p2pnet - rss feed: ‘Piracy’ funds ‘Terror groups’
p2pnet news | Politics:- US attorney general Michael Mukasey indeed seems to be picking up the reins formerly held by ex-self-described US Top Cop Alberto Gonzales, forced to join ex-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Bush pal and political adviser Karl Rove, White House counselor Dan Bartlett, budget director Rob Portman, chief White House attorney Harriet Miers, political director Sara Taylor and deputy national security adviser J.D. Crouch in early retirement.
According to Mukasey, “Terror groups are taking their cues from organized crime and funding their operations with money they make committing intellectual property crimes, he told a gathering of Silicon Valley executives,” says the Associated Press.
Whenever IP crime is mentioned, attacks on the P2P community and file sharers are sure to follow
“Criminal syndicates, and in some cases even terrorist groups, view IP crime as a lucrative business and see it as a low-risk way to fund other activities,” the story has Mukasey saying. “A primary goal of our IP enforcement mission is to show these criminals that they’re wrong.”
Mukasey, “did not elaborate and did not take questions,” but he said his department is, “devoting increasing resources to prosecuting such crimes and filed 7 percent more IP cases in 2007 than in 2006 and 33 percent more than in 2005,” says AP.
“Before Friday’s speech, Mukasey met privately with representatives from companies including Apple Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc.”
Not only but also, “A day earlier, the attorney general also met with entertainment industry executives”.
forced to join - US ‘Top Cop’ Alberto Gonzales resigns, August 27th, 2007
Associated Press - Mukasey: Piracy Funding Terror, March 29, 2008
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March 31st, 2008 at 6:45 am
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.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:03 am
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.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:20 am
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
March 31st, 2008 at 12:21 pm
ground rule: Dont ever pay for anything pirated.
P2P is all about free.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:23 pm
“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.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:30 pm
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 ??
March 31st, 2008 at 4:50 pm
We live in terror of our own governments. We must be the terror group, because we have so much of it.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
RIAA and MPAA are terrorist organizations. It’s about time the government did something about them and stop the BS.