In economic crisis, Obama goes after LimeWire
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Earlier today, “Any hope that the appointment of five RIAA lawyers to the new US Department of Justice was something of an aberration can now be dashed,” p2pnet posted.
“And any doubt that the Obama administration will take over from George W. Bush, working in the best vested interests of the corporate entertainment industry, can now similarly be dispelled.”
But that isn’t the half of it.
With the world suffering under the worst recession ever seen, and which not at all incidentally was caused by Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, unbelievably, large numbers of US lawmakers are frittering away time and taxpayer money on corporate entertainment cartel copyright interests.
US commerce secretary Gary Locke has been enlisted as an entertainment industry factotum, and on top of that, the Hollywood studios and the Big 4 record labels have revived the hoary contention that P2P applications offer access to “unauthorized access to government and private data”.
With that as the hook, “A House committee is reopening its investigation of Internet services that let computer users distribute music and movies online,” says the Associated Press.
“The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent letters Monday to the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and The Lime Group, which runs LimeWire, a popular file-sharing service,” says the story, going on:
“The letters, signed by chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., and ranking Republican Darrell E. Issa of California, sought information about any such breaches and what the Obama administration and company are doing to protect against them.”
It doesn’t say why the two pols are asking the owners of a P2P application for details about Obama’s plans.
The story goes on to quote LimeWire spokeswoman Linda Lipman as saying, “We at LimeWire understand that Internet safety is paramount, and we strive to offer peer-to-peer’s most secure technology.
“Our newest version, LimeWire 5.0, by default, does not share sensitive file types such as spreadsheets or documents,” Lipman said. “In fact, the software does not share any file or directory without explicit permission from the user.”
p2pnet – Upsurge in anti-P2P actions under Obama, April 23, 2009
Associated Press – Lawmakers to re-examine Internet-sharing software, April 21, 2009
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April 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I’ll be brief. I pirate and am not an evil person who will drain sociaty or corrupt your children,. I pirate because it brings joy in my life through game, movies, music, and whatever. I dont have money to pay for all the stuff I pi9rated, never will.
In a perfect sociaty everyone has equal opportunity. In america (real life) people do not have equal opportunity. I will explain: If I was born into a family with lots of money, im more likely to succeed then someone who was not. The location I live in the united states (what state) determines how far I can go in life. Lets be real about it now. One could argu well move to a higher populated, more industrious area. That means leaving friends and family for better oppurtunites, some choice. It’s not an equal choice. One could say go to college if our not from a well financed family to compete in the market and better your life to buy things. If everyone went to college, then who woulld pump gas? Think about that. Society requires a tier of financial status based on ocupation. Everyone CANNOT earn high dollors or even be equal. Grunt work or hard labor = less pay cause people prefere not to do it and go to college to avoid that job like the plague.
So here I am tired of running the rat-race life, hunting for the “american dream”. You trade in 8 yrs for a “shot” at getting better then average. Some make it some don’t I dont see the point in even trying when I want to spend the time I have left enjoying life. Not working for some corporate people can make high yield on the dollor with my labor. Life is not fair so I make due with what I have.
No government will tell me I cannot download. Thats telling me I have to life without my happiness. I would rather slit my wrists then live in a zombie robotic world where im just another number. I will continue to download illegal file till the day I die!!
The FBI, IFPA, the MPAA, IPRED can al go to hell and I’m not afraid to say it. Knock on my door, I’ll still download. I’ll stop when society presents a fairer option. Where companies arent allowed to hijack artists money and raise consumer prises to line there wallets. I’ll stop when it is “truely am equal opportunity continant I live on. And I promise to stop the day I
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Amen, Torrent Fan Hardcore
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I’d like to think I’m a little more moderate, but I’ll give an “Amen” to that, too.
It looks like it got cut off near the end, though…
As an addendum, I would like to note that I will not only download what is available when I can’t support the artists myself (although I prefer to support the artists when I can, feeding the RIAA’s pockets isn’t doing that, obviously), but I will actively and continually do whatever I can to help free the internet in general. Downloading is only one example.
I don’t want to have to be afraid to post an unusual or generally disliked opinion. I don’t want live where people are afraid to post their videos. I don’t want to live in a world where cooperation is impossible.
It’s not that world yet. But it could be. And I’ll do whatever I can to help stop it. Obama be damned. (And to think, I voted for him because he promised to do exactly the opposite of this! Stupid.)
April 25th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Torrent Fan Hardcore and Jakykong, I agree 200% with what you say. Like you, i download movies and music from time to time. I am a student. Since i am not a citizen and I have a student VISA, I am legally forbidden to work for any company other than the university that signed my VISA. So i’m stuck to the miserable student salary that the University provides and, after rent, bills and car insurance, i’m left with less than 200$ a month.
But the real point is that i am just one among TONS of people in this situation. Now, even a retarded person would be able to understand that the great majority of people these days simply CANNOT afford to buy or rent movies, music software. Many of us cannot even afford much more important services, such as proper medical care when needed! Think if we can throw our little money in CDs and DVDs!
And now the “POOR” recording industries, which – yeah! – are sooo much struggling to get to the end of the month, are yelling like crying babies to us because we “steal their little fair revenue”. If we go see the gross revenue for any Hollywood movie, there you go, tens to hundreds of millions of $$$.
I’d put those jerks that have the so called “power” in the shoes of someone that SHOULD instead complain. I’d like them to really understand what it means to struggle to survive in this selfish society, to try saving any possible little bit to be able to get to the end of the month.
They will never ever have the power of forcing millions of people to accept their bullshit. They base their actions and complaints solely on their immense GREED. They will always want more and more money and if they need to back stab bums to take their 3 $ daily income they wouldn’t hesitate.
April 27th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Limewire did the right thing. They open sourced their app. ANYONE releasing a p2p or dvd/mp3 rip app should release it as open source, as that is a preemptive F.U. to the RIAA/MPAA thugs. Sure, they can shut you down. But once the code is out there if your app is popular someone else will pick up the ball and run with it. Obama’s ex RIAA thugs can shut down Limewire, then good luck going after Frostwire( Is that even U.S. based?) If it’s popular, and open source, someone in another country will pick it up if the U.S. decided to ban it.
May 12th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Mike Jones