Torrent Madness: UK Cybercrime Official Argues That File Sharing Is A Gateway Drug To Crime
from the moral-panic-du-jour dept
Perhaps it's time to make an update to Reefer Madness, entitled Torrent Madness. A totally out of touch and clueless -- but powerful -- UK official, Andy Archibald, who somehow is the deputy director of the National Cyber Crime Unit at the National Crime Agency, is going around spouting nonsense about how file sharing is some sort of "gateway" into more crimes for young people today (found via Ars Technica):"If you think about the illegal downloading of music, of videos and DVDs, I think that practice is more common than we might imagine within the youth of today.Considering how many people engage in file sharing, if it actually were a "gateway" into further criminal activity, you'd think we'd be in the midst of an incredible crime wave. And yet, here are the stats straight from the UK government:
"That's criminality.
"It's almost become acceptable.
"That's the first stages, I believe, of a gateway into the dark side."
But, no, good old Andy Archibald isn't troubled by the data. He knows that these evil hacker types are all showing up because of that no good file sharing:
"There are many of our young people, and not only young people, who are becoming highly skilled and capable in a digital environment," he said.Yup. We've moved past the "child predators are grooming your kids" moral panic, into the "evil cybercriminals are grooming those file sharers" moral panic.
"It's important that they put those skills to good use and are not tempted to become involved, unwittingly in cyber criminality.
"They are members of forums and are exchanging ideas in a marketplace that criminals are looking (at).
"They are looking for people with technical skills who can compliment their criminal business.
"They are looking to recruit those people.
"They try to induce and manipulate them."
And, of course, it's all happening in that scary, scary place known as the "dark web" (boo!)
"When I joined policing ... you had drug trafficking, organised immigration crime, firearms trafficking, you knew where to go to sell stolen property, you knew where to go to hire a hit man, frankly.But, he insists, the police don't want mass surveillance. They want "A narrative... that reassures the public." Funny, then, that it appears most of his speech was a bunch of nonsense designed to scare the public, huh?
"Actually, we could control that and we managed that by covert policing, overt policing and an infrastructure around it.
"All of those things I've just described are now happening in a digital environment in what is loosely termed the dark web.
"On the dark web we have criminals operating there, trading guns, trading drugs.
"That is where the illegal commodities are being traded."
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Filed Under: andy archibald, crime, cybercrime, file sharing, gateway, uk
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Talk to your kids, before they do
"It's important that they put those skills to good use and are not tempted to become involved, unwittingly in cyber criminality.
"They are members of forums and are exchanging ideas in a marketplace that criminals are looking (at).
"They are looking for people with technical skills who can compliment their criminal business.
"They are looking to recruit those people.
"They try to induce and manipulate them."
"And that is why it's so important to sit down and talk to your sons and/or daughters, because if you don't, they might end up working for the government."
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Other possible gateways?
If that's the case, then there are far bigger fish to fry. I can guarantee that probably 99% of the criminals went to school. So, schools must be a gateway to criminal activity. For that matter, I can state with 100% certainty that every single criminal had been born, so...
Yeah, well if politicians didn't rely solely on correlation, they wouldn't have very much to try and start a moral panic with, which they need to advance their own personal agenda.
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Re: Other possible gateways?
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Re: Re: Other possible gateways?
You know there's some sadistic person who thinks that'd be a good idea.
Probably one of our copyright trolls.
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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100305/0317058431.shtml
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Re:
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The reason that crime has fallen in the UK is that many criminal business opportunites that used to exist have been made unprofitable by technology. When every middle class home had a video recorder that cost about a month's (average) wages and was easily portable then industrial scale house burglary was worthwhile. (The only tiome I have been burgled was at the peak of that era).
Nowadays the most expensive portable piece of tech in the average home costs less than 2 weeks minimum wage so the business model has failed.
The vast majority of crime is (at root) economic - so crime reduction needs to be based economics rather than "morality".
You are unlikely to stop people from sinning by moral exhortation - but removing the economic incentives might just work.
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But there's no shortage of sin, so I wouldn't worry about it.
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Trading
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Andy Archibald
Andy Archibald, who as the deputy director of the National Cyber Crime Unit at the National Crime Agency is busy trying to puff his own unit's importance in the regular round of trying to get more funding.
In other news it was recently revealed that the Pope is (apparently) a Roman Catholic....
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Here's right about it being a "gateway", but not in the way he thinks he is ...
But then, you meet people who smoke pot. And they're as "normal" as everyone else. Hell, maybe you even try it yourself. And then it dawns on you: "All this time they've been lying to me about how bad this stuff is. They must be lying about cocaine, heroin, etc."
But, it turns out they're not lying. Too late for too many people.
Crying wolf there about the negative effects of pot is much like the wolf they're shedding tears over that is file sharing.
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We'll be arresting you first there Andy Archibald
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Oh, No! I must be a criminal!
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Re: Oh, No! I must be a criminal!
This must be true because you used the torrentz and my grandson said so.
Sincerely,
You Congressman
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Life imitates Weird Al
and then you're robbing liquor stores,
and selling crack, and running over
school kids with your car.
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Re:
Too late - it seems that the British military is already a bit further down that road:
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Gateway to Terrorism!
Don't you know you could get so much more traction by saying it is a gateway to Terrorism!
Better yet, just say that file sharing IS terrorism!
Since when is Hollywood shy about going over the top and jumping the shark, creating an implausible spectacle? Add some special effects and claim that file sharing will bring about the apocalypse. That might really move legislators into action on a gateway to nowhere.
File sharing costs the global economy $74 TRILLION -- which is way more than the global economic output, but who cares because... FILE SHARING!
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Makes sense
So, we should stop criminalizing basic human behavior like sharing.
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"This is CSI: Cyber. What are you wearing?"
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http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/bloodninja
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I wish I could give you more than one funny vote...
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That's the first stages, I believe, of a gateway into the dark side.
Hatred and anger are powerful, but they lead to the dark side, these are the ways of the Sith.
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Re:
But with the proper file and a new 3D printer you could effectively print your way to a lifetime in jail.
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Pretzel logic
So, let me get this straight. He's saying that the police don't want mass surveillance, but the police put the time and effort into developing and doing it "for many years". Those poor police are being forced to engage in mass surveillance against their will!
I am guessing that the "reassuring narrative" is that part about how the surveillance that the police don't want to do has been managed in a "very responsible way" for years, so it's all good.
I find that entire section the opposite of reassuring. It's downright schizophrenic. Or, it's the pretzel logic of someone who is lying. I'm not sure which would be worse.
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i do not for 1 second believe that these people have any idea what they are talking about and therefore spout what they are told to. they do not, i believe, do so for free!
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CRIMINALS
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yeah yeah, gateways
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What about Andy?
I mean, really, I wouldn't want to look like such a fucktard in front of, well, everybody.
Why doesn't he give a shit that the Internet community at large now thinks he's nothing more than just another dipshit head, who has little if any technical understanding of what he's supposed to be managing?
Are these guys that far removed from involvement where they actually think what they're saying is true?
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Re: What about Andy?
I don't think that they care if what they're saying is true. They care about making their paymasters happy.
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Re: What about Andy?
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how?
perhaps they should legalize pot for the potheads and make tax money and regulate more.....
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In a way, maybe
When laws that are overly restrictive or difficult to follow, or let's just say it, stupid, people start to lose respect for the legal code and use their own beliefs to determine appropriate behavior.
Maybe they need o get rid of stupid laws, so that folks follow the good ones...
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Wow!
And there, perhaps, lies (if anywhere) a tiny, tiny grain of validity in the "gateway to bigger crimes" argument - If you're going to make blatantly normal human behaviour criminal, it can hardly come as a surprise if those growing up in that environment start finding a certain contempt for laws in general whether they actually break them or not.
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Correlation
No, but a lack of correlation strongly implies a lack of causation. I hesitate to say "proves" but almost.
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"File sharing" is not a gateway! -- SEZ PIRATES.
You've gotten your one-liners off, but let's see how far your principle holds up:
Is crystal meth a "gateway" to criminal behavior like robbery / theft?
Is bigotry toward gays / blacks / Jews a "gateway" to assaults and murder?
Yes. People don't just suddenly start doing crystal meth or rounding up Jews into concentration camps.
There's a slow process of setting morality aside, during which obvious end results are denied by the proto-criminals involved.
To set morality aside is step toward criminality.* Those then gather into gangs...
For instance, nearly every day here you pirates tell yourselves it's okay to "share" copyrighted content, and go off on paranoid rants over a perceived "draconian" copyright regime!
You're able to predict, and predictably selective!
* The obvious reply is obvious, but it's absolute Truth that concern for morality is the measure of human versus animal. But go ahead, pirates, and argue that you're low as animals.
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Re: "File sharing" is not a gateway! -- SEZ PIRATES.
If you can make up crap, So can I.
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Re: "File sharing" is not a gateway! -- SEZ PIRATES.
No, many meth heads get by just fine on dealing or prostitution.
Is bigotry toward gays / blacks / Jews a "gateway" to assaults and murder?
No, but it often leads to a career in politics or law enforcement, so ok, kinda.
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Re: "File sharing" is not a gateway! -- SEZ anyone with 1/2 a brain
Taking Crystal meth is not immoral. Stupid, maybe. Illegal, certainly - but arbitrarily illegal. Other recreational drugs are available legally and are often socially accepted, many drugs now illegal were also socially accepted previously (Heroin for example, Opium, E). Clearly drug-taking is not a matter of morality.
Also, much of the problem caused by illegal drug use stems from their very illegality and the crime that surrounds anything declared illegal that people still demand. Look how well prohibition worked out.
Just because you don't like something doesn't make it immoral - even if it's illegal - and making things that are generally normal human behaviour illegal for the same reason usually ends up creating a bigger problem than you started with.
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Re: "File sharing" is not a gateway! -- SEZ PIRATES.
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And now we've got the police making those comparisons.
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That's the first stages, I believe, of a gateway into the dark side.
Online investigation into historic child abuse? fucked it utterly we have.
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Lives ruined by crime
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It's the opposite of a gateway
File-sharing implies that you don't have to pay to afford your habitual filing and don't need to engage in criminal activities to finance your hobby.
Except if you make everything a crime...
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Tried and True Falsehoods
Andy Archibald is just using an old politically favored technique with a proven track record, commonly called Official Bullshit.
Without the wonders of Official Bullshit, most of the really bad laws would have never been written and most of the last five generations of crooked cops, mob lawyers and career politicians would not have been able to afford their yachts.
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