Ashcroft prosecuting P2Per's?

[Mahakaal]

Hey thats why i started my post with a...."on the idea of national debt".

[punchthebaby]

wanna know a secret?

internet music is now public enemy number one. right now there are more p2p swapping services than there are people under suspicion for terroristic practices in this country. download.com has... a zillion. (no kidding, a ZILLION!). The justice department is looking for an easy target, and they're sing harsher and harsher terms to describe "pirates" (ie: thieves).. before long, these notorious HACKERS are going to be going to prisons, and these CRIMINALS are going to be EXECUTED lke the TERRORISTS that they are.

when the prosecution gets tough, the justice department get's picky.

[eeshman]

You know what? When I was 13, I used to borrow cassette tapes from buddies of mine and record them to blank tapes to listen to without paying. I also used to tape songs from the radio and make mixed tapes for myself. Guess what? I didn't pay for any of it! You can't say that the music industry didn't know this type of activity was going on and they never made a stink about it because it didn't put a "dent" in their wallets. Now that technology has progressed, we have found a new way to "copy our tapes". I can see how P2P can be used to transport some types of questionable material that the authorities would be interested in (ie terrorist type stuff, bomb making plans, etc.), but lets get real, people sharing their files is their prerogative. Maybe the gov't should be craking down on this terrorist thing a little harder.

-the eeshman

[er0k]

Originally posted here by Joey_Batch_File


I wouldn't say that is a good point. We have many laws that huge amounts of individuals defy on a daily basis. Everyone knows atleast one individual that smokes marijuana, I'm sure a majority of you have driven at excess speeds at one time or another. I would hope you guys don't but, driven after a drink or two "NOT DRUNK DRIVEN" just after a drink. What about jay-walking. I'm sure you guys got the point. However, this whole issues is all about the money, and there is nothing else to be said... Except... Show Them The Money....

There is a rule in life that no one will obey the unreasonable laws. My point being an extremely insane law like prosecuting individuals for p2p files is insane, and that a speed limit on a highway of 5 mph is insane. A great teacher Dr. A.J. Johnson once explained this too us thoroughly, that the individual basically makes the laws, that they set there own limits and their own boundaries. Smoking marijuana is believed by some to be dangerous and/or stupid. Driving drunk is dangerous and/or stupid. Excessivley speeding is dangerous and/or stupid etc. Now driving over 5 mph on a highway is not dangerous. So ppl will do it. Ppl will not obey laws that they find unreasonable or insane. Thats like persecuting someone for coughing.

[Remote_Access_]

Once and a while governments forget that they are supposed to work for the people and need a swift kick in the ass.

Yup.. All too often the people in the .gov forget who they're working for and why. I think they all need a swift kick in the ass. I'm sure there's plenty more important things that our .gov needs to be doing right now other than tracking down p2p users.

A U.S. federal judge ordered Napster to shut down its service in July 2001, but upstarts like Kazaa and Morpheus soon took its place. Kazaa, which in addition to music allows users to swap movies and other media files, said this week that its free software had been downloaded 100 million times.

Ok so I guess they plan on tracking down 100 million + p2p users and placeing them under arrest. Heh, yeah right.

"There is no doubt, mass copying off the Internet is illegal and deserves to be a high priority for the Department of Justice," said RIAA Chairman Hilary Rosen in a statement.

A "high priority"? I think there's more important issues the .gov needs to take care of, such as national debt, the stock market, and weather or not we killed bin laden to name a few. Seems to me like some one needs to get their prioritys straight.

[|The|Specialist]

Sure napster was wrong becuase they sold software to trade other peaples products but most of these guys nowdays don't have anything to do with money. I have burned games and have traded CD keys for games' source code and then ripped music onto my HD so I'd have a good soundtrack to the game however I am doing this for personal use does this make me a criminal? Before there was such a thing as money peaple would trade things does that make them criminals? The only crime that is involved is when these peaple start charging money or someone steals a album that was never ment to make it to the public but when fans download it knowing that it was stolen would you arrest them for being... well.... fans?

[AphexTwin]

i dont think P2P will ever die its definately here to stay.
its is INTERNATIONAL people all over the world use this software, there is no stopping it, so it is a pointless useless war on sharing, when these resources and time could be used on real issues and crimes that actual harm the nation and its citizens.

what a waste of time and money!!!!

[Stewy]

please don't talk about pornography on this site. Thank you.

[preep]

quote: Music labels have not ruled out suing individual users, and have pushed for the right to flood peer-to-peer networks with bogus files, or disrupt them by other means

um... forgive me if im wrong but idnt that fraudulent activity? or spamming?

time to use the 8080 proxy thingy i think

Preep

[dstevens1958]

yeah, lets see, on average there are about 2.4 million users online with Kazaa whenever I look. Lets just say this company decides to arrest half of those people and actually does. Now, how the hell do they expect to put 1.2 million people in front of a judge before the 22nd century and even expect to get half of them into jails? Lets be nice and say they manage to get half of the 1.2 million people in jail, that makes 600,000 people. And just where is all the room and money gonna come from? Ok, lets say they can make enough jails to house these 600,000 people (which is only 1/4 of the 2.4 million users online with Kazaa alone) now they have to pay for these 600,000 'criminals' in a few new jails. But then lets say they don't send anyone to jail and just want to fine everyone. Lets be reasonable and say they only catch 1/8 of the people. They are gonna fine 300,000 people for downloaded MP3's? Thats also gonna cost lots of money to track them down and bring them to justice. Why don't they just forget about it because the problem will never go away and its not killing anyone, not using up medicare or nothin, so why don't they go after the large drug dealers that are distrubuting death around the continent? Or murderers, rapists, child pornographers, the people that are harming society.
If these people think they can scare us into never downloading MP3's again, so be it. I feel that 1 out of 2,400,000 people are good odds in my favour. I have a better chance of been struck by lightning 3 times! (3.428 to be more precise!) and as Remote_Access quoted, Kazaa has been dled 100 million times. So I've only accounted for 2.2 percent of that population!
Just my long and cheap 2 cents...