Murdoch Faces Allegations of Sabotage 201
Presto Vivace writes "Neil Chenoweth, of the Australian Financial Review, reports that the BBC program Panorama is making new allegations against News Corp of serious misconduct. This time it involves the NDS division of News Corp, which makes conditional access cards for pay TV. It seems that NDS also ran a sabotage operation, hiring pirates to crack the cards of rival companies and posting the code on The House of Ill Compute (thoic.com), a web site hosted by NDS. 'ITV Digital collapsed in March 2002 with losses of more than £1 billion, overwhelmed by mass piracy, as well as technical restrictions and expensive sports contracts. Its collapse left Murdoch-controlled BSkyB the dominant pay TV provider in the UK.' Chenoweth reports that James Murdoch has been an advocate for tougher penalties for pirates, 'These are property rights, these are basic property rights,' he said. 'There is no difference from going into a store and stealing a packet of Pringles or a handbag, and stealing something online. Right?'"
Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Burns is funny, which has value. This is not funny.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:4, Insightful)
Hint... no... no you shouldnt think that.
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I'm absolutely certain that this is not the only business that does this kind of thing, which makes it even less funny. Hint: over the years I've known and worked with people on both sides of the pen testing "game." In other words, people with hats of many colors.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Funny)
Well, it's all fucking unraveling for Murdoch. It couldn't happen to a nicer person. Schadenfreudegasm.
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Schadenfreudegasm.
Best Neologism I've come across. Thank you for that.
Coloquial Deutsch (Score:2)
Kinder, ist die heutige Wort; Schadenfreudegasm.
Was für ein Schrei! Ich bin, es zu meinem Wortschatz Deutsch auf einmal.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:4, Informative)
He sounds exactly like the sleazeballs from the M.A.F.I.A.A. FTFS:
'These are property rights, these are basic property rights,' he said. 'There is no difference from going into a store and stealing a packet of Pringles or a handbag, and stealing something online. Right?'"
Wrong. If I steal a handbag, gles the store no longer has that handbag. If I make a copy of that handbag, the store has lost nothing. And, this comment is NOT my property, not according to the US Constitution. It belongs to everyone, I merely have a limited time monopoly on its publication, NOT ownership.
"Intellectual property" is a lie. If you have to lie in order to make your case, your case is damned weak.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Insightful)
It may not be the only business that does this kind of thing, but it certainly seems to be the most visibly blatant at the moment, and that's telling for an organization that controls such a large amount of the media in the areas its malfeasance is being reported in.
Seeking to crack opponents' tech, not a surprise.
Hosting a site or forum dedicated to the tech, including security and the like, meh.
Seeking to create ever-stronger penalties for violations of security, expected.
Using corporate resources to crack a competitor's technology and intentionally posting the technical information needed to allow others to also crack said technology, while advocating for laws that should theoretically result in essentially a corporate death penalty- that's a surprise.
Corporations are chartered by the government. Simple solution, revoke their charters when the violations stack on like we've seen with News Corp. Force the assets into auction, require revenues to pay legal damages and then distribute what remains proportionally to those stockholders that weren't also employed in the company and engaging in the wanton illegal activity or directly managing those who were.
If corporations faced their charters' revocation, and if egregious offenders actually saw this happen from time to time with dramatic losses to stockholders, maybe stockholders and corporate officers would reduce the amount of corruption in their ranks.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:4)
Great solution, mine was not so eloquent. It was shoot them all in the fucking head and be done with it. I think your solution is far better, it hurts them deep in the pockets and across the range of investors, and sets an example for other corporations and their investors. Mine isn't a good long term solution, it doesn't set up for a long standing accountability, they could avoid getting shot. Whereas using the law to strip them of their ill gotten gains and inflict them with punitive damages can be sustained as long as we have vigilant people who have learned from this era of corporate criminal corruption.
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This is what we used to do to pirates in the UK
Execution dock [wikipedia.org].
It's still there, but has laid unused or quite some time.
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I give you kudos for the quickest, most cost effective solution though.The law can pillage and pilfer the smoking wreckage after the "Dirty Harry " ceremony.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm heavily involved with a couple of huge European chemical companies and they found out that sustainability is the only thing that will keep them afloat for another century. They test if their reps are corrupt, if ethical guidelines are followed, that they don't leave a mess, how their employees fare worldwide, if they eed to get involved in education and how far away they are from their own goals. Which still is quite a bit. But still.
The frequent corruption scandals German industry faced and a few other desasters have caused a serious shift in what they think is needed. Stockholders don't quite get it but they are still doing fine.
Now I reckon this is also the case in other companies(I only consult those) so this makes Muroch Corp look like a bit of a dinosaur. You will not be able to steal, cheat, lie and sleaze your way to the top and can expect to end up with a slap on the wrist. Quite a few execs of Murdoch Corp are now facing charges, some are in jail. Also Murdoch had politics by the colloar for quite a while and now that public opinion swings the other side you can expect something quite drastic to happen in GB.
There's an old Fry&Laurie sketch on Murdoch, that's how long his sleaze has been public knowledge.
SCHADENFREUDEGASM indeed(thanks, dintech).
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Corporations are chartered by the government. Simple solution, revoke their charters when the violations stack on like we've seen with News Corp.
This is known as the "corporate death penalty".
You don't hear the term much anymore, because punishing corporations for malfeasance isn't exactly in vogue these days.
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Corporations are chartered by the government. Simple solution, revoke their charters when the violations stack on like we've seen with News Corp. Force the assets into auction, require revenues to pay legal damages and then distribute what remains proportionally to those stockholders that weren't also employed in the company and engaging in the wanton illegal activity or directly managing those who were.
But then where will the bribes -- er, campaign donations -- come from?
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Yeah, but do you really think this is the only business that does this kind of thing?
Doesn't make it right. Doesn't make it legal. Doesn't make it ethical. Doesn't mean we should let them get away with it. Time to get our punishing boots on.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:4, Insightful)
Except in corporate America this kind of behaviour is celebrated, not punished. I can hear the politician (Democrat or Republican, though I suspect the Republicans would be loudest) bemoaning how the job creators are being punished for doing what job creators do.
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And that makes it right?
All the more reason (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Insightful)
Call me a cynic, but when a wealthy sonofabitch who we all know corrupts the politics of multiple countries and plays dirty is caught at doing something like this, I think it's time for a good chuckle. My only hope is that if he ever really goes down, he'll take a few politicians down with him. He's enough of a scumbag to do it if he ever really loses his sway.
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My only hope is that if he ever really goes down, he'll take a few politicians down with him. He's enough of a scumbag to do it if he ever really loses his sway.
Which is, of course, why it's never going to happen.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Interesting)
Really? Did you not see Sunday's headlines in the UK?
A Murdoch publication published evidence of the Conservative party's deputy treasurer admitting you could buy access to the prime minister and influence policy for a £250,000 party donation.
Nice to see these things exposed, but the timing and target weren't exactly coincidence. Murdoch knows he's on a downwar spiral in the UK and is already trying to take the PM with him.
I'm not convinced Murdoch will get away with it this time, there's too much public anger and opposition pressure. Now that some semi-independent authorities in the police, judiciary, and oversight committees have become involved it's arguably even past the point it can be sweeped under the carpet.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sadly I think that it will be swept under the carpet. Murdoch has already replaced the News of the World with a Sunday edition of The Sun so everything is as it was before. The fact that Murdoch also owns the more respectable The Sunday Times means that he has both ends of the market.
What we really need it for Murdoch's hapless son to be put in the frame for something serious only for him to give evidence against his father and bring the whole lot crashing down - including the politicians and police officers who have been paid off over the years.
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I don't think the timing is ominous. The incident was simply disgusting, it was news, hacks were involved, so it got reported. That's exactly what a newspaper is for. Only this time it seems no phones were hacked. More likely the usual mix of whistle blowing, dumb luck, bribery and snooping. The newspaper business will never be squeaky clean and it doesn't have to be as rotten as News Corps was
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I'm not sure why this has been presented as a shocking expose. The list of donations and what access it gains you are on the Conservatives website [conservatives.com].
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Because that list isn't comprehensive according to the expose.
The expose made it clear that there is an additional level around the £250,000 mark that gives you access to greatly influence and suggest policy itself.
The site you linked merely says the £50,000 mark (the highest advertised level) gives you the opportunity to meet the PM at certain events and nothing more.
Too big to jail (Score:5, Insightful)
if he ever really goes down, he'll take a few politicians down with him
And that's his protection, right there. All the politicos in a lot of countries know that if they investigate his companies too deeply they'll uncover such a can of politically interconnected worms that their governments would have to relocate to the nearest jail.
He's been in so deep for so long that no major party would come out with clean hands, or be able to "cast the first stone". He knows it, they all know it and are just hoping that the media knows it too.
Re:Too big to jail (Score:5, Informative)
If only there were some kind of independent judicial inquiry [levesoninquiry.org.uk] currently in progress that was investigating the culture, practice & ethics of the press...
At this point it's virtually impossible for politicians, at least in the UK, to avoid looking into anything involving News International or other new media organisations. Any attempt to deflect attention from allegations such as this would be met with a very nasty response from their voters.
In retrospect, the fact that it took the hacking and possible manipulation of a murdered girl's voicemail to get people to pay attention is a little depressing, but at least now they are paying attention.
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I, for one, look forward to the day when James Murdoch is flown back to the UK in leg irons and forced to testify against his father to save his own skin from a
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You do realize that Rupert Murdoch controls Fox News, right?
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:4, Insightful)
Murdoch's only god is money. He runs Fox News cause it's a giant market no one else was exploiting.
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I always find comments like this funny. Because really only the American people are impressionable and stupid. No one in the rest of the world could possibly be unintelligent right?
Don't get me wrong, I can't stand Faux News. But I've known many brilliant people who are just wrong. To go around calling people who don't agree with you stupid isn't helping anything.
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:4, Insightful)
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I always find comments like this funny. Because really only the American people are impressionable and stupid. No one in the rest of the world could possibly be unintelligent right?
You know I think you have just convinced me.
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Don't get me wrong, I can't stand Faux News. But I've known many brilliant people who are just wrong. To go around calling people who don't agree with you stupid isn't helping anything.
There is a difference between calling conservatives or republicans stupid and calling fox news watchers stupid. there may be a large intersection between the two groups but I have met/debated w/ a few conservative republicans with well thought through arguments and reasoned convictions. the rest watch fox news (and can't/don't see through it).
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The latest statistics are: 40% of the Republicans, 37% of the Democrats and 20% of the Indepents watch Fox News regularly. So even 60% of the Republicans know better.
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Actually, Fox is by and large targeted at stupid, impressionable conservatives in the US. Everything else on the US news market is by and large targeted at stupid, impressionable progressives.
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Let's call it what is is. It's not stupidity, really. It's the results of nationalist propaganda, corporate and capitalist propaganda, a completely shitty education system that undermines the very principles of education, Christianity selling out to politicians, AND jackass propaganda machines like Faux News. Of course, you have ignorance, prejudices, racism, sexism, bigotry and delusions of grandeur, but just calling it "stupid" doesn't do it justice.
Hmm..looking at that, perhaps you have a point. It could
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Funny)
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Rupert Murdoch does not control Fox News. Fox News is controlled only by the sincerest desire to provide fair, balanced, truthful reporting. How could you possibly believe otherwise?
'tis true! Santa told me himself a couple of months ago.
Funny, I always thought he came from the North Pole not Australia. What's next? The Easter Bunny not being Catholic?
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Actually, Santa Claus (Nikolaos of Myra) comes from the small town of Myra (today: Demre) in Anatolia, and he is buried in the Cathedral of Bari, Italy.
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Rupert Murdoch does not control Fox News. Fox News is controlled only by the sincerest desire to provide fair, balanced, truthful reporting. How could you possibly believe otherwise?
i love that this is already maxed out as funny
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Funny)
OK, I"m testing that.
I went to the fair, met an acrobat named Fox who balanced on a beam, and got some News from the crier.
Science!
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Insightful)
And what about all the nerds that actually did it? It's not like he sat around writing code himself. What about their (existent?) scruples? Did they know who paid them or wonder why? Did they just ignore those questions so long as they could?
You want to read this as a morality play about how a bad man did something wrong. I want to read it as being about how some pretty smart coders ran pretty sophisticated hacking ring and either be oblivious or indifferent to the fact that they were acting as modern-day thugs smashing up a rival's store.
It's the old "bad apples" routine -- or as Solzhenitsyn [wikipedia.org] put it more eloquently: "If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?â
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I don't view this is a morality play. I simply said it isn't funny, and I meant what I said. On the morality bit, you might be surprised to learn that I don't believe in black and white absolutes of morality either. In my experience, it really is all a matter of perspective, painted in shades of gray.
While others may certainly feel differently, I draw the humor line at the point where lots of real people lose their jobs and see their lives wrecked because of acts like this. I'm not saying Murdoch is guilty
Re:Rupert Murdoch has no scruples. (Score:5, Insightful)
And what about all the nerds that actually did it?
They'll inevitably get hefty prison sentences, while Murdoch goes free with a "please don't do any more bad things until the next time you do bad things" warning.
RTFA (Score:5, Informative)
"And what about all the nerds that actually did it? It's not like he sat around writing code himself. What about their (existent?) scruples? Did they know who paid them or wonder why? Did they just ignore those questions so long as they could?"
None of that happened. The company that made the decryption cards was owned 50% by News International, and it made cards for Sky, and competitors like ITV's On Digital. Murdoch was a non-executive director at the company then this happened too.
There was no hacking, the company that made the cards was leaking the decryption keys, likely at the behest of James Murdoch/News International who had such a stake in the company.
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NDS (HQ based in Israel) makes the "smart cards" for all the Murdoch companies that require Smart card technology.
ITV Digital / On Digital used smart cards made by Canal+ (A French company).
Canal+ took NDS/Murdoch to court in 2002 accusing them of leaking the French companies data to Pirate websites.
Murdoch settled out of court by agreeing to buy some of Canal+'s non-profitable properties.
Also check out Echostar (Dish Network). NDS did the EXACT same thing to their smart card technology, Echostar took them
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The Nerds That Actually Did It are the ones pointing fingers, claiming innocence in the matter and blaming NDS for everything. Apparently both ITV and BSkyB were losing a lot of money to piracy, ITV was also losing money in other ways and went bust.
Whether NDS was the one leaking the information, whether they were both leaking each other's information, or whether third parties were also involved is speculation at this point. My guess is all of the above.
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It'll be fucking hilarious if he ends up in jail.
Re:Rupert Murdoch is a pirate (Score:3)
We know he's a pirate because he distributes file sharing software: http://www.fileplanet.com/73/0/0/0/1/section/File_Sharing [fileplanet.com]
Scroll to the bottom and note it's operated by IGN Entertainment. Then check who owns IGN: http://corp.ign.com/about/ [ign.com]
That's right, News Corp, Murdoch's company.
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I can picture Murdoch in drag with his stolen handbag and Pringles chips in front of the mirror "ah , yes, my plan is coming together, just as soon as Simpson cracks Turners card, I will rule the World"
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Hypothetical legal question (Score:5, Interesting)
If ITV Digital was a publicly traded company
And it has ceased to exist due to bankruptcy
And the bankruptcy proceedings have been all wound up
And the allegations against BSkyB are true
And BSkyB can be successfully sued for large damages for what they did to ITV Digital
Who could bring such a suit? How would the proceeds be distributed? The obvious candidates are ITV Digital's creditors (who got paid less than they were owed) and ITV Digital's shareholders. However, it won't always be clear who owns those shares and bad debts, as they've been assumed to have zero value, so haven't been tracked since the end of bankruptcy.
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> Who could bring such a suit?
Former ITV Digital customers might have a pretty good class-action lawsuit.
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Perhaps coincidence, but News Corp is selling its stake in NDS to Cisco, whose pockets are certainly deep enough to attract litigation.
Heh... I read that as "Cisco, whose packets are certainly deep enough"
Has anyone else noticed,...? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Has anyone else noticed,...? (Score:5, Funny)
Given that this:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Rupert+Murdoch+and+Emperor+Palpatine [google.com]
yields 16,000 results, I'm gonna go with "yes".
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But:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Rupert+Murdoch+and+Doctor+Frank-N-Furter [google.com]
has 41,500 hits. What's that say?
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Well, given that all the first-page results from Murdoch+Palpatine are about their surprising similarity, while all the first-page results from Murdoch+Furter are about Rocky Horror showing on channels that Murdoch owns, I'm going to say...not much. :)
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Oh noes! Now rule 34 applies! Must
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Given that this:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Rupert+Murdoch+and+Emperor+Palpatine [google.com]
yields 16,000 results, I'm gonna go with "yes".
murdoch darth vader gives 1,220,000.
murdoch dick gives 9,080,000, but that ventures way beyond relevance.
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I always felt this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKwk1ko6ceQ [youtube.com] was the closet match for Rupert Murdoch. Just picture him screaming from the other side of the TV screen via the Fox not-news network. Just so damn creepily accurate. Pretending to be on your side, as he peddles nothing but fear and hate, all the while scheming to steal your sole in the guise of the religious right.
Not just the appearance by the whole package, the psychopathic preacher peddling redemption but instead leading you to damnation
Well known, even on Slashdot, hardly news now (Score:5, Interesting)
NDS card hacking has been well known for a long time. They spent a year with some 30 guys using electron microscopes to reverse engineer their competitor's cards. When they published each new revision, they destroyed the Dish network's profitability for years, and everyone else using their competitor's technology. NDS mades the cards for DirecTV. They actually rate the security of their chips in electron-microscope years. This is well known, and well known that NDS and DirecTV are more Murdoch properties. I'm sure the people who have been discussing this for years are not surprised by the phone hacking scandal, which is like comparing pre-school with ... electron microscope school?
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Yeah, I thought this had come and gone already. There were even lawsuits over it IIRC.
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Yeah, I thought this had come and gone already. There were even lawsuits over it IIRC.
Yeah, there were. Two were dropped when NewsCorp acquired the parent companies many years later and the third closed a couple of weeks ago finding NDS guilty on just one technicality and cleared of the rest. Echostar (Dish) won $1,000 in damages and were forced to pay $18M in costs [broadbandtvnews.com], but when has the outcome of a court-case been as sensational as exposés? Strange that the BBC/guardian articles about this fail to mention the court cases that have been ongoing for a decade.
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This.
The boring story is about Murdoch's recent scandals. The interesting story is what, if any, complicity there was between two competing businesses, using the reverse-engineers as pawns (and whether or not the reversers knew they were pawns!) in a much larger chess game.
News Corp Caught Hacking in US (Score:5, Informative)
This incident followed the same pattern as the News of the World phone hacking scandal. An overly aggressive manager broke the law and was rewarded, and News Corp crushed the competition. When the bad deeds were found out the internal investigation was a joke:
Then for some strange reason when the authorities investigate they decide not to press criminal charges (can you say political pressure, i knew you could). In the final stage, there is a civil case and it is settled out of court. In this case the total payout was $650 million. Note this figure includes some other wrongdoing besides the Floorgraphics case.
This is exactly what happened in the News of the World scandal, until The Guardian newspaper in England did some investigation and found out how massive the phone hacking was. Given these two cases, one in the US and one in the UK, what are the odds that News Corp is blameless in this situation.
mirror,... (Score:2)
Who's the biggest crook of all?
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Besides, we've got TV for that nowadays. With a little bit of luck, although it is quite unlikely, you may get a glimpse of him. For some reason news programmes don't show true crooks anymore even if that is what they were created for.
So you might actually be onto something with your mirror method. At least in one case it is bound to give the right information.
Just goes to show (Score:3)
But if you or I download 1 song 'illegally', it's 250,000 in fines and five years in pound-them-in-the-ass prison.
Have I got this right?
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Yep
They draw up a definition of property that is enitirely contrary to common sense, and use it as a pretext to brutalise people in the name of sticking up for their 'rights'
Give him the Megaupload treatment (Score:5, Interesting)
Thats what they did to Megaupload, fair is fair.
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Re:Give him the Megaupload treatment (Score:5, Insightful)
Because there wasn't any collateral damage in the Megaupload case?
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WILL YOU NOT THINK OF THE ARRRRR?
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I'm confused. I thought piracy never hurt anyone. How could someone go out of business because of it? Stupid cognitive dissonance!
Consumers steal; corporations just look after their investors' interests.
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There is clear signs of piracy, that was intentional. Close down ALL of it, all the newspapers, the tv stations, everything, and sort it out in court first.
<sarcasm>
I'm confused... Legions upon legions of Slashdot readers have conclusively shown during endless discussions over the last few years that piracy in general is a completely victimless activity. Ergo: ITV is just whining about nothing and whatever Murdoch's corporate goons did in terms of piracy cannot possibly have caused any economic harm to ITV Digital in any way shape or form. This should be a slam dunk case, just get our resident experts in the economics of digital piracy to testify on beha
Surprised? (Score:2)
What's it like to work for Murdoch? (Score:5, Interesting)
What's it like where money matters above all else, nepotism abounds and professional ambition transcends all known ethics? Let me tell you.
I've been an employee of NewsCorp for the last 4-5 years. I stay with them because they offer the best compensation in my field, security in this recession, and yet we have our differences. On many occasions I've defended my employer and media outlets, mainly Fox News by saying, "I may not agree with the narrative but no one can say it's not a commercial success." Each business unit only worries about the bottom line, and not a soul has the well being of the U.S. and it's future in mind. Now it's starting to bother me.
Rupert Murdoch may be more feared by his employees than Steve Jobs ever was. Instead of a razor sharp focus on perfection and simplicity, Murdoch works his media holdings like a venture capitalist, his political influence like the dirtiest lobbyist, and just doesn't seem to 'get' the web and social media. This old-fashioned media tycoon acquires, prunes and drives companies and their talent to exact his will.
The pressure on his people shows. Employing very creative accounting (tax havens), phone hacking and leveraging threats of media smear campaigns, NewsCorp employees cross ethical boundaries more often than Rupert crosses time zones. It's no secret he enjoys the power he wields. On the editorial conferences he attends, on the way he treats political enemies, competitors and anyone else that dare disagree, it is striking from the inside.
Rupert has always shown his considerable ego, from the (good for all of the British press) breaking of the print unions in Wapping to his new rambling outlet, Twitter (@rupertmurdoch) . This 80 year old man tweets solo from his iPad, attacking Google, President Obama and others, all the while disregarding his plethora of Lawyers, PR entourage and social media experts. But that's the thing. He doesn't care. He's an old, angry, ballsy billionaire with mostly incompetent, disappointing children who is set on nothing more than doing what he and he alone wants for the rest of his life. I would say his tireless work has earned him that privilege if his empire wasn't pro-SOPA, against LGBT and other rights, constantly polarizing America and driving the Republican Party farther right than I ever predicted. The national dialogue has turned into a screaming match and I know who to thank.
With Roger Ailes as his Dick Cheney, Murdoch has incredible control over conservatives. 'Fair and Balanced' stopped being a funny joke years ago. I never thought I would live in a country where science was laughed at on the news, calling the sitting President a Communist was acceptable, or where a GOP candidate has no chance without the backing of Ailes, Czar of Fox News.
This might be the future, where only money matters, your voicemail isn't safe and anything can happen when dirty police officers get their take. It might be, but I don't like it.
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mod parent up
Funny how things work in cycles (Score:2)
Re:Is there evidence that Murdoch knew about this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Is there evidence that Murdoch knew about this? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Is there evidence that Murdoch knew about this? (Score:5, Insightful)
There will probably be some sharp satire on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. MSNBC may make a few snide comments. Other than that, I would guess most media will ignore it. Fox will try to frame it as if Murdoch is the victim.
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or maybe the networks sided with fox because 'obvious fact' wasn't quite so factual. the enemy of my enemy...
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It's not so much being nice to each other. Fox and MSNBC employees seem to loathe each other from what I've read. The issue is that the businesses are looking at something more long term than todays viewership. Sure, CNN kicking Fox while it is down will help improve ratings tonight. The problem is when the current administration is no longer in power. If beating on Fox is ok now, you can bet beating on CNN will be ok in the future. This is merely the networks acting out of fear of mutually assured destruct [wikipedia.org]
Re:Is there evidence that Murdoch knew about this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Murdoch has enough money to buy plausible deniability.
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I see you're one of those ultra sensitives today's society pumps out in droves, who then lobby to make life so whitewashed and locked down that it's no longer interesting.. grow a thicker skin already, if you can't tell the difference between a joke and seriousness, or contextual reference.
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In my experience I find it helps break the awkward tension afterwards.
Re:WAKEUP! (Score:4, Interesting)
Unfortunately no one has invented a vaccine for being an ass-hat. Until someone does, these things will continue.
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They have invented a vaccine for being an ass-hat. Accountability and transparency. If you know people are watching what you are doing and that there are consequences for doing what they dissaprove of, then you don't do it.
There are a lot of people working tirelessly around the world attempting to administer this vaccine, but unfortunately in most cases the patient needs to be restrained and forcibly injected, which is slowing the process down somewhat.
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Now let's examine the other object in question using the same method. A hat's pupose is to be worn on the head. So one would assume that an ass-hat is an object made from people's posteriors and formed into a hat.
So in conclusion we are talking about an actual hat or possibly, deducing by the
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These stories of corporate evil have been posted on Slashdot since 1997. You'd think these issues of corporate responsibility and malfeasance would have been solved already.
Sigh, I'd love to be young again.
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It reminds me of that movie Groundhog Day. Every day its the same old shit. But at least in the fiction of the movie, things got better, and the Bill Murray eventually got laid.
No, he eventually became a good person. His character actually got laid before that ("[she] makes noises like a chipmunk when she gets *real* excited") but he still hadn't learned his lesson by that stage.
The question is whether the Murdochs are planning a trip to Punxsutawney.
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