FBI Anti-Piracy Seal 419
Supp0rtLinux writes "Looks like the FBI is giving a new anti-piracy seal for entertainment and software products. Looks like now the RIAA and MPAA pursuits will add a new federal level to future prosecutions." I'm pretty sure that our forms of media already contain warnings against unauthorized duplication, rebroadcasting, and public performance, but now it's in logo form!
Not a big deal.. (Score:5, Insightful)
/me gasps (Score:5, Funny)
I hope you had expressed written permission, rather than just implied moral consent, to ignore it. If not, you could be next.
Re:/me gasps (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:/me gasps (Score:5, Interesting)
I bought my DVD player last year from ASDA. (Walmart, for the Merkins among us.) It cost me 49.95 UKP. It's a Pacific 1002.
It's brilliant. It plays everything on all media; DVD, DVD-R, CDR, CDRW, you name it. (Haven't tried the more exotic rewritable DVD formats). I burn stuff onto VCD and SVCD and it just works. Picture quality is good, navigation is decent, it's got all the ports I want on the back. It'll play MP3 files burnt onto a CD, plus miniDVD discs.
But I keep finding new features. Region unlockable? Open the tray, type three numbers followed by the region you want, or 0 to completely unlock it.
One feature I discovered by accident recently: put in a DVD. It'll start playing automatically, working through the menus and those ghastly unskippable warnings. Press STOP, and the PLAY again. It'll start playing... but from the beginning of the first title. Which, in most cases, is the actual movie.
It's quite, quite clear that the DVD player manufacturers, or at least the bottom end ones, know exactly where the money is: their customers want devices that will let them watch what they want. And what they want is not what the studios want them to watch.
The only downsides to my shiny new DVD player are that it looks ugly, the seek time is slow (making interactive content a bit clunky --- like I care), and I can't turn Macrovision off. Which I'm surprised at.
It's interesting to compare with a friend's more expensive Sony DVD player; it has fewer features, won't play CD-R media, isn't region code switchable, etc. It also cost about six times as much as mine, although this was a few years ago.
Moral: cheaper is not always worse.
Re:/me gasps (Score:5, Funny)
Is that naughtier?
no (Score:5, Funny)
If anyone is offended by my language, please s/damn/double plus unnice/ now.
Re:no (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:no (Score:4, Informative)
Sure you can...
See my other comment [slashdot.org] on this topic.
It sounds like you buy used DVDs from rental places, since I've never seen a retail DVD with unskippable commercials, but that doesn't really matter - Just because you paid less for it, you did buy it, why the hell shouldn't you have the right to enjoy it without ads or annoying FBI warning?
Personally, my biggest peeve comes from the imports. Not only do they have an FBI warning, but a similar warning from half a dozen countries, in as many languages. Talk about pissing the customer off...
Re:no (Score:4, Interesting)
To be able to copy/transcode DVDs with Linux, use either mencoder (comes with mplayer) or transcode. Note that in many countries this is illegal.
Re:no (Score:5, Informative)
Why bother paying for what you can get for free? DVD Decrypter [dvddecrypter.com], DVDStripper [dvdstripper.com], and DVD Shrink [dvdshrink.org] will edit out unwanted material and squeeze any movie down to where it'll fit on a DVD-R, and they're all free (as in beer, anyway, which is more than you can say for DVDXcopy).
Re:no (Score:4, Informative)
I thought he was being pretty funny with that useage.
Re:no (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:3, Funny)
When the broadcaster says, "The final score..." might be a clue.
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:5, Funny)
Back in the day (early 80s) we'd copy whole tapes, FBI warning and all. Didn't seem to scare us teenage evildoers.
Hmm.. someone's at my door.
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:5, Funny)
wbs.
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course you copy the FBI warning! Only a half-assed pirate would leave off the FBI warning. Copying the warning was my way of saying "Hell yes I know this is technically illegal, but screw em anyway."
Like copying a tape from the rental shop is somehow EVIL and taping from HBO is different? Personally I draw the line at assholes selling bootleg tapes, but even then I don't think it is always EVIL. Selling bootlegs of titles that are not (and usually never will be) available through legit channels just doesn't seem wrong. Copyrights should not be allowed to be used to suppress a work. (example: Disney and _Song of the South_)
But I would like to be able to hack my DVD player to allow me to skip the damned thing, especially FOX titles that force it down your throat before the opening menu will come up. But I bought a good Japanese name brand deck that can't be flashed. On the other hand the picture is very good (compared to the el cheapo Chinese stuff from Apex, etc.) so I guess I won't bitch too loud.
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:3, Informative)
The Chinese bootlegs usually have that too. Sometimes thay have a high quality FBI warning and a preview which makes you think that you have a DVD dupe if you check it in the shop. Then you get home and find that the actual movie is camcorder video, complete with rustling chip packets, caughing and shadows.
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:3, Funny)
"This music contains no enterment values for your dollars. Buy something else."
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:4, Funny)
Gotta love open-source. Why add a useless feature like User Option Prohibitions, when people would just remove it anyway? Why give people a reason to fork?
Guess I'm getting too accustomed to the "bend over and take it" method of software distribution.
Re:Not a big deal.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, great marketing.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yeah, great marketing.... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't see how it's newsworthy. They're acknowledging that illegal piracy is becoming a big trend amoung the younger kids and so want to keep the reminder out there that it is against the law by putting up a logo.
I remember software of the early 90s displaying big red text boxes with SPA anti-piracy hotline numbers and everything upon program exit. Try starting up Doom/Doom 2 sometime and see the warning text as the game loads!
Re:Yeah, great marketing.... (Score:5, Insightful)
DON'T YOU THINK YOU MAY BE TARGETTING THE WRONG AUDIENCE? YOU KNOW? THE PEOPLE WHO PAID FOR THE TICKET?! (no free pass trolls pls kthx)
I cause a ruckus every movie I see and my gf tells me to shutup...
Re:Yeah, great marketing.... (Score:3, Funny)
That kind of thing tends to be a dealbreaker in relationships.
On EVERY DVD? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:On EVERY DVD? (Score:5, Funny)
Update? (Score:4, Funny)
Doesn't hurt me (Score:5, Insightful)
It spells out explicitly that the product is covered by copyright and it also specifies the maximum penalty for violation of the copyright.
No harm, no foul.
Re:Doesn't hurt me (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, if it's unintrusive and quick (or just on the packaging), then I have no problem.
Re:Doesn't hurt me (Score:5, Insightful)
These are not like health warnings on cigarette packs; these are threats with the weight of government put on packaging at the request of the entertainment monopoly.
It stinks. It makes the FBI look like hired enforcers. Can I get an FBI label to put on my car saying "The FBI says Grand Theft Auto is a bad thing"?
If the MPAA/RIAA wants warning stickers, they should make their own, and not use FBI logos and its implicit authority to intimidate people.
Re:Doesn't hurt me (Score:3, Funny)
I dunno
Permission (Score:5, Insightful)
This existed long before the DMCA... (Score:2)
If you haven't gotten the clue that digitally sharing the latest thing that came out of Hollywood isn't the smartest idea by now, where have you been?
Re:This existed long before the DMCA... (Score:3, Insightful)
That's why this logo is stupid, printing a silly message is NOT protection. It's just a scare tactic.
Re:This existed long before the DMCA... (Score:4, Funny)
So by the Patriot act, doesn't that make both the MPAA and the FBI technically "terrorist" organizations?
Hmm...
Umm... Ok (Score:2, Insightful)
The seal would enable the music and movie industries to deliver on their stated belief that education is as important as enforcement in combating piracy.
That makes no sense whatsoever, the people that control the original content are not capable of putting in little blurbs? They need an FBI seal for education purposes? Which can be stripped out just as easy as anything the RIAA/MPAA could put in....
Riiiiggghtttt.
Re:Umm... Ok (Score:4, Funny)
This constitutes notice that anyone who had a contractual relationship with the FBI, that it is dissolved and the FBI will only pursue actions as necessary to increase the entertainment industry's collective revenue.
Never fear though, the Bush administration is advocating a new law enforcement agency for aiding the citizenry. Already, they have allocated $4.32 in budget through fiscal year 2006...
Blue screen of theft? (Score:4, Funny)
So the question (Score:2, Insightful)
But it already exists (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But it already exists (Score:5, Informative)
This Is A Good Thing (TM) (Score:2, Interesting)
Having this Seal of Approval would at least give me some assurance that I have bought the Authentic thing. I would feel better thinking my money has gone to the creators of of this entertainment, not to those scumbag pirates.
We should all be grateful that the FBI is helping protect the creative individuals of America.
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
DRM sucks
Re:Great! (Score:5, Interesting)
These messages hurt impulse buys in my case. When I see a message like "this software contains anti-copying technology" I remember all the times I've had games fail to work because of buggy piracy protection.
It means that I put off buying the game until it has been around long enough for users to report problems with the copy protection and the publisher to release patches. Sometimes I never get around to checking and lose interest in the game.
Doublespeak ... or just lies (Score:5, Informative)
(By the way, I know that VOA isn't really a propaganda machine in the same sense as the Bush press office is. But it sounds funny.)
Only 4 in 10 movies break even... (Score:5, Funny)
Occam's Razor says that this means 6 out of 10 movies are crap, not that 90% of people are thieves.
RAZOR??? (Score:4, Funny)
Listen here punk, bring that thing NEAR a Blockbuster(TM) and I'll throw you in Jail, buddy.
criminal or civil? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:criminal or civil? (Score:5, Interesting)
All the more reason to backup your DVDs (as if the risk of them delaminating in under five years doesn't do it for you)...
Every major ripping tool out there now allows you to disable both IFO and VOB P-UOPs (the things that lock out buttons). So just back up your DVDs, put the originals away somewhere for safe keeping, and only use the copies. They'll also remove Macrovision and RCE, as well (the latter you don't even have a choice on, since no non-pressed DVD format includes a writeable CSS ring).
Personally, I don't watch the originals even once, anymore. As soon as I buy, into the PC it goes, and an hour later, out comes a copy without all the crap. Or more accurately, out comes a copy with all the crap, but nothing to stop me from hitting "menu" the second it starts.
Re:criminal or civil? (Score:3, Insightful)
> twice as long
> going to get worse.
Standard movie-watching practice in this house (since we moved to DVD from laserdisc) is to put the disc in a few minutes before actually turning the rest of the home theater on.
We don't watch the warning(s), the annoying previews, etc. Wake me when the movie starts.
Good article quote: (Score:5, Insightful)
So let me get that last part straight - "We're trying this anyway, and it's not going to work."
So why bother, and/or what strategy might work?
Re:Good article quote: (Score:5, Interesting)
The partial answer to your questions lies in answering this one: why didn't FBI propose to work with FSF or Linus and others to put an FBI copyright warning on their software for SCO and other corporate software "pirates?" It seems like corporate pirates need as much reminders and education of what copyright means as your average person buying a CD or a DVD.
Wel... (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe if they stop hiring the 20 million 'bennifer' actors/actresses and start spending just a 10th of that money on the script and they might see some profit.
Re:Wel... (Score:3, Funny)
Movie Exec: That's the idea.
Guy: So give me a few examples of the movies you do make money on?
M.E.: Well - there's Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, of course - a few of the lower-budget films that did well - 28 Days Later, for instance.
Guy: And the ones that tanked?
M.E. : Hmmm, so many to choose from - let's say Gigli right at the top there.
Guy: So you're saying that people are downloading copies of Gigli, and that's why no one went to
An informal credo... (Score:4, Insightful)
More stickers?! (Score:5, Funny)
But this is only encouraging piracy! Let me explain. This seal will have to be visible right? So now we have not only "Explicit Lyrics" stickers, but also "FBI Anti-Piracy" stickers. Soon to follow is "PEPSI, you can also download this music for free!" stickers, and "SCO - this crap was digitally mastered on a linux platform so you owe us $699" stickers. And EULA stickers, and "Stickers against stickers association" stickers..
So here's the situation: you enter the record store and you can't find your CD because they're all covered with stickers. So you begin to peel some of them off, and the clerk comes to you and asks what the hell you're doing with their property. Then you reply something like "Oh sorry.. i was just about to go home and start up kazaa, anyway."
So you see! It leads to piracy!
Re:More stickers?! (Score:3, Interesting)
Great, Wonderful, Spectacular (Score:4, Interesting)
I want to see (Score:4, Funny)
Parent: "Hmm this is copyrighted...Nope, son you can't listen to this."
Child: "Can I get the latest Eminem CD then?"
Parent: "Well, as long as it isn't copyrighted, it's fine by me!"
Reality check required (Score:5, Interesting)
> survive," said Ken Jacobsen, senior VP and
> director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for
> the MPAA, noting that only four of 10 movies earn
> enough at the box office to recoup the average of
> $89 million spent on producing and marketing a
> film.
I think the MPAA should be looking at two other issues in addition to piracy:
- why do only 40% of movies actually make money? I find it hard to believe that wholesale copyright infringement is ripping that much off the bottom line; very few people actually have the bandwidth to download movies, and not all of those have DVD burners
- why does the average file cost $89m to make and market? I can remember only about 10 years ago that $100m was considered an obscene amount to spend on making a film (refer to "Waterworld" and "Last Action Hero" as examples); now it's only slightly above average?
I think these guys have got to have a bit of a reality check if they're spending $89m per film and complaining about not recovering costs. *Someone* has had a very big salary hike...
Manipulated numbers? (Score:4, Insightful)
"only four of 10 movies earn enough at the box office to recoup"(the money)"spent on producing and marketing a film"
Look, they're saying about box office. Now from the 60 minutes [cbsnews.com] about internet movie "piracy" [gnu.org]:
"Fifty percent of the revenues for any movie come out of home video"
The quote from the first article gives the impression that most movies are not profitable.
Does anyone also think they were manipulating numbers there?
Re:Manipulated numbers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely. Reread the wording carefully:
So what they're effectively saying is that the average cost for a movie is $89m, and only 4 out of 10 movies make more than $89m. But that doesn't mean 4 out of 10 movies are profitable - the other 6 probably had much lower budgets and consequently broke even with a much lower revenue.
For example: let's say 4 movies cost $120m each to produce (the likes of Titanic, T2, etc.). Then to make the average 89m per film the other 6 cost about 68m each. Now let's say the 4 big budget films (due to superior film quality, more aggressive marketing, etc) make huge profits, while the other 6 only make 75m each. They still made a profit but they didn't make the requisite 89m. Now this scenario has been turned into "only 4 out of 10 movies are profitable" (that's not what they said, but that's what everyone heard), even though all the movies made a profit.
Re:Reality check required (Score:4, Interesting)
So that's a 56k modem. DSL being anywhere from four to 20 times faster than that, many people in the world have a pipe capable of keeping up with all new cinema releases, a dozen weekly TV shows (be they US live action or Japanese Anime) and pretty much every new release for a chosen current generation video game console or PC.
Meanwhile, I bought the Futurama Season 4 box set last night (Channel 7 has been screwing up the broadcasts) and will be buying Andromeda 4.5 tonight (not available on free-to-air here at all) if I remember. I shipped in a US version of the Underworld DVD while it was still in Australian cinemas. Personally I believe that stuff should just be made for DVD. I'd subscribe to SG-1 DVD releases if they came out at the same time as it was shown in the UK. I bet heaps of the sorts of people that download movies would be just as eager to buy a DVD if it was available immediately. What are the economics of a DVD? Did my purchase of Underworld see more money reach the people who made it than if I'd gone to the cinema?
Is anyone else disturbed by this quote? (Score:5, Insightful)
3rd highest priority is cybercrime!?!?
This is more important that say forensics???
My god if that doesn't smack of special interests gone horribly, horribly, wrong.
And that's without even addressing what how slippery a slope the prevention of virtual crimes would seem to be.
One thing after another after another after... (Score:4, Interesting)
remind them that they do not own us and it is a privilege to serve it's valued customers instead of treating
us like lambs waiting to be shorn, wearing retention collars and being fed confinement loaf.
YAY! (Score:4, Funny)
The first thing I did when I bought a TV card for my computer, was to capture the FBI warning for a boot screen. It does nothing to prevent copying except to give the cracker something else to write 'owned' on.
Useless.
Anti Piracy Seal? (Score:5, Funny)
About the seal. (Score:5, Funny)
No? Not that kind of seal?
Then I expect he'll amuse children and adults alike with his antics, balancing balls on his adorable snout and clapping his flippers together, all the while conveying a powerful anti-piracy message to our youth?
No? Aw c'mon! You're not seriously telling me that the FBI signed up a washed-up early 90's soul singer to convey their anti piracy message? That's just so lame. It probably would have been more effective for them to just put some kind of. .
Can't wait to get a hold of the logo... (Score:5, Funny)
Anti Piracy Seal (Score:5, Funny)
How this rebranded "Don't Copy that Floppy" seal is going to deter piracy is beyond me. I'm sure it was as much of a deterrent as that William H. Sessions "Winners don't use drugs" campaign that showed up in arcades in the 90s.
Perfect, fools working to our benefit (Score:4, Interesting)
stickers to cover the fbi warnings. (Score:3, Interesting)
Amazon Women On The Moon (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah this stuff is just there so that you can't give try excuse that you didn't know it was illegal. However, I would be happier if in addition to this the companies spelled out the purchaser's fair use rights along with this stuff.
Disturbing... (Score:5, Insightful)
As a taxpayer I can think of a hell of a lot of things the FBI should be spending it's time on WAY before jailing bootleggers.
Well, at least they are making a distinction between terrorists, spies, and copyright infringers.
Stop! (Score:3, Funny)
"Piracy"? (Score:3, Insightful)
NEWS: FBI Introduces Anti-Piracy Seal (Score:5, Funny)
Chester impressed a crowd of roughly 100 reporters, music industry representatives, teachers, and students by balancing a copy of Hoobastank's latest CD The Reason on his nose while holding a copy of Incubus' Crow Left of the Murder between his front flippers. At one point in the press conference, an actor portraying an online music pirate attempted to take the Incubus album from Chester, at which point the seal snarled and bit off the would-be-thief's left pinky. Chester also demonstrated that he was able to use lawn darts to burst large balloons that were imprinted with the logos of Kazaa, Morpheus, Gnutella, and other popular Internet P2P ("peer-to-peer") file sharing applications.
"He's quite the talented creature," beamed Mueller.
After the press conference was over, Mueller loaded Chester up in an unmarked Chevy Malibu and took him to Millard Fillmore Elementary School in suburban Washington, D.C. for a classroom visit. The popular seal captured the hearts of Mrs. Eleanor Richards' third grade class when he waddled around the room with a bucketful of FBI/RIAA anti-piracy literature hanging from his nose. "Chester taught me that it is real, real bad to steal music," said nine year-old Timmy Jacobson, of Alexandria, VA.
"I learned that Adolf Hitler also stoled music," pointed out ten year-old Kaitlyn Frankenhoff.
Chester is scheduled to visit five schools a week during an extended tour that is expected to last eighteen months. His initial weeks will take him from the Beltway south through the Carolinas, to Georgia and Florida, and finally to New Orleans, LA. Mueller is excited about the impact of Chester's mission. "We will get the truth about music sharing out," he said. "The next generation of American children will understand the value of honesty and the reward of a hard day's work." According to Mueller, Chester is also able to "answer the telephone", "close car doors", and "play sand volleyball." When he's not fighting music pirates, Chester enjoys dining on rotten fish and soft serve ice cream.
Hillary Rosen contributed to this story.
I've got a deal for you... (Score:4, Interesting)
Look here:
[pbs.org]
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/t
Sound fair? Good. You cannot have your cake and and pie and cream puffs and every last damn thing you want AND eat it too. Greedy bastards.
Why a seal? (Score:4, Funny)
It's not their fault (Score:4, Interesting)
Unfortunately the FBI, through no fault of their own, are being coerced by politicians at the behest of the entertainment industry (whose multi million dollar campaign contributions have had an undue influence on public policy) to become more and more a private law enforcement agency for powerful and wealthy organizations, propping up archaic and inefficient business models, who should be financing their own investigations. (I doubt the FBI would pursue GPL violations.)
I encourage all taxpayers to lobby their respective representatives with the aim of curtailing this waste of our important resources.
The downloading of copyrighted videos and music is now largely done via P2P networks. Unless it concerns national security, espionage, terrorism, or organized crime, etc., the FBI should not be spending its resources on prosecuting Internet file sharers.
Re:It's not their fault (Score:4, Insightful)
There's no obvious reason why law enforcement can't be left to the states. For that matter, there's no obvious reason why most functions currently performed by the federal government can't be performed by the states instead, and probably at lower cost to the taxpayers. Sending tax dollars to Washington D.C. to pay for things that are done in other parts of the country just burns up a larger fraction of the money in bureaucracy.
Good news, the way I see it (Score:5, Funny)
What a relief. Once again, it's safe for tradition to come out of the basement.
We can all go back to counterfeiting $100.00 bills and transporting drunken underage hookers across state lines
Here's some stickers for you (Score:3, Interesting)
- WARNING! Buying This CD Funds Lawsuits Against Children and Families [downhillbattle.org]
$10.00 for a pack of one hundred, including postage. Alternately the page has artwork you can download to print your own.Arr! Video Pirates! (Score:3, Funny)
Pirate Captain: [Looking at the FBI Warning on the video.] Ohhh, I'm so scared.
How many minutes until the new logo is pirated?
viruses, anyone? (Score:3, Funny)
---------
From - Wed Feb 18 16:55:05 2004
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Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 09:09:46 -0500
From: bill@lavoro-a-domicilio.com
To: news@the-junkyard.net
Subject: You use illegal File Sharing
Importance: Normal
X-Mailer: Xfworks
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="SCODA7a911414cb96"
Status: O
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--SCODA7a911414cb96
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Downloading of Movies, MP3s and Software is illegal and punishable by law.
We hereby inform you that your computer was scanned under the IP 195.38.50.145 . The
contents of your computer were confiscated as an evidence, and you will be indicated.
You get the charge in writing, in the next days.
In the Reference code: #9983, are all files, that we found on your computer.
The sender address of this mail was masked, to fend off mail bombs.
- You get more detailed information by the Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-
- Department for "Illegal Internet Downloads", Room 7350
- 935 Pennsylvania Avenue
- Washington, DC 20535, USA
- (202) 324-3000
--SCODA7a911414cb96
Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=refcode9983.txt.scr
Content-Transfer-Encodi
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="refcode9983.txt.scr"
[followed by a 100kb virus. don't recall which one]
Good Grief! (Score:3, Interesting)
Where's a William Proxmire when you really need him? A Proxmire impersonator would do just as well.
Now we'll find out who all the Baby Boomers are. Are rather who isn't. (They'll be all the people postings ``Huh?'' and ``Who's that?'' replies. :-)
Open Source/Free Software logo or seal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Open Source Variation of this Logo (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyway, here you go [newbreedsoftware.com]. ("Don't worry, it's Open Source!")
seals are easy to fool-- bring fish! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:wooooooo, so neat and pretty.....too bad (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate this line of thinking. As though an organization only focuses on one thing at a time. "I guess they don't have more important things to do." As though deciding to put out an anti-piracy logo consumed 100% of their resources and manpower. They probably hired some marketing company to do it anyway.
Re:wooooooo, so neat and pretty.....too bad (Score:3, Funny)
Re:wooooooo, so neat and pretty.....too bad (Score:4, Insightful)
So the highly unlikely possibility of death makes cybercrimes the 3rd priority of the FBI.
Terrorism would be number 1, so would murder, or serial rapists be number 4?
Re:wooooooo, so neat and pretty.....too bad (Score:4, Insightful)
Therein lies another problem. They're painting this with a very broad brush, like terrorism. They can tack on huge sentences for the most trivial of violations, simply because it falls under the category of cybercrime or terrorism. I understand your point about safety related issues, but we're talking about money here. Hardly a valid point compared to murder, rape, assault, etc. They've put corporate profits ahead of all these.
Re:wooooooo, so neat and pretty.....too bad (Score:4, Insightful)
So what percentage of money/time do you feel is valid in creating a symbol that is widely ignored, and ineffective?
Re:wooooooo, so neat and pretty.....too bad (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:wooooooo, so neat and pretty.....too bad (Score:5, Interesting)
Put yourself in their position, you're working for what you believe is the right cause, you do as your told, and you glide into a pension after service moving into the private sector afterwards. Bottom line.
As for the sticker... Means nothing and yes you can attribute piracy in some form to illegal activities. Although you see this from a downloading-does-no-evil perspective, fact is there are organizations that make money off of these things, and yes they can somehow can intertwined with terrorism. For example, out here in NYC where tax free bootleg cigarettes are the rage for those looking to make a quick buck, do you think Joe Blow average is bringing in truckloads to sell them to lower level sellers? Sure people run off to Indian reservations to buy and resell, but it's not an uncommon notion to think how easy it would be to make some mega black market cash to fund something more sinister.
So while the typical /.'er trolls along thinking about how evil this is, I personally think this was done to appease those with money making noise (RIAA), and as a means of saying "We're watching you", beyond that I doubt if the FBI is going to run around and arrest little Jack Horner for trading songs with Little Bo Peep, but rather would focus on factories who do this on a mass scale. Then again this is my perception of it all, and I am definitely not one to be an expert solely one who looks at things from a different angle. And in case anyone has forgotten, a law is a law is a law. Like it or not.
Re:Quite the notice.... (Score:3, Interesting)
I really can't believe how the FBI is shamelessly whoreing for the xxAA. I can't believe that the FBI is parroting the RIAA bullshit about XXX billion dollars lost every year. I actually went back and checked that this is really their web page. Words do not do them justice, just look at www.fbi.gov.