD's worth of songs from P2P can get your door busted down in a raid, about $500K USD in fines plus tens of thousands in court costs, your computer equipment confiscated for years as evidence, and possibly loss of your only internet connection. All of this from the media companies that are using very questionable methods of "proof" of your downloading.
Wow, our government has gone in the wrong direction. You get quite a few orders of magnitude less punishment and risk from unlawful entry and physically stealing property from another person than you do by making a copy of that same persons intellectual property. In reality, you are violating the copyright owners rights to control the distribution, you are not stealing anything from them. Thank the lobbyists.
Are you channeling Ayn Rand?
http://atlasshrugged.com/
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Looks like it's time for /. to add a "PoliceState" section. I suggest a boot stamp as the icon.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Going after the big-time bootleggers churning out counterfeits and selling fake Photoshop and DVDs online = fine and good.
Going after j. random filesharing = gaaak.
Well, at least you're half right.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
how much IP can you fit it 625GB?? . A LOT more than $50.... They can hire all the cops and snoops they want, these guys are getting nowhere. The agenda to kill off copyright law is, unfortunately for these guys, clearly set and fully adhered to by everyone -- ignore it. It's a perfect strategy, as it simply lets the law stand, but makes it irrelevant. It's a perfect mass movement joining millions and millions of dedicated people, with almost no coordination needed. The copyright war isn't over yet, but the battles ahead are mere formalities, it's hopeless.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Wait a moment.
Doesn't the DoJ tactic assume they can find intellectuals to do the work?
> When it comes to kids sharing songs, that's civil, not criminal.
In theory, if you infringe upon the copyright of works with a retail value larger than a certain amount (I think it's $1000) in a certain period of time and you have a financial incentive (such as getting infringing copies of other copyrighted works in return), you can be prosecuted under criminal law. I believe the law that created those offenses is the NET Act (but get a lawyer if it ever applies to you).
Thing is, in practice, they don't charge normal people with that. Instead, they go after the release groups and other people high on the food chain. In short, they could prosecute some file sharers under criminal law, but in practice, they have better things to do with their time, but they do bust people who run big warez sites and things of that nature.
it is sharing with numerous strangers which gets you noticed by MAFIAA lawsuits.
I believe you have just grievously insulted anyone in the actual Mafia...
RedDoucheNozzle, do you have a degree in computer science or computer information systems? No, of course not: You're yet another dime-a-dozen slashdot wannabe computer expert (not, not minus those degrees slacker. You're no expert by any means, though you certainly play one, courtesy of google university online, lol, and wikipedia college too, rotflmao!)