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Microsoft Says Software Pirates Are Funding Terrorists

Stupidity

from the some-FUD,-anyone? dept

Tue, Jan 22nd 2002 10:33am — Mike Masnick
Oh boy. Leave it to Microsoft to figure out some way to take the whole terrorist issue and turn it to their advantage. They're now claiming that we need to stop worldwide software piracy because software pirates are funding terrorists. They've apparently done some study, which no one else has seen. Others who were asked indicated there was one case of a pirate giving his proceeds to terrorists, but that was it. It seems that that was all Microsoft's study found as well, but that doesn't stop them from tapping into the fear of terrorism to try to get their point across (and the US government to help them out). Next, we're going to hear about how the terrorists use Linux...
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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2002 @ 1:44pm

    Silly, but there is *something* to it....

    One of the interesting things I've read about al Qaeda is that most of its cells are expected to be self-financing and self-sustaining. So, their members are frequently engaged in various forms of petty crime to finance themselves. Various forms of credit card fraud were mentioned as particularly common. So it stands to reason that software piracy would fit this particular al Qaeda business model too - but so would just about any shady profit-making activity. The model does present an interesting Catch-22 for terror networks in general as states crack down, though. If they're financing themselves through petty crime instead of laying low for the big job, they can get caught. If they get financing from "the top," then cops can follow the money trail....

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Wklink (profile), 23 Jan 2002 @ 5:34am

    Can I have a spin?

    This study seems to prove what I've long suspected. The only way to eliminate terrorism would be to abolish all commercial software. Once all software is free, there'd be absolutely no more piracy...

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    thecaptain, 23 Jan 2002 @ 6:32am

    Well...

    If MICROSOFT says it, it MUST be true!

    Quick..make Windows the ONLY legal software and authorize deathsquads to hunt down your neighb...huh I mean terrorist-backing software pirates!!! Hurry!!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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