Comments on: Oz cops use teens as Net crime fighters

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:16:47 +0000

Don’t know the story of Hugh Griffiths but that’s absurd. Perhaps we should all be extradited since everybody shares files, even the police, the AFP, the govt, industry, politicians, musicians, the public.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:08:57 +0000

Re last 2 comments [after mine] You may well be right, it could transcend into file sharing, though I fail to see why they’d need extra recruits for that, and I don’t know that it’s the highest thing on their agenda. I’ve never heard of the AFP going after file sharers, though I wouldn’t be too surprised if true. To get international agreement on this though? I doubt that any of those kids would be brainwashed into that, even for money.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:59:07 +0000

The Australian Federal Police has been very active in ruthlessly going after participants in the file sharing scene. In a complete travesty of justice, they extradited Hugh Griffiths to the US to stand trial, a country where he has never even set foot, because the US has much tougher anti-filesharing laws than Australia.

Considering their background, why would anyone believe that none of this will ever spill over to the children they’ve recruited?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:50:15 +0000

^^^ I am pretty sure this is open to abuse, as kids may be brainwashed into accepting file sharing as major crime.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:10:35 +0000

I think some are missing the point. These kids weren’t hired to find copyright infringers. It was for their internet savvy, and good luck to them. A worthwhile cause which hopefully they’ll be paid for also. I like the non-prudish friendly pose, as all too often it’s hands off inhumanity. They are obviously on good terms and comfortable with it. He’s not a priest where pedophilia is the rule not the exception.

By: Rekrul

Rekrul — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:10:58 +0000

The impression I got from the article was “Us adults are too dumb to understand all this new-fangled technology, so we need kids to show us how to use it.”

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:06:05 +0000

I think AFP agent Kevin Zuccato might be a homosexual pedophile. Why is he in a lover-like embrace with that boy in the picture? By the expression on his face, he looks like he was caught in the act of doing something naughty with that kid. (It’s a little strange that not a single person is smiling in that picture, why are they all so glum?) If the Catholic Church scandal has taught us anything, it’s that people in official positions of authority should never be trusted to be left alone with children, as it turned out that the priests’ loving affection for children (mostly boys) was anything but platonic.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:02:30 +0000

^^^ It is. Children soldiers, new Hitler Youth. Good addition to Lucky and Flo.

By: MJ

MJ — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:57:30 +0000

I can see where “Hitler” is going…but at the same time, it seems like more of an outsourcing issue. They need people who are tech savvy and have connections online. The obvious choices are 14-20ish year olds. It seems like the younger someone is, they generally have a great deal more native skill with technology. I wouldn’t worry too much yet about a new “Hitler Youth”, it sounds like the Aussies just want some cheap and effective help.

By: "the new Hitler Youth?"

"the new Hitler Youth?" — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:32:42 +0000

“grooming youths for acts of terrorism”

They forgot to mention pedophilia, witchcraft, …
They never miss a chance to spit out things like terrorism, as if there were an epidemic taking place of children being recruited by foreign terrorists to commit mass murder. Although they’d be hard-pressed to name a single incident of this ever happening, that matters not the least. Scare tactics work, and the more outrageous, the better.

Anyone can pass for a 14-year-old online, so why the need to use real 14 y.o.’s? Perhaps it’s not really about catching online offenders, it’s all about indoctrinating the very people who are likely committing online offenses, namely copyright infringement, to begin with.

It’s supposedly because of these teenage ‘criminals’ preference for downloading music instead of buying plastic disks that the music recording industry has lost billions of dollars since 1999. Lawsuits against kids have definitely not been effective, and may have been counter-productive, as evidenced by the RIAA abandoning mass-lawsuits against non-university addresses. People are starting to see law enforcement as being the media industry’s goons-for-hire.

Therefore a new tactic is called for: Have the kids work for the copyright cops so they won’t be working against them. But don’t mention anything up-front about copyright infringement. That will come later, and gradually like the frog-in-the-cooking-pot temperature. For now, these kids will be working to save humanity from the vilest evils the world has ever known. Just like the German kids recruited for Hitler Youth in the 1930s were told to believe.