19 Charged in Alleged Software Piracy Plot 311
Brainsur writes "
A federal grand jury has indicted 19 people on charges they used the Internet to pirate more than $6.5 million worth of copyrighted computer software, games and movies.The indictment outlines an alleged plot by defendants from nine states, Australia and Barbados to illegally distribute newly released titles, including movies like "The Incredibles" and "The Aviator," and games like "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005."
6.5 million? (Score:5, Interesting)
Warez Is Now An Extraditable Offence (Score:5, Interesting)
As a shareware developer, I could care less about kids cracking my software, but I'm getting damn sick of the charade going on as the BSA cries (to its own benefit only) about the evils of piracy.
undercover (Score:1, Interesting)
WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone care to explain why conspiracy attracts a harsher sentence than the actual crime? I mean, leaving aside the whole moral quagmire surrounding the criminalization of copyright infringement, how can thinking and talking about doing something carry a harsher penalty than actually doing it. Does this type of duality apply in traditional crimes like assault, murder and larceny?
Re:IN CAPITALIST AMERICA (Score:3, Interesting)
The argument goes that the release groups are providing material for the people selling pirated goods on the street.
It's much harder to get rid of the street corner dvd guy, compared to killing a release group.
IMHO, in the long term, neither problem has a solution. One group does it for free fun, the other for money. You could wipe out the physical pirates by lowering prices to the point that they can't continue to operate, but that'll never happen.
Barbados (Score:2, Interesting)
also we did not worry about drinking and driving because they rummer was there was no law against it as the police had no breathalyzer equipment.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
Pirates finance terrorists? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Its just a .... (Score:5, Interesting)
The OP's point was they were criminals who knew what they were doing was wrong and had serious concequences if they were caught, but chose to continue doing it. He actually supports artists who use the Creative Commons license and the local music scene.
The chap you responded to believes that because he believes copyright law is wrong, that those violating it on a grand scale are actually commiting "civil disobedience" and should be celebrated as heros and let free. Notably, he is a leech on the P2P networks, downloading from others but blocking incoming connections from fear of enforcement; a P2P leaf node
Personally I think the article was posted to let the community know it will take longer before the latest movies are available for download on their latest P2P network. Any other questions?
Re:Its just a .... (Score:1, Interesting)
How to you trade warez publically as an act of civil disobedience? Sit in the middle of Starbucks with a t-shirt that says I-Pir8?
Back when warez was a *civil* matter, which is what it should be, people put BBS lists and phone numbers all over the place. There was all kinds of innovative new products and lots of guys got rich. Now the industry is stale and warez kids are easy targets. So they hide their names - they're facing corporate entities that pay off the federal government to stage these persecutions... oh sorry prosectutions... which financially can stomp them into dust. They have no shot at a real defense.
They broke the law?
Great. Fine them. Make them pick up litter. Don't waste time and tax dollars treating them like rapists.
And please don't give me some line about killing software developers, I've worked in that industry, warez wasn't even a blip on our radar screen. My firm was shocked when we found out we'd been warezed - because we'd seen no financial evidence to lead us to believe anything was amiss!
Re:Its just a .... (Score:2, Interesting)
Make everyone either an inmate or a guard, for the economy.
KFG
i thumb my nose at you. (Score:1, Interesting)
Those who make movies stole their games too... (Score:3, Interesting)
I've used tens of thousands of dollars worth of code over the years on a variety of platforms from the Tandy CoCo to my current PC which I simply could not afford to have bought at the time. I don't feel guilty about this in the slightest. Now that I'm grown up, I turned around and now provide a lot of content to the world which has also been borrowed by people who haven't paid. Gee whiz. Life goes on, and the wheels keep spinning and there's still food on my table. How many software makers are starving? I'm serious. --If people are good at what they do, if they produce with passion, then if their work doesn't sell, it has nothing to do with piracy.
I'd also be curious to know. . . How many of those people who today make movies and software haven't also pirated a few dozen software titles when they were kids at home with their C64s, or Amigas or whatever? I didn't know a single computer-owning kid who wasn't also a software pirate. Not one.
What comes around, goes around. That's Karma and everybody pays. It's the credit card system of the Universe.
See, I've also bought a lot of software, and unless you are a giant dork, so have you.
Now that I am an adult with an income, I particularly enjoy buying software from small companies similar to the ones I ripped off as a kid. Not out of guilt or any sense of repayment; Motivation is much more pleasing when it stems from passion rather than pain. --And I genuinely enjoy making on-line purchases and downloading cool and clever bits of code. I understand the creativity and work required to create something, and how much encouragement and joy comes from seeing a sale made. I think it's wonderful to encourage passion and wit and creativity and bravery in those individuals who are willing to buck the system and listen to their souls. It feels great!
Look at "Doom". The first version was free! And does everybody remember what the end result was? Did people lose jobs and starve? Goodness, no! --The excitement generated from creating something new and truly clever creates energy, enough energy to feed and employ thousands of people.
The trick is making sure that you stay connected to the loop. There's nothing wrong with that. Being willing to Give energy freely means nothing if you don't also allow yourself to Take energy freely. The conduit must not be stymied at either end of the flow. "Give and you shall receive," is one of the truly valid, really good sayings in this reality, but it needs one little addendum I think. . , "Give and you shall receive, --but don't be silly about it."
The "Information Wants to be Free" saying is also a good one. It's so very true, but it works in ways a little more clever and mysterious than the laws of direct commerce allow for.
-FL