Operation Fastlink Cracks Down on Warez 1052
An anonymous reader writes "Beginning yesterday morning, law enforcement from 10 countries and the United States conducted over 120 searches worldwide to dismantle some of the most well-known and prolific online piracy organizations.
Among the groups targeted by Operation Fastlink are well-known organizations such as Fairlight, Kalisto, Echelon, Class and Project X, all of which specialized in pirating computer games, and music release groups such as APC. The enforcement action announced today is expected to dismantle many of these international warez syndicates and significantly impact the illicit operations of others."
Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:4, Interesting)
The only "impact" will be "we have to start using VPNs, boys!"
I love how Ashcroft and his Copyright Enforcement Militia makes these pirates sound like the Mafia by using terms like "syndicate. Think about it: almost all "nfo" files have pleas for FTP sites for 0-day distribution. If these "sydicates" have to beg for machines and bandwidth in an "nfo" file, how omnipotent can they really be?
The feds are just taking care of their corporate masters, that's all.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Funny)
Christ most of those warez servers are slow enough as is...
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly what's the limit on a FreeS/WAN box acting as an IPSec VPN concentrator? Anything? Other than system resources?
128bit encryption end to end. I'm suprised this isn't being done already. Granted, no HTTP Leeching or anonymous ftp (perhaps pre-shared keys?) until you're on the private network...
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Interesting)
My OpenBSD boxes scream with a cheap (~$89 IIRC) Soekris cryptographic accelerator. The CPU barely gets used while the HiFn chip on the card does all the bullwork.
Near line speed crypto. Ahhhh..
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:4, Insightful)
Uh, what makes you think it isn't?
The law is the law... (Score:5, Insightful)
The real problem (or the real solution depending on your point of view) is that warez groups are nothing without an audience. They are also nothing without new crackers, suppliers, distribution sites, hangers-on...
Its a problem with a social solution primarily and a technological solution secondarily. As what good is a VPN network of warez creation and distribution if you can still have one weak link, one infiltration, one "Donnie Brasco" to blow your whole house of cards down.
Encryption and authentication and access control are terrific for protecting your assets, only when you have a strong legal system to take over when there is a breach of authority/conduct.
And while I certainly would not put people who pirate software in the same criminal class as those who manufacture and distribute drugs, run prostitution rings, or fraudulently manage mutual funds... what they are doing is against the law in most of the world -- and they are organized.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh it is, don't worry guys. Most of the greatest warez groups aren't publicly known, when in fact they have "fronts" that get fed all the software with expendable people. So in terms i could be considered a mafia of sorts. Thoes let inside are asked to join.
Think about it. How else could some of this shiz get out so fast, then dozens of 'groups' and sites are taken down the following month? the software is out now, and those expendable (ie: stuck in mommy's basement) are gone. Job done.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Funny)
What do you mean? An African or European box?
(Sorry, could't resist responding to the cadence of your question!)
Re:Song of the piracy apologist (Score:5, Interesting)
How about
(0) The use of the term "piracy" the the alleged entertainment industry to descibe the free distribution the items they sell is spurious bullshit.
Anything can be made a crime if you pay some group to pass a law to make it one [see also: marijuana laws];
Grow up you punk-ass media whore.
"Stamp out crime; change the Law."
With regards to Slashdot... (Score:5, Insightful)
Obviously, the only thing that would make warez sites and online piracy organizations morally objectionable and properly subject to sanction would be if they distributed, sold or bartered binaries for derivative works of GPLed software in violation of the GPL.
Re:Song of the piracy apologist (Score:5, Interesting)
When they stop infringing my rights, I'll start caring about theirs.
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:5, Insightful)
Theft requires the loss of a physical object (implies a degree of uniqueness and singularity for that object) from its owner, and piracy is essentially armed robbery on the high seas. Both involve physically depriving someone of physical things. Software (and music) is not physical. The media they are on is physical.
Next thing you know, Microsoft will start calling the adoption and existance of open source software "theft" (i.e., installing OpenOffice), because it deprives them otherwise of a sale of Microsoft Office, they'll start trying to harrass and make difficult those who use open-source versions of software products that they make (OpenOffice, Dia, Linux) in many ways (such as only allowing "licensees" to develop converters for their file formats, and any OSS app that can read a Word document must be violating IP restrictions SOMEwhere).
I feel sorry for the artists, but they've been taken for a ride by the radio-music industry for a long time. They just sound like prostitutes defending their pimps most of the time anymore to me.
The only thing being lost immediately is a potential sale (yet, oddly enough, there is not a complete relationship between the copying and loss of sale. There are probably more than a few Delphi developers, for example, who cannot shell out $3000 for Delphi8 Architect, yet they can get the evaluation CD from Borland and find a keygen for it. It may be just enough for them to use it to develop a project or two that they can sell, and then buy the full version. It is hard to learn and develop a program in something like Delphi in only 30 days...)
The funny thing is, that at least in Microsoft's case, they turned a blind eye to it for so long in order to grow their marketshare and develop MS Office addiction that only now are they trying to clamp down on essentially casual copying, because they cannot go after those who do it on an industrial scale (Ukraine, Russia, SE Asia, etc).
Oh well.
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:5, Funny)
"Intellectual Genocide"
P2P IS THE ARTIST HOLOCAUST!
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:5, Interesting)
While I'm mostly in agreement with your points, I'd like to try and hone your argument a bit more.
Number 3: Piracy is driven by overpriced CD's
The RIAA lost a judgement because they colluded to artificially inflate the price of CD's. At one point, CD's were extremely cheap. I remember buying CD's for an average price of 10.49 or 9.99 Canadian, about 6 bucks US at the time. That price in Canada has now climbed up to an average of 18.00 (almost DOUBLE).
Guess what: I buy the same number of CD's now in a year as I used to buy in a month Becuase
1. I'm buying DVD's (over 150 now)
2. I'm buying diapers for my baby (not in my 20's anymore)
3. I've replaced all my vinyl and cassettes.
4. The number of artists creating music that I enjoy has decreased significantly.
I am the RIAA's worst nightmare, because I prove that they distort the facts to suit their purpose. I don't download MP3's but my CD buying habits have decreased by 80% annually. They lose probably 1000 a year because of me...
There are thousands more like me. I just think it's a bit ridiculous that the governments of the world have swallowed the content industries argument so wholly. We are going to lose control of our open systems and hardware becausse of what is basically a lie, that mp3 sharing is the downfall of the record industry.
I see I've gotten offtopic here, so I'll get back into it. As I mentioned before, I think you're pretty much bang on in your post. I just think number 3 might be stricken out of it to make it that much more effective.
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:5, Interesting)
Okay, that's an amusing list of arguments, many of which are actually made by some of the kids online. I get the feeling that your intention is to suggest that these are the only arguments for widespread distribution (a straw man argument [datanation.com]), but *shrug*, maybe I'm just misinterpreting. However, one of the arguments you're mocking isn't quite as obviously wrong as you suggest.
I've never heard of a parking infringement, but I suppose. I do hear "illegally parked" or "parking violation" (which was what my last parking ticket read). Those are perfectly reasonable terms, after all, one is illegally parked and one has violated parking laws. I'm perfectly fine with copyright violation or illegal copying. Both are accurate descriptions of the crime. Copyright infringment is arguably more accurate (since you're infringing on exclusivity granted to someone else), but violation or illegal is certainly nice and accurate.
Piracy, on the other hand, isn't terribly accurate. Piracy's has multiple definitions [reference.com] and those different definitions are governed by different laws and punishments. Many people (myself included) feel that we need to reconsider our intellectual property laws, that perhaps they've become unbalanced and no longer serve the common good. It's important to have accurate language in such a discussion; colorful terms and phrases like piracy cloud the issue. Those people and businesses interested in maximizing the power of copyright deliberately chose words like piracy and theft because they know they have emotion impact, it's easier to get people to agree with ideas like "theft is wrong" without having them consider the details of what they are agreeing too. If they used words and phrases like illegal copying they know that some people will step back and ask, "why is the illegal? What is the real harm?" This sort of misdirection is unnecessary. I certainly believe that copyright law is a good thing. I would be against abolishing copyright law or eliminating enforcement. However I arrived at those conclusions through reason and the facts, not through emotional arguments and colorful phrases. Shoplifting a CD is a very different action from downloading an illegal copy online, trying to confuse the two is a false analogy [datanation.com]. If copyright really is right why not defend it without descending into logical fallacies [datanation.com]?
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe where you live but copyright infringement is not a crime in my country (yet), it's a civil matter. Therefore "illegal" is not accurate, it's flat out wrong and it serves the purpose of making people fear sharing with their neighbour because they think they could go to jail. The correct term is "unlawful". For example, slander can be unlawful but it cannot be illegal. You can be sued for slander but you can't go to jail (how obsurd would that be?) Copyright infringement is the same.
CD's ain't cheaper. Where do you get your facts? (Score:5, Insightful)
(3) I believe that piracy is driven by "overpriced CDs" even though CDs have dropped in price over the years.
They have? That's news to me. When I got my first CD player in 1985, the average price of a new CD in a record store was $12. In 2004, the average price of a new CD in a record store is $18. Now, granted there are bargain-basement $5.99 CDs these days, as well as sale-priced new releases at the $12 or $13 price point, but as a whole, CDs aren't cheaper today than they were nearly 20 years ago.
Does that excuse "piracy," or "theft" or whatever you want to call it? No, it doesn't, but let's ratchet down the level of nonsense in the rhetoric used here. "Stealing" isn't the right word for making an unauthorized copy of something. The original still exists and can be sold to someone, and "piracy" is a loaded word with completely inappropriate connotations. How about we just call it "unauthorized copying" or "copyright dilution"?
I've always had a problem with software and entertainment industry estimates of losses due to unauthorized copying. First, they assume that every copy illegally-made represents a lost sale, which is nonsense. If a 15-year-old kid has 8,000 songs on his hard drive, there's no chance in hell that he would have bought those 8,000 songs if he hadn't had access to them for free. He might have spent anywhere from a few hundred to a couple of thousand bucks on music, but there's no chance he'd have bought 600 CDs worth of music at $15-$18 a crack ($9,000-$11,000).
And here's another thing: Twenty years ago, my friends and I taped songs off of FM radio and played them in our walkmans. Or we'd dupe our LPs onto tape and trade copies with each other. I easily had access to ten times as much music as I could afford to buy, but in spite of record industry whining, I bought *more* music because of that practice, not less.
One study stated that that kids and adults alike who used the original Napster were more likely to buy music than people who didn't. Numerous studies have shown that there's zero correlation between "piracy" and the decline of sales for the music industry. Is it any surprise to people that the last year of sales increases for the music industry was the last year that the original Napster was in operation?
This is not an apologia for listening to music without paying for any of it. It's simply a realistic look at what's really going on. The record industry has its head up its ass and always has. Suing and prosecuting your customers is bad for business [thescogroup.com].
Software "piracy" is different, but not *that* different. Much of the software industry used to accept that "piracy" was just another form of marketing. Microsoft has always given lip service to stamping out "piracy," but until they had established a monopoly, they did virtually nothing to prevent it before the fact because they knew it was easier to convert a "pirate" into a paying customer than it was to get a skeptic to buy from you in the first place. Most people these days will automatically use MS products, so now Microsoft puts copy-protection technology in its products to force people to pay up-front.
Is making an unauthorized copy of music or software theft? According to the law, it is. However, there needs to be a middle ground between the "information wants to be free" left and the Ashcroft search-and-seizure [azcentral.com] right.
Most people would gladly reward artists and programmers for their work. That's how shareware works, and it made Phil Katz [pkware.com] a substantial amount of money before his death. So how about we find new ways to reward creators of content, instead of finding new ways to criminalize what people have done for decades?
Don't misunderstand me. There are true criminals out there who are selling counterfeit or other illegally-copied versions of products (such as music and sof
Re:CD's ain't cheaper. Where do you get your facts (Score:5, Insightful)
I also got my first CD player in 1985, and I remember CDs being $18 or so, but I probably lived in a more expensive part of town than you, figuratively speaking. Let's use your $12 number to save time. $12 in 1985 dollars is about $20 in 2004 dollars; if prices hadn't gone down, we'd be paying $20 per CD today.
I understand the concept of inflation. But please remember the CD player that I got in 1985 sold for $260. It held one CD at a time, wasn't portable, didn't have a remote control and didn't have anti-skip shock protection. Today, CD players with those specs cost $20. Why? Improvements in manufacturing, reduction in the cost to produce CD players and the biggest reason: economies of scale.
For some of the same reasons, the CDs themselves also cost less to produce today than they did in 1985. The difference between 1985 and 2004 retail pricing of CDs is other record industry costs. In 1985, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, et. al. weren't getting huge guaranteed contracts for albums that don't sell. Record companies today are paying Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera big bucks up front for records that are supposed to earn enough money to pay for all the marketing costs that get poured into marginal acts like Creed.
The problem is that record companies only know how to sell you what you bought last time, so innovation has been completely eliminated. They force-fed us more clones of Britney Spears until people stopped buying those CDs. In their rush to find the next Avril Lavigne, they completely missed out on the concept of finding quality artists recording quality music, so Norah Jones sneaked her way to selling 18 million CDs with virtually no promotion by her record company.
CDs cost more today because record companies changed their business models. Instead of finding and developing lots of inexpensive new artists and allowing the market to decide what's a hit, record companies today insist on pushing the same crap they sold us last year until we stop buying it, and they spend a fortune in promotions to try to reverse the inevitable declines. When we stop buying stuff we're tired of, the industry blames "piracy" for their decline in sales. But the real reason we stopped buying music is because they stopped publishing music we wanted to buy. How else do you explain the success of Norah Jones and the soundtrack for O Brother Where Art Thou?
Re:CD's ain't cheaper. Where do you get your facts (Score:5, Insightful)
You make some excellent points and you are absolutely correct that CD players and CDs are marketed in radically different fashions. Specifically, CD players are now commodities. The marketing spend for CDs is perhaps at its highest point ever.
Naturally the record companies say that piracy is 100% to blame for the decline in sales over the past few years. Slashdotters will quickly point out that it's everything but piracy; they also have some good points but I think many of us are "ignoring the elephant" a little too much. Both extreme viewpoints are self-serving; it allows the record companies to proceed with suing pirates with little remorse, and it allows Slashdotters to "share" all the music they can get their hands on without losing any sleep.
In the middle are the various research and analyst firms who specialize in analyzing markets. Several firms which I trust state that piracy is absolutely, definitely, part of the problem, but not the entire problem. The economy and competition from other sources of entertainment (such as the rise of the DVD market) are often cited by analysts as other principle factors.
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:5, Insightful)
3.) Most CD's are quite overpriced and the public now realizes this. Allow me to plug Mangatune.com Reasonable price, actually supports the musicians. (:
4.) Copyright duration is way to long and it is having a dramatic effect upon society
5.) Legitimately free music/whatever as advertising is nevertheless a valid business model to gain popularity.
6.) Artists are, in fact, getting ripped off due to the perceived need to cut a record deal to "get known." They would be much better off thinking like entrepeneurs.
7.) "Giving stuff away on the Internet" is not a business model, but it can be part of one if done correctly. Look at Homestar Runner as example: free cartoons that got so popular that the authors now make a living selling plush dolls, t-shirts, and bumper stickers. It would never have succeeded as a pay-for-content site because it has to compete with Cartoon Network, the Simpsons, and the like..
8.) Not everyone is looking for a free ride. The fact that people are more than willing to pay for concert tickets but many now hesistate to buy CDs says more about the market than morals. People are simply putting far less value in recorded music.
9.) In a purely capitalist, laisez faire economic system, there is no such thing as copyright. It's not an assumption or requirement. That's not to say that it's always bad, but rather that there are plenty of natural ways to make money that do not involve artificial government institutions. Open Source has already succeeded in this field; independent music/film is still on its way.
10.) For the majority of human history, it was a right. Copyright is a modern experiment. It may or may not last long term. My guess is that a fairer balance will be struck.
11.) What signifies greed is the motivation, not that they are exercising their legal rights. Numerous studies have shown that P2P and other bootlegging has a minimal effect on profits, while significantly expanding the spread of content. It is more likely that the 'cracking down' is more out of fear that they are losing control of the traditional distribution channels.
One of the unfortunate things that has happened to the OSS movement is that a lot of the loudmouth advocates for it don't understand what it's really about.
Absolutely. In my definition, Open Source is about meeting software needs in the most efficient way possible. That does not always mean a free ride. Open Source is about turning an artificial "manufacturing" market into a labor market, the latter of which allows full, unrestricted motion of the "invisible hand of the market." Capitalism works best with many buyers, many sellers, and minimal cost of entry. That is what Open Source enables.
They view it primarily as a means to get free stuff, and then they turn their eyes from the free stuff to the non-free stuff and think to themselves "maybe I'm entitled to get that one for free too"
While I agree that many mistakenly see OSS as "free lunch," I don't see your secondary point in any true OSS advocates.
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:4, Informative)
Although most of the piracy apologists follow your reasoning, you fail to concede that there is a middle-ground. The internet has opened new ways to make business. However, for the last ten years, the music industry establishment has done nothing but try and keep the old business model. Why?
I'd wager that current publishers think they hold the middle-man spot because they have a strong grip on product exposition. The internet makes product exposition a lot easier, and has the potential to downgrade the middle-man value, therefore causing the whole industry to 'deflate'. This deflation is overall good, for public and artists, but is obviously bad for the editors.
In the end, give or take a couple of years, alternative music selling models will break through the barriers. Then, middle-men (editors) will have to excel in the role they are really needed for: weeding out bad artists, so people don't have to listen to every band out there. Then, only then, we'll again see great bands. Bands that really innovate the way music is created. The last ones, for me, were Nirvana, the pilar of the grunge movement. From then on, no really great global movement came out from the music scene. (The boy-band, girl-band movement fails on the grounds of musical quality).
I finish the comment with a glimmer of hope: Magnatune [magnatune.com]. Magnatune is clearly a small shop. However, it's a small shop, almost a one-man stunt, with a really innovative business model [magnatune.com]. And you know what? It's currently profitable [linuxjournal.com].
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:5, Insightful)
Ripping apart all the freebie-seekers from the podium of OSS self-righteousness still doesn't validate the blatant lopsidedness and anti-competitive behavior of the reigning software giants.
I agree, there are lots of lazy snobs out there that feel that everything should be given to them on a silver platter without requiring any effort on their part. However, it is still a moral fact that the current laws and regulations favor people who already have enormous bank accounts, squash any newcomers with better ideas (or force them to be absorbed), and continue to feed wealth to companies who pattern themselves using the bully tactics of _real_ syndicates like Microsoft.
There is no way that you can possibly argue that the current laws foster progressive competition, positive diversification or a "share the wealth" attitude. It's all a pyramid scheme.
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:5, Insightful)
(2) See point 1.
(3) Price is only brought forth as an argument by people who did not think things through. The fundamenal cause is the fact that the whole process of "manufacturing" and "distribution" and "ownership" of information is a lie. Information is not an object that can have an "owner" and thus is not subject to a simplistic world-view concocted by one Adam Smith, otherwise known as capitalism.
(4) The whole idea of copyright is sheer lunacy to begin with. Discussing its length is like arguing over the type of brush you would use to paint the Moon green next Tuesday while standing on your porch. The fact that it is accepted as a de-facto "wisdom" is truly sad and depressing.
(5) Yes. And no, the author has no "right" to be selling "his" music. The only "right" he has is to perform the music he (or others) composed. If he can manage to get people to come hear it and they agree to pay at the gate, there is his source of income. If he is not good enough for that, he should get a day job. I will never get tired of saying that "art" is defined as a willingess to express ones thoughts and feelings in a way that others find it inspiring and moving. The very expression is its own justification and reward. It is not a "job", never you mind "industry". Art can be sponsored if it is particularly good and thus freeing the artist to pursue her creative urges. But it is not a business.
(6) Many "artists" (I use the term loosely since you seem to include all sorts of talentless commercial-jingle hacks in this) were mislead into believing that "art" is a career. That one can make a killing on it. Unfortunately its a lie designed by people who were in the business of marketing and distribution of their works. For a time it worked and was technically feasible. Not any more. Digital age has finally exposed the fundamental fallacy of "art as business" ideology.
(7) Neither one is a "business" model. Although one can make money around services based on free things, it is up to that person's business talents and other external conditions. Free stuff on the net is called Information. Information, due to its properties, is fundamentally not capable of being "owned" by anyone.
(8) Live performance and other equivalent labour can be monetarilly rewarded by the attending audience. Having the performance recorded once and then getting paid million times by having someone elses (fully paid for) equipment perform in your place, based on information embedded in a piece of plastic, is a form of fraud. Never you mind claiming that said piece of plastic is yours to control even though the sucker paid for it.
(9) You can easilly control access to live performances and thus ensure payment. You can sell t-shirts and all sorts of other stuff leveraging your name recognition. You can use your name recognition for advertising purposes. Thats capitalism. "selling" information that cannot be "sold" is a just con-artistry.
(10) You better believe it. Dissemination of information is not only my right, it is one of the most fundamental and un-alienable rights that trump most other gibberish that passes for "rights" and "laws" these days. Information = thought. And if you think that I will give up my ability to freely exchange thoughts and ideas so that a bunch if greed monkeys can get rich, you got another thing coming. While I understand that "capitalist" mentality is that "making profit" takes precedence over everything else in the universe, luckilly most of us do not subscribe to this lunacy.
(11) Noone can demand free enterntaiment. The consequence of information being not a "thing" that can be "owned" is that enterntaiment over digital media in exchange for payment is not viable. That is the logical downside of sticking to one's principles. Fortunately, the need for
Re:Song of the piracy apologist Repost (Score:4, Interesting)
really?
Let's look at the current most download bittorrents shall we? (Source search.suprnova.org)
Games:
Hitman Contracts - Xbox USA Full DVD...
Knights of the Temple DEViANCE
HITMAN CONTRACS USA DVD(www.bCGp.net...
BREED-DEViANCE
Battlefield Vietnam 3CDs NeW TrAcKeR
UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004 DVD-DEViANCE
Splinter Cell pandora tomorrow (4CDs...
BREED-DEViANCE_[bt-gm]_[EFnet]
Splinte
Fallout Tactics
GTA - Vice City
Oooh, yeah, look at all those ancient games there... all out of copyright there.
What about movies then?
Kill Bill Vol 2 DivX [New TrackeR]
Kill Bill Volume 2 SVCD TS-TCR CD1
Kill Bill Volume 2 SVCD TS-TCR CD2
Partyalarm-Finger.weg.von.meiner.Toc...
Kil
KiLL BiLL VoLuMe 2 TS TCR JB87
The Punisher(telesync)SWS
Kill Bill Vol 2 PROPER SVCD TELESYNC...
Kill.Bill.Volume.1.UNCUT.2003.DVDRip
Big.Fish.DVDR-DzN
Das.Urteil-Jeder.ist.käufl
Big.Fish.2003.DVDRip.XviD-DCN (AC3 a...
Scary.Movie.3.2003.DVDrip.XViD-ALLiA...
Tw
The Punisher VCD-Cam
The Passion Of The Christ [NeW TrAcK...
Oooh, man, That Kill Bill Vol 2 must be out of copyright surely?
Come on, you can't be serious in doubting that the majority of copied works are BRAND NEW. That's why people copy them, they want to see the LATEST things without paying for them.
I'm all for the old, 'lost games' and such being able to be downloaded... I mean, really, the companies have got their money from them by now surely... but that's such a small portion of what is downloaded, I don't think that it bothers the companies much.(A bit yes, as they wouldn't shut down ROM sites if it didn't)
I'm going to get moderated "Troll" again (Score:5, Interesting)
You have to wonder if the civilian contractors they're using to hunt these people down have community mp3 servers at work. If so, what do they listen to? Wagner?
Re:I'm going to get moderated "Troll" again (Score:4, Funny)
Everyone has heard of that one.
Been going on for years (Score:5, Interesting)
Even in the years between the first gulf war and the second, many soldiers in the field had enormous communal stashes of MP3s.
Saudi Arabia, for example, was notorious for confiscating anything/everything coming through customs that looked remotely suspicious, or violated islamic law in any way. This included fitness magazines (showing skin between the neck and ankles == BAD), CDs or DVDs with racy covers, any/all pornography, bibles or non-muslim religious tracts... you name it. This customs search even covered US troops rotating into country to participate in Operation Southern Watch (enforcing the Iraqi no-fly zones and defending the KSA's hide).
And yet... the people they had inspecting bags at the customs tables had clearly never seen an external hard drive, and they never searched laptops... so digital music/movies made it in no problem, and were immediately shared among the deployed soldiers and airmen. Yes, it's illegal, but it was great for morale... and somehow I can't see the MPAA/RIAA getting upset. After all, It's not like you can just run out and buy all their music/movies in the middle of a fundamentalist islamic nation (and soldiers might even buy better copies when they returned home, particularly if it was something they liked and/or had never heard before).
Besides, gathering evidence would be impossible... Saudi Arabia doesn't even issue tourist visas to non-muslims. How do you possibly track all the little LANs soldiers set up? How do you get the military to let you monitor their base network (hint: NOT going to happen). It would also be absolute political suicide to go after soldiers. Can you imagine the magnitude of the public relations backlash if the RIAA/MPAA prosecuted? Squeezing fines out of a bunch of homesick grunts just trying to survive and have a taste of home makes Ebeneezer Scrooge look like a philanthropist.
That'd be be like prosecuting grandmothers and children (Oh... hmm. Nevermind)
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Insightful)
1)Don't buy it. If nobody buys a product at a given price, the company will lower it or go out of business.
2)Create your own competing product at a price you deam resonable.
3)Vote to remove the legal protections that you bash the government for enforcing as is thier duty.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:4, Insightful)
Great. When is the next vote for changing copyright law? Oh wait, a law like that would have to be proposed by congress and voted on by them. But the RIAA, music industry, etc. control congress. Then we need to start a grass roots movement to change copyright law. First we have to figure out what we want, then we have to gather the grass roots support (i.e., normal citizens).
Well, to figure out what we want, we should discuss it in some online forum. And to get grass roots support we could start with discussing it in some online forum. Hmmm... I guess that means we should post/discuss/proselytize on Slashdot.
OK, so what are doing wrong here?
VPN's wont do anything to stop the law (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of you techno-toads need to get your head out of the web and realize that technology isnt the solution to EVERYTHING.. Not only does john law have the capability of breaking a lot of VPN's, but he doesnt really need to.
these guys storm offices and houses, they pull you from your keyboard before you can lock it out, they have "agents" work the chat networks and so on, becoming "friends" and insiders of these "syndicates".
Its very difficult to carry on this type of illegal activity through a structured or organized manner against the deep deep deep resources of both the sowftare industry and the goverment. The only way to battle them is for hugely distributed and un-localized distribution....
basicly P2P... now P2P with strong encryption and trace-blocking, along with various other privacy protections distributed across enough users is a much more difficult thing to kill. These pirate groups are asking for trouble by making themselves targets.
Re:VPN's wont do anything to stop the law (Score:5, Interesting)
john law needs a supercomputer and a lot of time to break even 128-bit encryption. It's not worth his time to do this. He can't just push the button that says "I'm a cop" and start eavesdropping.
these guys storm offices and houses, they pull you from your keyboard before you can lock it out, they have "agents" work the chat networks and so on, becoming "friends" and insiders of these "syndicates".
Sure...but how are they going to get a warrant to walk into your house if all your connections are encrypted? Reasonable suspicion won't get you a warrant these days, you need probable cause. Probable cause that you're not going to get from an encrypted connection.
Again, I speak for those of us in the US. I'm sure it's much different elsewhere.
Re:VPN's wont do anything to stop the law (Score:5, Interesting)
-
these guys storm offices and houses, they pull you from your keyboard before you can lock it out, they have "agents" work the chat networks and so on, becoming "friends" and insiders of these "syndicates".
Not to mention they can't do this because if they did the evidence on the hard drive would be tainted. I've dealt with computer forensics and the first and most important rule is you NEVER modify the original hard drive. You so bit-copies to another drive and do your work on it. That way if you screw something up you can start over plus you document your steps as you go, thuse allowing anyone to reproduce your results from another copy of the drive.Sure...but how are they going to get a warrant to walk into your house if all your connections are encrypted? Reasonable suspicion won't get you a warrant these days, you need probable cause. Probable cause that you're not going to get from an encrypted connection.
Sure they can pull you from your keyboard before you lock it out, but they'll never get to admit the evidence if they do anything beyond shutting it down. If the accused pirate has half a brain all this encryption will require master keys to start so forensics will be unable to open any encrypted files or establish encrypted VPN sessions. You can even get encryption software that will automatically encrypt your virtual memory with a random key on startup. It throws that key away on shutdown so even the software can't unencrypt the virtual memory. This pretty much ruins any slack-space finds from virtual memory. Combine that with delete with wiping features and virtual encrypted drives and you can get your computer to a state where forensics won't find anything you don't want found.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Insightful)
An association of people or firms authorized to undertake a duty or transact specific business.
An association of people or firms formed to engage in an enterprise or promote a common interest.
A loose affiliation of gangsters in control of organized criminal activities.
An agency that sells articles, features, or photographs for publication in a number of newspapers or periodicals simultaneously.
A company consisting of a number of separate newspapers; a newspaper chain.
The office, position, or jurisdiction of a syndic or body of syndics.
So yes the term is used correctly. As far as the rest of your post, are you somehow implying that these groups have done no wrong? Copyright is a matter of Law so I fail to see how having law enforcement deal with it is "The feds are just taking care of their corporate masters."
These people were breaking the law, they knew it, and they got what was coming to them. Don't make it sound like they are some sort of folk hero 'sticking it to the man' when they're nothing but petty little criminals.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Insightful)
Break the law because it's wrong, suffer the punishment because it's right, and work to change the system.
It's acceptable to challenge any law you want, but it also means as a responsible individual you also pay the consequences of that law. If everyone breaks the same law, willingly, because the law is wrong, that brings the attention of the lawmakers that the law is wrong, because everyone would be their constituents and voters.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:4, Insightful)
Imagine, if everyone in the US stopped to smoke a few doobies, how much less stress there would be in society? Stress is the #1 contributing factor to the breakdown of a biological system resulting in disease. Certainly there's no direct link which can be correlated from everyday life to the number of prescription drugs you buy but you can bet that the statistical analysts in the major marketing departments are all WELL aware of this economic correlation.
You're a moron (Score:5, Insightful)
A.) Participate in piracy, so this pisses you off.
B.) Have a beef against Ashcroft, so it just ruffles your panties to see him cracking down on illegal software piracy.
There is absolutely, 100% nothing wrong with the government cracking down on this. Slashdot wants to pretend it's some sort of miniscule, "gray area" problem, but it's millions of users all trading warez and making it harder to sell software.
Why the hell do you think PC sales are so low, and so game companies are turning to consoles? Don't give me the "games were better in the olden days" spin, because we've got everything from Far Cry to Invisible War to SimCity 4 to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 to...you get the picture.
"Copyright Enforcement Militia"...this is such propaganda bullshit that I can't believe--no wait, I CAN believe it got modded up. A post bitching about the emotive use of the word "syndicate" yet emotively using "militia." Nice!
Let's all pirate the fuck out of Doom 3, shall we? I'm sure John Carmack won't mind. Will he?
bubble's intact. Previous (Score:4, Informative)
If you are unaware of the state of enforcement of computer crimes against networks, you are ignorant. Here's an exercise left to the reader: run a network or even just a website. Antagonize a skript kiddie clan. Watch as they obliterate your net presence with bandwidth attacks. Contact the FBI. Watch them do nothing. Contrast with 1) being a big campaign contributer - watch them allocate resources to stupid, trivial shit.
The FBI can't investigate everything. It is investigating prostitution in New Orleans, peace groups, and warez doodz. And with what is left, it allocates to organized crime and terrorism. Yeah, they do more than one thing at a time, but they shouldn't spend any time on economically insignificant copywrite violations against politically connected corporations until they have done a much better job against the serious shit.
Sorry your attempt to burst the bubble was so lame. Try again?
I'm not especially anti-Bush. It's just that anyone with a grip on reality looks that way.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Funny)
So who is the United States serving? It can't be the citizens of its country, since the writeup indicates that the US no longer counts as a country: "enforcement from 10 countries and the United States...".
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:4, Informative)
"10 dogs and one cat" vs. "11 dogs including one cat"
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean, serving the citizens of their countries, who are trying to make money by selling software? You mean, enforcing the law?
How dare they! It would make much more sense for them to start working for the software pirates.
I believe that the parent thinks there are higher priority criminals to hunt than a few losers who pirate mediocre games. Victimless crimes and white collar crimes should never take precidence and resources from the prosecution of violent crimes.
It should be a matter of triage, first make society safe, then worry about maintaing private industry's profit margins against the gangs of computer toting outlaw teenagers.
However, the victims of muggings, spousal abuse, drug related violence and gangsta drive-by shootings do not make the hefty campaign contributions, nor do they have the ability to make press and TV conferences. They are just the average tax-payers - you know - the ones the Law Enforcement Officers swore to serve, protect, and defend.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:4, Insightful)
There are thousands of people who lost a significant portion of their life savings to these swindles. As a guess they were the, "...just the average tax-payers - you know - the ones the Law Enforcement Officers swore to serve, protect, and defend" but since none of the perps used a gun it doesn't matter.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Insightful)
Gee, ya think? They're a for-profit company, not a charity, so they'll charge whatever the market will bear. If this happens to be "afforable" for you, then so be it. If not, tought shit, get a better job.
First of all, if you really need the power of Photoshop, then you sure as hell can afford it. And, you can probably even write the purchase off as a business expense to boot! If this doesn't apply to you, then there is little reason for you to be using Photoshop in the first place. Next, an inexpensive version of Photoshop already exists called Photoshop Elements. And guess what? People _still_ pirate it. Why? Because people like getting shit for free. Look at MP3's.. you can buy a legitimate song online for the change in your couch, but somehow magically mp3 piracy is rampant. Ask yourself, is this because $0.99 a song is somehow "overpriced" or is it because people who have no moral qualms with copyright infringement will always choose free over non-free (as in beer).
OK. Let's say I sell product X for $1000, and at that price I'm only able to sell 1 unit. I've made a cool thousand bucks. Now, let's say that I sell product X for $1 and at this price level, I'm able to sell 1000 units. Guess what? I've made out the same as before. What do I do if I want to make my "sales numbers increase so much?" Well, obviously the answer can't simply be to drop prices as we've just seen. Instead, I need to find the price point that maximizes profit. Lowering the price may or may not be effective in accomplishing this. Next, they are so greedy? OK, maybe they are. Maybe the CEO's make money totally out of proportion to the amount of work they do. However, at least they did _some_ work! Have the people pirating material done _any_? No, they've done nothing to deserve the material they've just pirated. Who's greedier now?
Laugh. They can't afford them? Then they have absolutely no right to use them! You have no God-given right to use any product that you so please. The only thing that grants you this right, is the cash to buy said product. Hell, I drive a 1997 VW with 145,000 miles. I'm kind of sick of it and would _really_ love a shiny new BMW, but I can't afford it. Do I somehow deserve this BMW even though it is "overpriced" and I can't afford it?
That works out because Microsoft also controls the overwhelming majority of the OS market. Since they control such a large portion of this huge market, Microsoft is going to make enough money to be "the world's largest software company" while simultanesouly producing the "most pirated OS ever." Even if 99% of OS X installations were pirated and only 1% of Windows were, it's obvious that Microsoft would make more money, and I'd be willing to bet that the actual numbers would make Windows piracy more widespread than OS X as well.
I'm not even sure what you're trying to prove here? If the store is going to sell pirated versions of XP (which they will take a 100% cut out of), then why the hell would they even be selling the legitimate version (which they will get a very small cut of) _at all_?? Moreover, I'm not sure of the numbers, but I'd put mon
Sigh--this is a FLAWED ARGUMENT (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you honestly believe that's how it works? Every single time some ignorant moron says something like this, I shake my head. "They should be devoting their resources to [INSERT RANDOM HIGHER PRIORITY THING HERE]." Uh, who said they don't? Because one small faction of their organization also happened to be doing something else? When Slashdot changes the way your comments are listed, does that mean 100% of the Slashdot crew was devoted to working on it? When a virtual memory scheme is worked on for the Linux kernel, does that mean 100% of all kernel development was devoted to that?
Give me a break. It's a faulty argument and you know it. This was probably the computer division composed of agents who specialize in computer crimes. God, you people amaze me sometimes.
Re:Call them "Evil Doers" next... (Score:5, Insightful)
Before you reply or moderate, ask yourself a few questions. Who benefits from busting Video Game pirates? If you think American citizens will, do you think they will benefit from cheaper game prices? Or maybe we'll get better games now that the pirates are all shut down? Or do you really think that as corporate profits go up, wages will, too, and that everyone benefits from helping the corporation? (in reality, the only people who benefit are the shareholders, who pay the lobbyists to wine & dine the legislators)
*Consider this: is there a way that Microsoft could be punished that would reduce computer prices and maybe even stimulate the computer industry, and the software industry as well? I think someone could probably come up with such a solution, and that it would be a far more effective use of gov't time & money than chasing warez kiddies.
wallpaper bubbles... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:wallpaper bubbles... (Score:5, Insightful)
How is this YRO? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How is this YRO? (Score:5, Funny)
Information wants to be (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Re:Information wants to be (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, information wants to be anthropomorphized.
No, it doesn't.
It hates that.
fs
Re:How is this YRO? (Score:4, Informative)
Of course it's about "Your Rights Online". You claim that it's not a right. Discussion of rights we don't have, and about whether or not we should have them, belong in YRO.
Now, that's comedy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Now, that's comedy (Score:5, Insightful)
We don't have the right to distribute pirated works online, but do we seriously expect this right in the future? Is anyone SERIOUSLY arguing for the right to disseminate the creations of other people for free?
I know that you can reply with "sales aren't being lost" and "information wants to be free", but we will not have the "rights" being exercised by warez groups until some serious social upheaval occurs. The public may be behind such arguments with respect to music, but I doubt you're going to see your grandmother downloading AutoCAD 2004 and being surprised (or upset) that it is illegal to do so given the opportunity.
That's why I don't think it's even worth examining this issue under "Your Rights Online". Maybe put it in a Black hat/Internet Lawbreakers category, but don't pollute the actual fight for internet rights (privacy, universal access, social justice, etc)
So is this tied to the earlier story.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So is this tied to the earlier story.... (Score:4, Insightful)
So I'd say it's a safe bet to say they're the same storyline.
Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)
or from the developers perspective. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:or from the developers perspective. (Score:4, Interesting)
My credits include games that have sold 50K and games that have sold 5M+. Piracy didn't cause the 50K flop, lameness did. Piracy didn't prevent the 5M+ blockbuster.
Quick using swappers as a crutch for your own shortcomings.
Re:or from the developers perspective. (Score:5, Insightful)
>> Quick using swappers as a crutch for your own shortcomings.
That's just a really bad attitude, arrogant in fact. Not everyone can make million dollar games, yet everyone deserves fair slice of the cake for what they have created, even if it is small.
An independent developer may make just a small amount of money, but that may be just enough to try and produce the next game - which may well be a blockbuster. You seem to suggest that if you can't make the big league, then tough.
If the guy produced a lame product, or used lame marketing: then at least he knows that he failed because of what he did, not because someone avoided paying, but enjoyed the pleasure of playing
Oh, yeah? (Score:4, Insightful)
You think you're still going to be selling 5M+ then?
Everybody around here purposely ignores the inevitable conclusion of a file-sharing network designed to trade massive files, but with no enforcement of what is traded--nobody making money on anything that can be copied.
I'm a musician. Sorry, but I don't want my stuff going around in a damn
This attitude of "piracy is okay" sickens me. Just because you claim to have sold a lot of games still doesn't give piraters the right to pretend the copyright of a product magically transferred over to them.
But, it's not surprising that mentality pervades this place considering that recent Slashdot poll showing that the majority of Slashdotters are either college students or unemployed......
Re:or from the developers perspective. (Score:5, Insightful)
I call bullshit!
I would accept, "With piracy becoming more and more rampant, in future, game developers may not see royalties for their work," but what you said is complete and utter hogwash.
It's not unlike the RIAA blaming most of their problems on piracy. Yes, piracy does affect many companies bottom lines, but blaming it for your not getting paid a few bucks extra is just moronic. Tell me... are you saying what your publisher is telling you? ie "Sorry, there will be no Christmas this year because too many people pirated the game and we can't afford to pay you."
If you believe that or anything similar then you do not understand the economics of 'piracy' very well.
I cannot speak for anyone else, but I admit it, the number of music CD's and computer games I have purchased over the last few years is negligible. Not because of piracy, not because of P2P or 'borrowing copies'... but because I have not been able to afford much of what is out there, and of what there is, very very little of it I have felt was worth my hard earned dollar.
I'm sorry for not supporting your delusional world by buying your product. I just can't afford to these days.
Damn, I'm so out of touch. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Damn, I'm so out of touch. (Score:5, Funny)
They were decoy goups set up by the crackers as honeypots to attract the FBI and observe its techniques.
Great news! (Score:4, Funny)
The Heroic Ashcroft (Score:5, Funny)
Ashcroft doesn't dance, smoke or drink. I think he has too much time on his hands.
ugh (Score:5, Funny)
Wack-A-Mole (Score:5, Insightful)
MY GOD (Score:5, Funny)
The other side... (Score:5, Interesting)
However, if the government keeps sending these groups to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison, that's going to stop or at least trickle off at some point. We're not exactly talking about the Mafia here. If a continual crackdown occurs to the point where if you put pirated software out for distribution you have a high likelyhood of being passed around a cell block to earn cigarettes for someone much bigger than you are, it's going to seem like a much less attractive activity to most sane people.
Right now that's probably not happening, but if there was a real threat of law enforcement getting involved... shit, most geeks are afraid of girls. You don't think they're going to be even more afraid of lonely, burly men?
THG still alive and well. (Score:5, Insightful)
Come to think of it, isn't Razor 1911, and a few other "big players" still in the game? I guess they are "un-touchables"... Piracy might be seriously diminished one day, but it won't happen until the NWO anyways..
Re:THG still alive and well. (Score:4, Informative)
Quake III (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.narvakitchens.com/quake3cdkey.jpg
This is big. (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously "big"
Every single major "elite" warez site in the netherlands is gone.
FairLighT are gone, for those of you who don't know FairLighT ( FLT ) they're one of the two main game releasing warez groups. People within the scene are scared, this is a bad day for warez.
Also, this is the US Governments doing, up untill today the
The Right Enforcement (Score:5, Insightful)
Step 1: They tried busting people like Ed Felten for talking about piracy tools. This was genuinely evil, and we bitched, saying "they should only go after the pirates, not people talking about tools that might be used for piracy."
Step 2: They started busting the pirates themselves. They handled it in a fairly Snidely Whiplash sort of way, but it is definitely within the bounds of the spirit of the law. And you all bitched, saying, "these are just home users, the real problem is the piracy rings."
Step 3: The crack a bunch of piracy rings. This is totally in line with the spirit and proper use of copyright. If some company were doing something similar with GPL software, we'd go after them and we would win. Please try to retain what remains of your credibility - don't bitch when organized, premeditative law breakers get their comeuppance.
Re:The Right Enforcement (Score:5, Interesting)
--
I, for one (Score:4, Funny)
Wait a minute, Operation Fastlink isn't a P2P program?
'10 countries and the United States'? (Score:4, Funny)
I thought the United States counted as a country too.
This is an EXTREMELY GOOD thing! (Score:4, Interesting)
With this major bust, the supply of new pirated software titles should drop precipitously.
Once and for all, we can watch the sales figures and determine whether or not there's any relation between piracy and sales.
I'm not affected (Score:4, Funny)
w/o Warez where would we be? (Score:5, Funny)
10 year old geek (probably YOU):
Mom, can I have $120,000 so I can
learn autocad and 3d studio and
visual basic and oracle and....?
Mom: No that's too expensive dear
How long before we can afford it?
Mom: after we win the lottery maybe.
You call that an appropriate reaction? (Score:5, Insightful)
But the government action is against those that are producing the cracked software and providing the music for download. These aren't your typical kids playing at sharing music. These are people who know exactly what they are doing, and, while they have a myriad of reasons for doing so (some even mildly admirable), they ARE breaking the law.
So I'm reading this, well, garbage that people are posting about honor among pirates. Well, whatever. I'm sure that's true for some segment of that population. But who gives a damn? Who are these people really benefiting? Is this REALLY a valid way to protest the pricing structures and horrible crap that these companies are producing? And even if it is, these people, again, are aware the the consequences of this type of protest, and I feel no need to get worked up about it.
I guess my point is - I'm GLAD that my government actually attempts to enforce the law. I wish they did a better job, which includes knowing how and when to enforce the law. At least this time they got it right, for once. 'Course, that's assuming that the press release is even reasonably accurate.
That is funy... (Score:5, Interesting)
Do not underestimate the FBI (Score:4, Insightful)
And there is nothing that can be done to stop them. This being slashdot, a lot of talk about secure networks and encryption is going on. All of these measures are next to useless.
The Warez Scene is not an insulated and self contained entity. It is
It is *TRIVIAL* for the fbi to impersonate one or more of those again and again or even have deep undercovers that remain in the scene for years (spanning several busts).
The only new thing about this bust is the extensive cooperation of other governments in this operation. I have to admit that I did not imagine the FBI would bother but apparently, the pressure of BIG CORP International is now enough to warrant a cooperation and coordinated operations between countries that is usually reserved to drug and weapon traffickers.
Sad...
It's about time! (Score:5, Interesting)
Fairlight has been around since C=64 days.
The earliest Class release I can recall is Quake (it even had it's own installer with chip-tunes built in).
Is UCF dead too? how about RiSCiSO?
The crap thing really is going to be that all good the no-cd cracks/patches will be gone.
I still buy games from the store. And to be honest, I always install the game, then go searching for a patch/cracktool so I can put my originals back in the box, and on the shelf.
I paid for Windows XP Professional, but got a keygen anyway so i'd still have my original box/key packed away safely. Call me wierd.
If you lose your Everquest registration key, is EA going to give you a replacement so you can install? hell no, you've got to go buy a new copy, or download a keygen...
I actively search the $10 and under bins at Best Buy/Brandsmart for games that I wanted to play but just felt they cost to much. Case in Point --> Enter the Matrix.
I bought ETM the day it came out. (The same day Reloaded came out in the Theatres). It cost me $50. 2 weeks later it was down to $39.99. 2 *MONTHS* later and it's a fucking $20 game!
My prediction (Score:4, Interesting)
You may be surprised that I find the idea of copyright in the digital age outrageous.
My prediction though, is that as soon as copyright is actually enforced, society will shun it and abolish it.
The only reason Copyright is enjoying some public acceptance these days is because people don't believe it applies to them in practice. In fact, most of the copyright-defenders in Slashdot probably copy many of their software/music illegally with all sorts of self-justifying excuses - not seeing that everyone does this, because copyright is simply wrong.
Re:Capitalism is the root. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is Earth.
There is no solution. We just muddle along the best we can and as far as I can tell, capitalism seems to give the most people the most opportunity to make their lives into whatever it is they want.
Unfortunately, some people still get screwed. See line #1.
the stairway to heaven (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't forget the part about placing value judgements on people based upon how much, or little, they made for themselves. It might look wide and free, like the sea, but there is a very fixed path to follow; freedom isn't real if all options but one have negative consequences attached.
Re:Capitalism is the root. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Capitalism is the root. (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference between you and a corporation is that your sole purpose is not to make money. A corporation exists only to make money. If they give away free medicine to kids, it's to improve their image so they can make money. If killing 8,000 people in Bhopal will make them money, you better hope you don't live in Bhopal. Making money is the purpose of a corporation.
I think that part of what's needling you is that corporations are being granted some of the rights that individuals enjoy, yet they exist only to make money are not subject to the same constraints that individuals are. You can't throw a corporation in jail for murdering someone. You can throw the CEO in jail if he screws up badly enough, but it's a little tougher when you remember that corporations were created for the sole purpose of distancing corporate decision makers from the consequences of their actions. Also, a distributed decision-making process and distributed accountability reduces each individual employee's share of the guilt to the kind of manageable level that allows for some really spectacularly bad shit to happen.
A lot of people who otherwise believe in laissez faire and the free-market are troubled by the zaibatsu-style mega corporations because they have grown large enough and influential enough to circumvent many of the normal free-market checks and balances.
The Dalai Llama
... I am not an economist, but watching increasingly smaller numbers of people control increasingly larger numbers of increasingly limited shared resources is making me increasingly worried...
Re:Class (Score:5, Insightful)
If the Linux kernel got hijacked and put into, say, some other Well Known OS illegally, can you tell me that nobody around here would making any "John Ashcroft should drop the hammer on these guys" remarks?
I don't doubt that some favors exchanged hands to get this kind of attention marked as a priority at Ashcroft's level. But keep in mind that the same law that works for them works for everyone else too, no matter how lop-sided it may seem sometimes.
Re:Class (Score:4, Insightful)
"Why are my tax dollars being spent giving me a speeding ticket when there are real crime organizations out there killing people?"
Because ALL laws should be enforced.
Re:I'm having Flashbacks... (Score:5, Interesting)
The original owner's wife's ex-husband called the FBI and told them Cyber had pirated software and child pornography available for download. So the FBI raided. AFAIK, they didn't damage anything, and left once it was demonstrated that the file libraries were clean.
Re:MOVE OVER MAFIA! (Score:4, Funny)
Nice to see the government(s) spending money going after such terrifying villians instead of your friendly neighbourhood rapists, child molestors and murderers, eh?
Maybe they should introduce the groups and solve both problems.
Re:MOVE OVER MAFIA! (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe it's 14 year olds who do the cracking. It is certainly not 14 year olds who are multiplying and distributing this stuff on hundreds of thousands of DVDs and sell them internationally. I regularly got offered Fairlight and Kalisto DVDs at work. Reasonably priced, you know. Just a good profit for the middle men, since nothing goes to the copyright holders.
It might be a surprise to you, but these distributors are like the mafia. They have a well-oiled business dealing in stolen goods.
Sure, the police should pick up violent criminals. But that does not mean they should let financial criminals go until the last rapist is behind bars.
I, for one, as a professional software developer am mighty pleased with this action. All the time I was thinking: it would be so easy to crack down on these people, why don't they do something about it? And now they did. Good show, I say.
Re:MOVE OVER MAFIA! (Score:4, Insightful)
They ripped the living shit out of games. No movies, no soundtracks, no commentry, compressed sound, no online play... And Ashcroft is worry about them?
Funny really because they left the scene back in January. Maybe they saw what was coming.
http://www.nforce.nl/nfos/clear_txt.php?id=5412
I doubt they were teenagers either.
Re:Your Rights Online?? (Score:5, Insightful)
in fact it's the first thing I download after buying it. so I know that in 4 years I can still use that which i OWN. Games or apps that need Key's and/or authorize to a master server are crappy to the user. and the first thing I do is remove that crud so I am ensured that my legal purchase cant be stolen from me by the corrupt developers or companies that think that I no longer have the right to use an app that I bought 5 years ago...
Yes I'm one of those evil people that buy something that works and stay's there. Lightwave 5.5 instead of being a lemming and buying the upgrade every year (Yes I'm evil and making programmer's babies starve!) and Yes I have my dongle and origional manuals. I also have all the keygens and cracks for it... which were NEEDED to make it work under windows 2000 and XP.
so you know what, screw off. there are LOTS of legit uses for cracks and keygens. and I reccomwend and point EVERYONE I know to the sites to get their keygens and cracks for their legal software
if you are a developer and add that crap to your app, then you suck and I really hope I piss you off to no end.