Homeland Security Seizes Dozens of Piracy Websites

[irk1]

I think ICE is just "Christmas treeing" on the DHS association to appeal to the dim wits that think illegal immigration is the crux of the problems of America. Only thing I can think of is that either the association of the two agencies is meant to pay lip service to a lobby group that wanted something like this implemented (piracy has nothing to do with terrorism, immigration or homeland security but the emblems look cool and give the impression they mean business) or it's indirectly using piracy as a reason to eventually hit WikiLeaks hard, real hard. But really it just shows how out of touch congressmen and senators really are with the current situation of the American people and reiterates that they are sheep of corporate lobbyists.

 

[Giest4life]

Honestly, if the world couldn't get rid of real piracy, how the fuck will they do for that for Internet piracy?--and ocean that is infinitesimally bigger.

 

[Vryyk]

Its easy in the American governments mind,
if you dont spend money and make money like a little puppet you are worthless, so they will do anything to make you start spending again.

Instead of downloading photo shop CS5 they want you to work in your little job for a month to afford it,
Dont you understand? we are not people in the eyes of the government we are play things that build up the money for the rich and if we decide not to give the rich money by stealing or downloading e.g piracy the rich from the government will come down on us

I'm so goddamn sick of people like this. Stop pretending like the government and rich people are the Dark Lords of Mordor. Photoshop and movies are entirely optional purchases.

Those "evil rich people" have families and friends and everything else you have, but by chance or hard work (usually hard work) they happen to have more money. Yes, some go overboard and succumb to greed. If that happens, don't buy the goddamn product.

These people don't spend millions of dollars making products for the good of mankind any more than you work at your job to end world hunger. Stop trying to justify theft by saying the people you steal from had it coming for being affluent.

Now, all that being said, I do believe the government has overstepped it's bounds here. Seizing private property because some users of that property abuse it for illegal actions is wrong. If they could find a way to actually dampen piracy without harming citizens who act within legal bounds, that would be fine. That would be doing their job, protecting legitimate owners of property from theft. But that clearly isn't happening.

They need to back the hell off and find a legitimate solution or come to the realization that this is a useless struggle that they really can't win and spend our money on better things. Like tax breaks. Or a really cool hat for the president.

 

[Asehujiko]

Pirate Bay is still running, so I fail to see what this accomplished.

It accomplished it's primary function, which is to set a precedent of allowing the government to fuck with news outlets they don't like with impunity.

Which is why this is a complete disaster for the general population regardless of their opinion on file sharing.

 

[InnerRebellion]

Hm, maybe this will make my friend stop trying to make me torrent every bloody game I say I want.

Who am I kidding, he'll keep telling me to, and he'll keep doing it himself.

Nice try, but I don't see how this is a Homeland Security problem.

 

[Thorvan]

Piracy is bad, but the government will, can, and should not try to stop it. There are already plenty of ways that artists can and do protect themselves by benefiting the end user; small stuff like throwing a keychain, figurine or other such doodads can do a lot for a physical copy, and things like Steam (and it's increasing number of promotional stuff) do a lot for digital copies. Like other people have said, let the companies fight their own battles; let them fight them properly.

 

[irk1]

I've worked in the video game industry for about 5yrs now. When you pirate a game the only money you are hurting is a marketing exec or shareholders cocaine funds. Everyone else involved got paid. That's real talk.

 

[Vryyk]

Piracy is bad, but the government will, can, and should not try to stop it. There are already plenty of ways that artists can and do protect themselves by benefiting the end user; small stuff like throwing a keychain, figurine or other such doodads can do a lot for a physical copy, and things like Steam (and it's increasing number of promotional stuff) do a lot for digital copies. Like other people have said, let the companies fight their own battles; let them fight them properly.

I agree with you here for the most part, but one little thing bothers me. Obviously the government is blowing smoke here, they haven't really managed to accomplish much other then inconveniencing a few pirates and infringing on a lot of places they have no business being.

But stealing is a crime (as you touched on in the beginning of your post), and isn't it the job of the government to protect us from such things?

Business owners are ultimately citizens, I feel they should be entitled to the same protections as anyone else. But the real problem here is how can they fulfill their duties to us without doing yet more harm? No easy answer comes to mind.

 

[geldonyetich]

It's not like law enforcement ever lacked the power to do this, but they usually don't take the trouble, so it's interesting to consider what might have changed their priorities to bother.

Those who wrote, "well, the pirate bay is still up, so who cares" are missing this part of the article:

The seizures occur as the U.S. government is in the process of passing the somewhat controversial Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, which was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in mid-November. COICA, if passed, would allow the government to suspend a website's domain if it was "dedicated to infringing activities," and some are saying it's in conflict with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA allows infringing websites to be absolved from responsibility if they remove infringing content when notified. COICA would also create a blacklist of foreign websites that U.S. ISPs would be required to block, negating the effect of piracy websites located outside of the U.S.

The Senate will vote on COICA in an upcoming session. It, and these recent seizures, seem to indicate that the internet piracy scene will face new challenges in the decade ahead.

You can bet on the Pirate Bay as being amongst those sites U.S. ISPs will be required to block.

 

[KEM10]

This action won't do much besides just informing the public it is trying something. The only way to kick piracy down is to use attack the demand portion since it costs little to form the supply. If you can build up the guilt (or fear) of the people who use the torrents it will have actual inherent costs.

In short: To significantly and quickly knock down piracy, start suing the teenagers who do it. And not just one or two, hit them like these sites.

Isn't that the same as the arresting kids holding a couple joints, which everyone roundly mocks?

It is. The idea is the same and (economically) it works. If you know of Gary Becker, this was his idea on how to end the war on drugs...well, besides making them legal and doubling the price for a joint and making the illegal sales ten times more punishable.

 

[Ashendarei]

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Over.

When the hell did the US Gov't gain THAT power? ^$#@!$

 

[Thorvan]

Piracy is bad, but the government will, can, and should not try to stop it. There are already plenty of ways that artists can and do protect themselves by benefiting the end user; small stuff like throwing a keychain, figurine or other such doodads can do a lot for a physical copy, and things like Steam (and it's increasing number of promotional stuff) do a lot for digital copies. Like other people have said, let the companies fight their own battles; let them fight them properly.

I agree with you here for the most part, but one little thing bothers me. Obviously the government is blowing smoke here, they haven't really managed to accomplish much other then inconveniencing a few pirates and infringing on a lot of places they have no business being.

But stealing is a crime (as you touched on in the beginning of your post), and isn't it the job of the government to protect us from such things?

Business owners are ultimately citizens, I feel they should be entitled to the same protections as anyone else. But the real problem here is how can they fulfill their duties to us without doing yet more harm? No easy answer comes to mind.

The government should stop people from stealing, yes; but this is piracy we're talking about. Until a viable, non-restrictive, fair and consistently accurate solution is made to punish these people, the best way to make them buy legitimately is to provide proper incentive to do so, above the pirated version. You know, like how VALV[sup]E[/sup] does all their TF2 bonus items.

 

[SextusMaximus]

70? ONLY 70?

Only 500,000more to go guys>>

 

[poiuppx]

I'm pretty outspoken about my anti-piracy stance, but this is... sort of a creepy tact to take. I don't think the freaking Homeland Security guys should be devoting resources to this. Piracy is bad in my eyes, but I'd rather those resources went to making sure stuff like terrorism stays well and off our shores, not pirated copies of Barbie's Horse Adventures.

Also, where the hell did they get the authority to do this? Did I miss a brief recently where pirates were considered terrorists and enemy combattants? Do they think 4Chan is giving aid and comfort to the enemy? In all blunt seriousness, I do not understand why they're involved at all. I mean, if they think it's a financial thing, or they're taking it from the government's tax side, shouldn't that be Secret Service? Do they really think pirated copies of Avatar are a direct threat to our way of life and security?

*sigh* Whatever. Go team, I guess. I feel like I should support this, since the idea of the government cracking down hard enough might actually dissuade a fair few pirates, but... supporting this makes me feel slimey and just plain wrong.

 

[Vryyk]

The government should stop people from stealing, yes; but this is piracy we're talking about. Until a viable, non-restrictive, fair and consistently accurate solution is made to punish these people, the best way to make them buy legitimately is to provide proper incentive to do so, above the pirated version. You know, like how VALV[sup]E[/sup] does all their TF2 bonus items.

It would definitely be nice if more companies got on board with Valve's way of doing things. I don't mind paying for things, but an extra little bonus is always fun to get.
For instance my younger brother has been pirating music like the dickens since I moved out of the house, but he always buys albums from Tool because of the neat things they package it with. There is still plenty of money to be made out there, but too many companies are loathe to adapt.

 

[Mysnomer]

snip

Once again, I'm appalled by the responses in this thread. But what really freaks me out is you, Tom. I mean, you sound like you're down with this whole thing, and you even make jokes about it. The title of this article is not, "Some fascist congressman proposes internet censorship," or "Drunk politician mouths off about internet piracy," it is a statement of action actually happening. This has been done. This bill passed in the legal system. That is a grave miscarriage of democracy, and too many people are completely ignorant of that.

There is so much BS in even a cursory examination of these events that everyone should realize this is a bad idea. If Jesus the Christ descended from heaven and told me that this was a good thing for all mankind, I would not believe him.

 

[ionveau]

I like how you people believe if someone downloads a movie they should pay thousands of dollars for it. What the fuck is wrong with you people?

Oh ignore them, they are just trapped behind metal walls put in by propaganda there really is no hope for them they are the same people that would say smoking is good for you if the TV told them it was, its better to not pay attention to those people if you can call them people.

 

[Benmonkey7]

70 isn't much, but it's a start at least. Will we ever get rid of piracy? Probably not, but hopefully we can slow it down. Throw some wrenches in the piracy machine. There's a difference between freedoms and stealing.

 

[cheese_wizington]

Shouldn't we suspend Tom Goldman for a week for talking about piracy Escapist?

Cause like, remember when that happened to me?

OT:

Well TPB is still up, living up to it's name I suppose.