Comments on: ‘Piracy’ funds ‘Terror groups’

By: John

John — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:41:45 +0000

RIAA and MPAA are terrorist organizations. It’s about time the government did something about them and stop the BS.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:50:48 +0000

We live in terror of our own governments. We must be the terror group, because we have so much of it.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:30:10 +0000

If those claims are even remotely true, then we should all promote FREE file-sharing, thereby eliminating the market for paid pirated goods. Maybe FACT should be promoting this rather than scaremongering ??

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:23:43 +0000

“1. Complaints not upheld
The Authority noted that intellectual property crime had funded some paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland and that videos, DVDs and VCDs made up a significant proportion of the counterfeit goods seized in Northern Ireland. It considered that, because the advertisers had shown that intellectual property crime, which included film piracy, funded terrorism, the claim was acceptable.”

When was the last time irish terrorists attacked mainland britain? 20? 30 years ago? Clearly FACT are trying to take advantage of the current climate of fear from islamic terrorism. However, no proof of IP involvement has been proved; instead they use tenuous links to some obscure irish faction which is entirely irrelevant in the global issue of terrorism. ASA is ignoring this obfuscation of the truth; upholding claims with little to none substantiation.

“2. Complaints not upheld
The Authority considered that, because some terrorist groups might benefit financially from film piracy, the claim “piracy … will destroy our society” was unlikely to mislead by exaggeration or to cause undue fear and distress.”

How can they possibly accept this as reasonable. It’s nothing more than scaremongering. I could claim analogously that the entertainment cartels are destroying our society with rapacity.

That advert is specifically designed to invoke a sense of fear upon it’s audience; fear of non-compliance; connotations of hell; the threat of imprisonment. ASA doesn’t seem to care what FACT does.

By: Tammo McIlheney

Tammo McIlheney — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:21:14 +0000

ground rule: Dont ever pay for anything pirated.
P2P is all about free.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:20:28 +0000

This is old news (I may even have referenced it before here) but it’s relevant to this news item. In Britain, people complained that the “piracy funds terrorism” claim failed advertising standards… but the complaint was NOT upheld.
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/non_broadcast/Adjudication+Details.htm?Adjudication_id=37673

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:03:10 +0000

ArsTechnica is reporting that he didn’t mention P2P, but seemed to focus mainly on people who are making money selling counterfit or pirated items. Unfortunately, the RIAA is likely to spin it to suit their purposes, so it would have been nice if he would have been more explicit.

Still, if they want to take down guys selling counterfit DVDs on the street corner, go for it. Just don’t touch P2P.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:45:11 +0000

I don’t see how it funds “terror groups”, unless the “terror groups” are the isp’s, because I think those are the only one gaining money from p2p.