Stop SOPA, free the internet!

[Hodgeyhodgey]

"The Department of Justice made the claims before a United States congressional hearing earlier this month but could not provide evidence."


"Malcolm could not cite an actual case where software piracy was linked to terrorism, but said, "it would surprise me greatly if the number were not large". "

Those are just from skimming the article. I'm sorry, but I don't see what you're so worried about Stick.

[Stick]

"The Department of Justice made the claims before a United States congressional hearing earlier this month but could not provide evidence."


"Malcolm could not cite an actual case where software piracy was linked to terrorism, but said, "it would surprise me greatly if the number were not large". "

Those are just from skimming the article. I'm sorry, but I don't see what you're so worried about Stick.

Personally, I don't think the US would release information about terrorist links to the public.

So maybe my terrorism argument didn't work. But these artists are still entitled to making money for their products. I just don't support piracy at all.

[pi]

But these artists are still entitled to making money for their products. I just don't support piracy at all.

That's a better reason Fair enough then

[Stick]

Not really. I believe my second link still holds water:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/movie-pirates-funding-terrorists-20090627-d0gm.html

Mr Gane said movie piracy, which costs the industry $8 billion a year globally, was increasingly run by organised crime syndicates, some of which funded terrorist groups. A pirated DVD can be made for as little as 25 cents and sold for 20 times that amount.

"Movie piracy is a low-risk, high-profit crime," Mr Gane said. "It is a reliable source of income for organised crime syndicates. It has been recognised by governments … that there is a link between movie piracy and terrorist funding.

"As state-sponsored terrorism dries up, terrorist organisations look for different revenue streams and one … is organised crime. As we know, movie piracy plays a big part in organised crime."

An international study, partly funded by the Motion Picture Association of America, into the link between copyright theft and terrorism identified three cases where it supported terrorist groups.

The report's lead author, Greg Treverton, director of the Centre for Global Risk and Security at RAND Corporation, a non-profit research organisation, said terrorist groups in Ireland, India and South America had benefited from piracy funds: "If you buy pirated DVDs, there is a good chance that at least part of the money will go to organised crime."

Philippine actor Eduardo Manzano, who is running a campaign against piracy in the Philippines, said profits from illegal films ended up in the hands of terrorists.

"The bigger picture is that this money is being funnelled in different directions to aid and support different criminal activities," he said. "In this country, we have the triad, and we have terrorist organisations which are being suspected now of using profits derived from DVDs for possible terrorist activities. The one name that particularly seems to come out in reports is Jemaah Islamiah."

[lexitu]

Not really. I believe my second link still holds water:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/movie-pirates-funding-terrorists-20090627-d0gm.html

Mr Gane said movie piracy, which costs the industry $8 billion a year globally, was increasingly run by organised crime syndicates, some of which funded terrorist groups. A pirated DVD can be made for as little as 25 cents and sold for 20 times that amount.

"Movie piracy is a low-risk, high-profit crime," Mr Gane said. "It is a reliable source of income for organised crime syndicates. It has been recognised by governments … that there is a link between movie piracy and terrorist funding.

"As state-sponsored terrorism dries up, terrorist organisations look for different revenue streams and one … is organised crime. As we know, movie piracy plays a big part in organised crime."

An international study, partly funded by the Motion Picture Association of America, into the link between copyright theft and terrorism identified three cases where it supported terrorist groups.

The report's lead author, Greg Treverton, director of the Centre for Global Risk and Security at RAND Corporation, a non-profit research organisation, said terrorist groups in Ireland, India and South America had benefited from piracy funds: "If you buy pirated DVDs, there is a good chance that at least part of the money will go to organised crime."

Philippine actor Eduardo Manzano, who is running a campaign against piracy in the Philippines, said profits from illegal films ended up in the hands of terrorists.

"The bigger picture is that this money is being funnelled in different directions to aid and support different criminal activities," he said. "In this country, we have the triad, and we have terrorist organisations which are being suspected now of using profits derived from DVDs for possible terrorist activities. The one name that particularly seems to come out in reports is Jemaah Islamiah."

Always a link to terrorism and then the arguments end. I think it's important to note that Hezbollah (one of the organisations listed) is not an internationally (by weight of majority of countries) recognised terrorist organisation.

I'm not sure why this matters heavily anyway - we, I think, agree for the most (even if reluctantly and hypocritically) that piracy is immoral so don't see this as an issue.

The issues are the costs of fighting against piracy to the reasonably open and universal nature of the internet and the risks of putting too much power in the hands of government.

[Stick]

Fair enough. Just wanted to share what I heard.

[lexitu]

Fair enough. Just wanted to share what I heard.

Yeah all good On that anyway, a lot of piracy-dedicated or often-used-for-piracy sites have pretty sucky ads anyway and often dodgy practices (e.g. click anywhere on page to trigger popup).

---

Who has some alternative ideas for how to stop piracy?

Interestingly, there's been quite an aggressive push from the US Govt. lately which has resulted in the curtailing of sharing practices on many sites, a closure, and some internal crackdowns on copyrighted material.

[Russ]

Who has some alternative ideas for how to stop piracy?

I quite like the current "if you pay people to share copyrighted material via your servers we will shut you down" model...

[Hutchoo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzqMoOk9NWc

If the almighty Khan is against it, so am I.

[JellyDonut]

Who has some alternative ideas for how to stop piracy?

Today, a mate over the forum pointed out about a hip-hop label which has taken up a $10 per month subscription to the label which enables you to download all of their new and old material. Similarly, I just came back from JB and included in my purchases was a flyer, which had the same idea. 6 bucks a month and you get unlimited downloads of their catalog (which is undoubtedly shit but interesting nonetheless). This is the way things seem to be progressing. Paying pittance for online download works: I don't pirate app store or steam products because they charge so little for it anyway.

Another example is done by Louis CK where he put up a show online, $5 for 5 direct downloads or stream. He made a million bucks from that and counting.

[Mech]

There are also A LOT of piracy websites which help fund terrorist organisations (through ads). This is why my family always purchase multimedia through iTunes.

Yeah, just support the organization that puts people in industrial cordons and pays them negligible amounts of money to put together Apple products. Seriously, I think just about every investment or purchase could been linked back to some barbarous activity; capitalism feeds off of others and their unfortunate position.

[acinod]

I know someone that actually bought a lifetime membership from Megaupload just a few days before it got closed down.

Poor guy...

[Mech]

I know someone that actually bought a lifetime membership from Megaupload just a few days before it got closed down.

Poor guy...

Lol, poor bastard.