(CD) Pirates Take to the Ocean

rammstein_rulz writes "www.cdfreaks.com reports that asian CD pirates now produce thousands of pirated VCD's on anchored ships in international waters to avoid getting caught. Malaysian marine police have been asked to be on the lookout for pirate ships"

Just look for the parrots

[Ravenn]

I wondered how long something like this would take.

There's always a way around a law. This is just forcing a resurgance of older methods.

Re:Piracy on the high seas?

[Anonymous Coward]

The web has this to say about it: "When the death penalty was abolished in December 1969, this was only for murder, the death penalty still remained in force on the statute book for 3 offences, Treason, Piracy and Burning Down the Royal Dock Yards, though the last execution for these particular offences was in 1942 for Treason and resulted in the execution of a soldier. But later, goes on to say (?) "In practice the death penalty was suspended for all crimes in 1969, but formally the death penalty came to an end in the 1990,s after much discussion within the Home Office and with the UK being a member of the EU, this brought the Death Penalty to a final end. " So what's the real story? (source http://www.policestop.org.uk/death_penalty.html)

Re:International Waters

[Zeinfeld]

Actually, very few laws exist in international waters. That's why whaling and such is legal when boats get far enough out. Some countries have laws covering what you can and can't do as a citizen even outside of the country, but to my knowledge it's perfectly legal to sink a ship if it's attempting to commit piracy or other theft of goods.

Wrong, the law of the sea is probably the most extensively litigated aspect of international law. International law was originally invented to cover the sea. The London Times reports on maritime law cases all the time.

The basic principle is that every ship is registered in a national shipping registry and is subject to the laws of that country. So if a ship is registered in Panama the laws of Panama apply.

A ship that does not have a registration is subject to the laws of any nation that cares to enforce them. An unregistered ship is likely to be seized each time it calls at a port.

It would not be legal for a merchant ship to attack another for any reason other than self defense. However a coastguard or navy vessel can do so.

One wonders if the story is a spoof since being at sea does nothing to improve the legal situation and the mechanics of producing CDs on board a ship do not sound promissing, I doubt that CD pressing plants are designed to be used on ship.

Re:Piracy on the high seas?

[Albanach]

The death penalty for all remaining offences was abolished in the 1998 Crime adn Disorder Act [hmso.gov.uk]

Re:Hilarious

[Xpilot]

I live in Penang, and sometimes raids are advertised in the papers. You'll see headlines such as "Raid Next Week", and all the shops close on that day. Neat huh?

There are surprise raids sometimes, but pirates somehow find out about it before hand, and all the shops close on that day. Some surprise.

There really isn't any way to elimainate piracy in Asian countries when the price of licensed software is so high. In the States, $100 for a word processor may be affordable, but when it gets converted to Malaysian currency, it becomes 380 Malaysian ringgit. Considering the per capita income of most Malaysians to be around 1000 to 1500 Malaysian ringgit, it's considered pricy (and the fact that people can easily buy the pirated version for 7 ringgit doesn't help the situation either).

To reduce piracy in these parts, software companies should price their software at prices that are affordable from a local point of view.

Re:Hilarious

[Jeff DeMaagd]

If all they got were four folks and 1,000 CD, then they weren't trying *at all*.

I think it must have been a "show".

I understand China performs a show whenever Western companies complain of copyright violations during critical negotiations of some sort, just round up and destroy a bunch of fake goods hoping that the West accept their claim that they are trying.

It sounds to me like someone is making payoffs to prevent a *real* bust.

Re:Hilarious

[amorangi]

I've lived in Hong Kong and Philippines and am staggered by the scale of the malls in each place. In Hong Kong they'd raid a mall every 3 months and nab a couple of 12 or 13 year olds (un-prosecutable), and report it on the main TV news that they'd done a crack-down. It always made me laugh. In fact it's HARD to get unpirated software. The inflight magazine on Bangkok Airlines actually gives advice in buying pirated software and DVDs (DVDs are often of inferior quality).

Re:International Waters

[chamenos]

i'm not from malaysia, but i'm from singapore, which is just south of malaysia.

i personally don't think this story is false, as the state of lawlessness in malaysia can be quite bad at times.

just a year or two ago, bandits masqueraded as military officials and stole over a hundred M16s from a malaysian armoury in broad daylight. another bunch of them stole some steyr AUGs, and both gangs went on a spate of robberies before the authorities managed to catch up with them.

in view of the above, i don't think malaysian software pirates shifting their base of operations to a ship is that unlikely =) besides, the malaysian authorities recent clamp-down on software pirates has been quite well publicized so such a reaction from the pirates may not be that far-fetched.

Re:Legalism is the dumbest ethical theory ever!

[reallocate]

Thanks for resorting to the typical Know-Nothing Slashdot tactic of resorting to gratuitous insult and ad hominem attacks.

None of this has anything to do with legality or morality. It's only about tactics. It's just about cheap, throw-away music.

If you think "sharing" music will get you what you want, fine, go ahead. I think it will cause you to lose and simply get more draconian copyright restrictions placed on all of us, including people like me who don't really care a twit about whether some college student can afford to buy CD. That's the point I'm making. Morality and legality have nothing to do with it.

BTW, your equation of the civil rights struggle in the 60's to the music business is a gross and demeaning insult to the people who lived in that struggle.

Re:This sounds like more hassle than it's worth.

[mpe]

If the ships used are registered in some nation's maritime registry, then that nation's laws still apply onboard, so why not just do it ashore in that nation?

Maybe because they are a long way from their country of registration, have chosen to register with a country without a substantial navy and conduct their operations somewhere near a place which does not have good diplomatic relations with their country of registration.