How Come The MPAA Is Helping The FBI Train Swedish Police?
from the seems-a-bit-outside-their-job-description dept
Last year Swedish law enforcement, at the urging of the US government (who, of course, was being pushed by the entertainment industry) raided the Pirate Bay and took all its servers (along with many others as well), declaring it a "significant blow" against piracy. In retrospect, many are considering the raid "botched." Not only did it fail to shut down the Pirate Bay (which was back up in a short time and became much more popular thanks to all the press coverage), it also pissed off a bunch of other companies whose servers were seized in the raid for no good reason. In response to the "botched" raid, it appears that the MPAA is now training a special group of Swedish anti-piracy police with the help of the FBI (found via Digg). This raises a ton of important questions -- that aren't easily answered by the information provided. First of all, which part of the "botching" required this response? Somehow, we think that they're probably a lot more upset that the service went right back up and became more popular -- but that's hardly something that police training is going to help with. Perhaps it's the collateral damage issue -- but, if that's the case, why would the MPAA be involved at all? That's not the MPAA's area of expertise at all. Even more importantly, why are the Swedish police taking its lessons from a private entity that is clearly biased, has been consistently wrong about the impact of piracy (remember when it insisted that VHS tapers were the Boston Strangler to the movie industry?) and doesn't follow its own rules anyway? On top of that, why then is the FBI helping the MPAA if this is really a civil dispute rather than a criminal one? It's time that law enforcement around the world started realizing that all of these enforcement efforts have little to do with actually protecting inherent rights -- and plenty to do with propping up an outdated understanding of a business model.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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That must be false
[Recall DVD Jon's case in Norway that was pushed by the MPAA and US State Department, but the court decided that DVD Jon did nothing wrong.
It was even viewed as beneficial to break badly made locks, and this was before the anti-DRM of today.]
And so they would not be allowed to teach the police anything about copyright, because the police lawyers would not permit it. So this story must be false.
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Rofl, idiocy
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Re: Rofl, idiocy
"Piracy," by definition, is armed robbery on the high seas, a crime of violence against persons. This isn't one of those "I consider it to mean..." words - it's defined by law.
By applying the label to copyright violation (a crime against property - and intangible property at that) we overstate the seriousness of the act.
No doubt the MP/RIAAs would love to see the bodies of offenders hanging from the gibbet, be it virtual or real. That's less apt to happen if we throw the bullshit flag at calling copyright violation "piracy."
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what does that last A stand for again?
Someone needs to smack this **AA companies on the nose and send them back to where they belong, America. Hey idiots, that last A stands for America, so stay in your own damn country. If you don't like what is happening elsewhere, then keep your products out of those other countries and build yourself a nice big electronic wall (and physical one for that matter) and keep the rest of the big scary world from coming to destroy you.
Stupid America strikes again!
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Re: what does that last A stand for again?
These guys are loaded with money, and money makes things happen. In America, sure, and it seems in other countries, too. The can "shove their noses" in European matters because they have money and power, and it seems the Swedish government was either intimidated by, or won over with, that money and power.
So, since the **AA is now poking around in European affairs, I cordially invite you to try and smack them on the nose, and see what it gets you.
Oh, and before I forget, the last A stands for America, but that little word before that A that isn't added is "of" not "for". There's a difference.
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Re: Re: what does that last A stand for again?
I think this is indeed a "Stupid America Strikes Again" problem. If it were not for the "Stupid American" politicians being bought and paid for by the entertainment industry (which makes a killing off stupid americans) these groups would not have so much sway with the stupid american politicians, and would not be able to get away with so many "stupid american" policies.
-- Signed: Quite Ashamed Stupid American
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Re: Re: Re: what does that last A stand for again?
Hint: It's the second to last word in the title.
I in no way say that we, as americans, have no blame here, I'm just saying that this isn't a case of "Stupid America strikes again!" because, well, it's about the Swedish government being "stupid".
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Re: what does that last A stand for again?
If the Sweeds want us there fine if the MPAA is invited to help fine. Otherwise our butts better hightail it back over the Atlantic and stay here. We have plenty of CENSORING and MONITORING over here to keep U.S. occupied.
So rest assure we have our electronic walls being built and coming soon lots of barbed wire fence with them.
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Soon comrade, the GLORIOUS RIAA will begin to sue and march in China, after that NOTHING WILL STOP THEM!
ALL HAIL, RIAA!!!
http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/021207.asp
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stupid america vs stupid swedes
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Why Pirate Bay?
BTW just laugh and move on about that gigatribe ad above - they've already been laughed off at Digg.
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MPAA the Gestapo
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MPAA
Scary.
Would make for a great SCI-FI horror flick though.
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