Holy shit! Tis horrible...

[lazygamer]

The corps step up the war...

 

quote:
The Danish Anti Pirat Gruppen (Anti Piracy Group) has issued invoices of up to $14,000 apiece to approximately 150 users of KaZaA and eDonkey for illegally downloading copyright material.

APG monitored the file sharing networks for available files with Danish IP addresses - and went to court to get the users' personal details from their ISPs, armed with screen shots of, for example, the KaZaA window showing the files on the user's hard-drive. The courts obliged and ordered the ISPs to deliver the personal details of the incriminated users. Then the bills were in the post ... landing on the mats of the unfortunate downloaders over the last few days.

The users are charged about $16 per CD and about $60 per full length movie. If they pay now - and delete the illegal content from their hard drives - then the amount is cut in half and they avoid going to court. Those who don't pay up are to be sued.

Question is: if the APG has only the file names from KaZaA or eDonkey - how can it make sure that they really are illegal files and not only "similar named files" or hoax files? Can APG prove that is the work of a certain user in a household - or will it go for the entire family?

We'll keep you posted ...

[Doctor V]

Why not just reinstate slavery.  May as well considering how far things have gone.  Only this time, not just blacks, everyone with less than a million dollars would become a slave.

[ November 25, 2002: Message edited by: Comrade Doctor V: Linux Pusher ]

[choasforages]

hahahaa, NO, everybody will be enslaved in the future, look at the laws and actions of this contry,  hell, the governemnt allmost has us enslaved, look at our fucking taxs. tax what we make, tax how we spend, tax for the fuck of it, hell, if patrick henry/*i think thats his name*/ saw todays taxs, hed say no taxation period, i bet hes rolling in his grave

[Doctor V]

Not everyone pays taxes.  Microsoft dosn't.  Most large enterprises don't.  There are loopholes in the laws that allow large companys to avoid them completely.  The tax laws are so complicated, a whole room could be filled by tax law documentation.  
I think tax law should be simplified and re-written so that all of it could fit on to one sheet of paper.

[lazygamer]

Ok being optimistic, we might get the chance at a first world country revolution someday. Just because  it is harder to succeed at then in the past, doesn't mean its impossible.

So if a new democracy is formed, perhaps safeguards could be added to greatly extend it's lifespan. It just feels like laws of the universe.

LAW #1:You can only push people so far before they rebel.

LAW #2:You cannot enslave people permanantly.

Technology makes it harder to rally people to overthrow a government, and technology makes it harder for the people to succeed, but it never becomes impossible.

[cahult]

Neither APG nor their swedish counterpart really has any legal right to do like this. In Sweden they are fighting a losing battle because of a court ruling two years ago when one of ministers in our government burned a CD and gave it to one of her nieces as a christmas gift.

Also, in Sweden all companies must pay taxes, but it

[Kintaro]

Austrlaia offically sucks ass, over here there is lots of tax. There is public liability insurance, all sorts of bullshit... In australia a 12 year old kid was selling stuff on the side of the road to try and buy a new bike. But the lovly austrlaian Liberal party has made it that he has to pay for a $1M insurance policy. How is that just?

Im sick of democracy, it does not work. It only makes about 3 good partys, and 60 other independant partys have a big popularity race. The best looking candidate gets the vote. Not the most truthful.

Fuck Democracy!

[cahult]

OK, consider this then: Democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on what

[Pissed_Macman]

WHAT THE FUCK!!??? THIS ISN'T THE INTERNET ANYMORE, ITS ONE BIG COMMERCIAL!!

[Kintaro]

que?

[voidmain]

If ya do the crime ya gotta do the time. I think it's funny and I hope they go to jail. Listen to your damn selves talking about killing people because your illegal activity might finally be catching up with you. There are of course, alternatives. Maybe you don't find the alternatives as pleasing. Well then fucking pay up, how hard is that? If you can't afford it, tough shit. Use the alternatives. If you break the law, then be prepared to take responsibility for your actions. If you really want to hurt the bastards, then don't use their products.

[ November 26, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

[Kintaro]

good point

[rtgwbmsr]

quote:Originally posted by cahult:
Neither APG nor their swedish counterpart really has any legal right to do like this. In Sweden they are fighting a losing battle because of a court ruling two years ago when one of ministers in our government burned a CD and gave it to one of her nieces as a christmas gift.

Also, in Sweden all companies must pay taxes, but it

[Kintaro]

Really, well you can vote a new moderator, see my sig.

[Doctor V]

I think fining someone $14,000 for downloading MP3s is like giving someone 20 years prison time for jaywalking.  The RIAA is guilty of pleant of crimes of their own.  Collusion is illegal isn't it?  Yet somehow the price of CDs has risen to nearly $20 dispite the cost to make them diminishing.  The RIAA's trade agreements also see to it that they do not compete at all for the artists.  Instead artists are forced to choose between bum deals that screw them over from one of several colluding labels.  I don't understand why someone should go to jail for downloading an MP3 dispite the RIAA people not going to jail for collusion.

New technology has made the current record labels less of a necessity to society.  Now, they no longer serve the public, but only serve their own interests at the expense of the public.  They are using every vehicle at their disposal to keep the system of the past in place.  And it hurts everybody but themselves.

Also, lobbying by the RIAA has pushed the law so heavily in favor of the labels and against the public, they are IMO illegitimate.  They have even lobbied laws that make a division of their own organization have complete control of all audio webcasting, even when there is a contract betoeen the webcaster and an artist who has produced his own cd.

Opressive laws should be fought against.  Opressive laws are followed by cowards and the best word to describe a person who publicly breaks one is: Hero.  A couple of names come to mind, Rosa Parks, and Ghandi.  --Should the owner of the bus company be able to say who sits where?  Its his bus company right, he can do whatever he wants.  If he wants all black people to sit in the back, then they either should or they can walk to work everyday.--  Sorry, not going to go for it.  Boycotts don't always work, sometimes the people have to take action.