If we can't convince
our historical allies that this is a good thing to do, there is no way
we are going to be able to convince the Arab world.
People have to take a stand. War may be inevitable, but we need to do
what we can to keep our consciences clean.
There is a policy to make America safer, but this is not it.
"America is still the safest country in the world. The
administration is trying to scare people with this talk about terror
and duct tape. We should use our safety and prosperity and our
strength to do good and we can do good."
Brown said his resignation was "in part a result of Andrew Card's
comment, 'Never launch a product in August.' War is not a
product."
I learned a lot from listening to it. Recommended. Requires
Real Player.
Vodkapundit - John Stossel on John
Edwards
Vodkapundit - John Stossel on John
Edwards
07/26/2004 03:49 PM
problem with the segment ..
likevodkapundit.com/archives/006255.php
track this
site | 3 links
"IT'S A JOHN-JOHN TICKET: John ..."
"IT'S A JOHN-JOHN TICKET: John ..."
07/06/2004 02:58 PM
:: John Kerry for President - Remarks of
Senator John Kerry on Security and
Strength for a New World ::
:: John Kerry for President - Remarks of
Senator John Kerry on Security and
Strength for a New World ::
05/30/2004 08:37 PM
Remarks of Senator John Kerry on Security and Strength for a New World
.. openly threatening the Saudi regime .. Seattle speech .. Today's
speech ..
speechesjohnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0527.html
track this
site | 8 links
"One Of The Authors Of A New Anti-John
Kerry Book Frequently Posted Comments On
A Conservative Web Site Describing
Muslims And Catholics As Pedophiles And
Pope John Paul Ii As Senile (If You
Can't Refute The Charges, Attack The
People Making Them)"
"One Of The Authors Of A New Anti-John
Kerry Book Frequently Posted Comments On
A Conservative Web Site Describing
Muslims And Catholics As Pedophiles And
Pope John Paul Ii As Senile (If You
Can't Refute The Charges, Attack The
People Making Them)"
08/12/2004 02:13 AM
Actual piracy on rise, response
orthagonal to RIAA's response to
"piracy"`
Actual piracy on rise, response
orthagonal to RIAA's response to
"piracy"`
01/27/2004 07:32 PM
Actual piracy is on the rise. That is to say, more people are boarding
more ships with more guns and shooting more people and taking more
cargo, all the while uttering more horrible cries of "ARRRRR."
Strangely, the shipping industry's response isn't to keelhaul
passengers who don't tip well on ocean cruises, or to hull random
pleasure boats, or to demand special bow-mounted lasers that vaporize
any ship that gets within a hundred miles.
Around the world, more than 20 sailors are known to have been murdered
by pirates last year.
Seventy are missing, presumed dead.
Other trends are also emerging: ships are now less likely to be
hijacked for their cargo; attackers, possibly from militant groups,
are seizing ships and ransoming their crew.
Link<
/a>
Death of a Salesman - Can John Kerry
sell John Kerry? By William Saletan
Death of a Salesman - Can John Kerry
sell John Kerry? By William Saletan
01/28/2004 08:43 AM
Senator Kerry has a personality and bearing that is likely all but
unbearable in the West .. Will Saletan:slate.msn.com/id/2094501
track
this site | 5 links
On Piracy
On Piracy
01/02/2004 01:09 PM
Many people who use pirated products justify it by claiming they're
only stealing from rich mega-corporations that screw their customers,
but this conveniently overlooks the fact that the people who are hurt
the most by piracy are people like me.
Shareware developers are losing enormous amounts of money to
piracy, and we're mostly helpless to do anything about it. We can't
afford to sue everyone who steals from us, let alone track down people
in countries such as Russia who host web sites offering pirated
versions of our work. If you visit a few public "warez" sites, you're
unlikely to find software from companies such as Microsoft who can
afford to prosecute pirates - instead you'll find hundreds of
shareware products written by people like me.
Some would argue that we should just accept piracy as part of the
job, but chances are the people who say this aren't aware of how
widespread piracy really is. A quick look at my web server logs would
be enough to startle most people, since the top referrers are
invariably warez sites that link to my site (yes, not only do they
steal my software, but they also suck my bandwidth).
A couple of years ago I wanted to get an idea of how many people
were using pirated versions of TopStyle, so I signed up for an
anonymous email account (using a "kewl" nickname, of course) and
started hanging out in cracker forums. After proving my cracker
creds, I created a supposedly cracked version of TopStyle and arranged
to have it listed on a popular warez site.
This cracked version pinged home the first time it was run,
providing a way for me to find out how many people were using it. To
my dismay, in just a few weeks more people had used this cracked
version than had ever purchased it. I knew piracy was rampant, but I
didn't realize how widespread it was until this test.
(As an aside, the only thing that prevented me from having this
fake cracked version erase the user's hard drive was a sense of ethics
- the same thing that's apparently missing from those who steal my
software. This does illustrate, though, that you never know what
you're getting when you download warez. Folks, if you're downloading
pirated software, you're trusting EXEs hosted by people who brag about
being criminals!)
Software crackers should be listed alongside spammers, virus
writers and script kiddies as scourges of the Internet, because they
make software more expensive and more invasive. Trust me: shareware
developers such as myself really don't want to resort to things like
software activation since it adds to our already oversized workload,
but when we see thousands of people stealing from us, we're willing to
do pretty much anything (wouldn't you?).
piracy
piracy
06/25/2004 05:12 PM
McKinsey Quarterly Jun 25 2004 7:13PM GMT
Privacy vs. Piracy?
Privacy vs. Piracy?
03/14/2005 05:27 PM
The entertainment industry certainly loves to raid ISPs these days.
Perhaps it's payback for all those recent court rulings saying that
ISPs shouldn't just roll over and hand out private data every time the
entertainment industry suspects wrongdoing. Last week, they raided an
Austra
lian ISP and a Swedish one. The Swedish one was with the help of
authorities (the Australian one wasn't), but it was still organized by
the entertainment industry. However, in raiding the ISP and carting
away lots of info, some are wondering if the raid violated
strict data privacy laws in that country. It certainly raises
some interesting questions in the light of all of the many, many data
leaks over the past couple of weeks. If your data happens to be
stored on the same server as someone who is breaking the law, does
that mean your data is open to review from private sources?
The Piracy Pyramid
The Piracy Pyramid
01/03/2005 02:39 PM
Anathema, darknets, master rippers, and currys: The
Shadow Internet. [via Volokh]
Piracy Paranoia
Piracy Paranoia
07/09/2004 01:12 PM
Fear and hope in a scare sheet from the movie industry.
Pre-empting piracy
Pre-empting piracy
06/12/2004 12:00 AM
USA Today Jun 12 2004 3:06AM GMT
FCC Cracks Down On TV Piracy
FCC Cracks Down On TV Piracy
11/05/2003 05:18 AM
CBS News Nov 5 2003 4:28AM ET
Software piracy on the up
Software piracy on the up
07/12/2004 10:48 PM
Sunday Times South Africa Jul 13 2004 3:09AM GMT
On Piracy, Part II
On Piracy, Part II
01/05/2004 03:01 PM
Looks like my rant about
software piracy has generated some thoughtful feedback, some of
which is listed in the post's t
rackbacks. My apologies for not enabling comments for these
posts, but unfortunately a recent flood of comment spam has made
comments impossible for me to manage.
One thing mentioned in several responses is that people who steal
my software wouldn't necessarily have bought it in the first place.
This seems such an obvious statement that I didn't bother mentioning
it, but perhaps I should have. So, for the record, I'm certain that
the majority of people who use pirated versions of TopStyle would
never have purchased it. Almost anything that costs money will be
used by more people if they can get it for free.
But even so, this still costs me. My support newsgroups contain
countless messages from people who have been asking me questions for
years, yet have never purchased a copy. Given that the
TopStyle trial version expires after 20 uses, you have think
something's fishy there. And you'd be amazed by the number of support
emails I get from people who admit that they're using a
stolen copy, but still expect me to offer them support.
Perhaps more importantly, you need to consider how these pirated
copies are obtained in the first place. While some pirated copies are
cracks of the trial version, in other cases people use a stolen credit
card number to purchase a copy of TopStyle, then once they download
the registered version they post it on some warez site. This results
in a chargeback fee from the credit card company - which comes out of
my pocket.
Another common argument is that software isn't a physical product,
so it has no real value and therefore nothing is lost when someone
uses a stolen copy. Uhmmm...look, anyone who is tied to physical
objects as the only things with monetary value is flat-out unprepared
for the Internet and should stay offline.
Okay, that's enough ranting for now. My purpose with these posts
is not to browbeat anyone, but instead to offer an inside view of what
piracy really is. All too often the only people commenting on piracy
are the pirates themselves or the lawyers protecting large
corporations, so I thought I'd share how piracy affects someone like
me. Despite my sour attitude regarding piracy and the lack of ethics
among those who use warez, I'm still heartened that there are enough
honest people to enable small developers to earn a nice living. I
love what I do, and if you're among those who has purchased my
software and enabled me to keep creating it, then I owe you a great
deal of thanks.
The Economics of Piracy
The Economics of Piracy
01/05/2004 11:35 PM
On Piracy, or, Nick Bradbury is
an Amazing Idiot: This was written in response to Nick Bradbury's
bit about piracy from yesterday.
...most people who pirate his software probably would
never use it anyway, so they aren't costing him any money and they're
providing him with free advertising.
This is a good point. I'm not defending piracy, but piracy costs a
company money in only one instance: when a person who has the means
and inclination to buy the software pirates it instead. I can get
a pirated copy of Oracle, but that doesn't mean I've cost that company
money, because if I couldn't pirate it, I wouldn't buy it — I'd
use something cheaper or free.
Now, there are holes in this theory, of course, because if true, it
essentially means that poor people can pirate anything they want
because they couldn't or wouldn't buy it otherwise. But I get annoyed
when Microsoft claims that piracy costs it untold billions of dollars
a year. This is a little arrogant. Microsoft is basically saying that
every single person who pirated their software would have paid
full price for it if piracy wasn't an option.
This is patently ridiculous and Microsoft knows it, but big numbers
make big headlines. If Office was suddenly un-piratable, would
Microsoft reap a billion-dollar windfall from would-be thieves? Nope
— Open Office would
just saturate the market in a big hurry. When the only options are
paying for it or finding a much cheaper alternative, 99% of pirates
will choose the latter.
Click here to comment on this entry
The end of DIRECTV piracy?
The end of DIRECTV piracy?
04/15/2004 09:03 AM
The sky is
falling! [some links require reg] The years of hacking DIRECTV's signal and pirating its program offerings seem to be coming
to
an end.
piracy messages
piracy messages
06/05/2004 04:32 AM
a picture of the piracy-warning before the movie starts .. Gallery of
movie copyright warnings .. Anti-copyright warnings in
filmsmonochrom.at/piracy
track this
site | 5 links
Piracy Works
Piracy Works
06/22/2005 02:20 AM
Kids on Piracy
Kids on Piracy
01/07/2004 04:35 PM
In response to Nick
Bradbury's post on piracy, Aaron
Swartz writes:
Nick has no innate right to have people pay for his software, just
as I have no right
to ask people to pay for use of my name.
Even if he did, most people who pirate his software probably would
never use it anyway,
so they aren't costing him any money and they're providing him with
free advertising.
And of course it makes sense that lots of people who see some
interesting new program
available for free from a site they're already at will download it
and try it out
once, just as more people will read an article I wrote in the New
York Times than
on my weblog.
And what's this nonsense about warez sites only having shareware
stuff and not stuff
from Microsoft. In my experience with the biggest, easiest-to-use
things, the opposite
is true (tons of BigCo software, very little shareware).
And while it's true that EXEs can often do anything (because modern
OSes don't have
basic security protections like chroot, which has been
in UNIX for decades),
this is true of all software not just warez.
Yes, piracy probably does take some sales away from Nick, but I
doubt it's very many.
If Nick wants to sell more software, maybe he should start by not
screaming at his
potential customers. What's next? Yelling at people who use his
software on friends
computers? Or at the library?
Aaron then wrote these series of comments in response to Schoolblo
g's
post that agrees with Nick's view:
Chris is arguing what’s known as the sweat-of-the-brow theory
of intellectual
monopolies: someone who puts work into something deserves to
control how it is used.
Taken to its extreme, this probably results in things you disagree
with. (Michael
Jackson has put a lot of money and work into his face. Can he
charge people who distribute
pictures of it? A newspaper reporter puts a lot of work into
discovering a story.
Can he charge people who repeat it.) And certainly, in the specific
case of copyright,
if Chris’s world was in place we’d have no libraries or
video stores,
and all the books at bookstores would be shrink-wrapped or behind
glass.
By Nick’s reasoning, everyone who rents a movie from a video
store or takes
a book out of the library is a pirate, because they cost the author
one potential
sale (in the US, authors don’t get paid anything for library
or video store
rentals).
Chris, do you feel authors have a right to keep their book out of
libraries? They
worked hard on their book, shouldn’t they get to make the
terms of use? If you
don’t, how do you distinguish libraries from downloads?
(It’s true that
libraries don’t usually involve copies, but this is a
practical distinction
— quibbles like that don’t see like they’d
interfere with a strong
right.)
I spend months researching an important story. Finally, after great
lengths, I confirm
that Nixon’s team funded Watergate break-in, and I provide a
chain of evidence
to prove it. You run a rival newspaper and you verify all the
evidence with your own
eyes. Can you publish the story as well? I put a lot of work into
that story, I don’t
want you to copy it, even if you give me credit.
The fact that video rental stores are legal while peer-to-peer
systems aren’t
is an accident of law and technology. The law regulated copying
while the computer
systems required copies to do everything. If we had built our
networks with superfast
pnuematic tubes instead of wires, we could whisk CDs across them to
share with others
without violating the law at all. It’s hard to believe one
system could be moral
and the other not, simply because of this technological accident.
The fact is that there is no such morality behind copyright.
Copyright is a recent
invention, which originally only touched commercial publishers (of
which there aren’t
very many). This idea of their being some moral reason for it is
even more recent.
You won’t find it in any religion, or any old culture.
It’s a silly idea,
and it goes against our nature to share and build upon each
other’s work.
What’s the moral problem with me downloading Nick’s
software when there
was no chance of me buying it? I get the software, Nick
doesn’t lose any money
and possibly gets some free advertising. It seems everyone is
better off; how could
this be immoral?
Yup. That's how smart kids of 21st century thinks. What
a shame.
Aside from the lost profit and firmness of the moral ground piracy
stands on, piracy
undermines the soul of our young. When you do something
others consider bad,
you start a ball of self-justification rolling so you can sleep at
night. So
what if I burnt a house down? No one got hurt!
Let this bullshit go on and, before you know it, the only
acceptable answer to “Why
can't I drive your car when you are not using it?“ will be an
Uzi.
Piracy Protection?!
Piracy Protection?!
09/07/2004 03:36 AM
Many of us, including me, are the software developers. Many call
ourselves 'indieware' developers. We develop software, formerly known
as 'shareware', that allows people to download it, try it for some
period of time (or with some features disabled), and, if the software
looks and feels good, purchase it. After ...
Microsoft Piracy Wizard
Microsoft Piracy Wizard
07/01/2004 03:52 AM
Select a product below and specify the method by which you acquired
it.
Products acquired via retail purchase always come as individually
boxed products.
Products acquired with the purchase of a new PC will have different
anti-piracy features than retail products.
A Volume License acquired from an Authorized Reseller comes with
fullfilment media containing a unique set of anti-piracy features
Microsoft trials piracy
Microsoft trials piracy
09/17/2004 06:37 PM
Techzonez Sep 17 2004 10:02PM GMT
iTunes may not curb piracy
iTunes may not curb piracy
11/13/2003 08:44 PM
Is There A Difference Between Piracy And
Promotion?
Is There A Difference Between Piracy And
Promotion?
08/10/2004 03:43 PM
Nearly two years ago, we wrote about a piece by Larry Lessig looking
at how the comic industry in Japan was thriving based on copycat
comics that would normally be seen as infringing works in the US,
forcing entertainment industry lawyers to shut down these fan-created
efforts. In something of a followup to that piece, Henry Jenkins has
written about how so-called "piracy" has been a huge help in making Japanese
anime popular and commercially viable in the US. Clearly,
the easy distribution of digital content has different effects -- some
of which are beneficial and some of which are harmful -- for the
creators of that content. By assuming that only one of these effects
exist, companies that are cracking down on "piracy" without realizing
they may be hurting free promotional activity are doing damage
to their own business.
Internet piracy set to become more risky
Internet piracy set to become more risky
11/13/2003 08:50 AM
Washington Times Nov 13 2003 8:35AM ET
Arrest over Spider-Man piracy bid
Arrest over Spider-Man piracy bid
07/01/2004 08:37 AM
A teenager in California is arrested after he is spotted allegedly
recording Spider-Man 2 on a camcorder.
The answer to video piracy?
The answer to video piracy?
01/11/2004 10:08 AM
CNET Jan 11 2004 9:08AM ET
Erasing $HOME For Piracy?
Erasing $HOME For Piracy?
09/10/2004 01:10 PM
file sharing = piracy? Not really.
file sharing = piracy? Not really.
01/16/2004 11:27 AM
An interesting Salon article: Is the war on file sharing
over?:
If one is willing to believe the happy talk
from music business executives, the tide has finally turned against
file sharing, thanks to the get-tough tactics employed by the
Recording Industry Association of America.
Last fall, the RIAA began filing lawsuits against individual users
of peer-to-peer trading sites, and the strategy, the RIAA says now,
has paid off. The group is careful not to declare a final victory over
file trading, but things are finally beginning to look up for a
business long in decline, say industry representatives. After years of
scoffing at copyright laws, Americans are finally beginning to
understand the gravity of file trading's offense against copyright.
The article is interesting. But what I find most
interesting is this automatic alignment that is made in the media
discourse between file sharing and piracy. There are many, many uses
other than those the RIAA defines as illegitimate for file sharing
(note, I am not saying anonymous file sharing, although there
worthy uses for that too). Sure, the media loves a good fight and
that's why the focus on this comparison. But the uses of sharing
should, can, and will move beyond those in dispute. And not
just for files, either.
Why am I saying this? Well, can't you guess?
Stay tuned. :-)
The answer to video piracy... not quite.
The answer to video piracy... not quite.
01/16/2004 01:00 PM
While technology offers myriad promises, it also beckons us to
recreate the wheel from time to time.
Germany slaps piracy tax on PCs
Germany slaps piracy tax on PCs
01/05/2005 06:46 AM
PC Magazine UK Jan 5 2005 11:08AM GMT
Classic Anti-Piracy
Classic Anti-Piracy
08/30/2004 06:52 AM
I had to laugh so how little things have changed just the
technology. [worldo
fstuart.excellentcontent.com/antipiracy.htm]
Other News: How piracy works
Other News: How piracy works
12/31/2004 05:03 AM
In his article The Shadow Internet, Wired's Jeff Howe takes a look at
how movies, music, and other commercial media actually get pirated and
distributed.
Depressing piracy statistic
Depressing piracy statistic
12/31/2004 02:59 PM
This week, 90% of the attempts to activate FeedDemon have been with
cracked serial numbers.
Internet piracy a hot issue
Internet piracy a hot issue
11/19/2003 10:28 PM
EastDay Nov 19 2003 9:50PM ET
The piracy police are out to annoy
you...
The piracy police are out to annoy
you...
06/17/2004 01:33 PM
Fed up with anti-piracy
warnings in your local cinema? Why not take a picture?
Grok Description matches for John Locke on Piracy?
GrokA matches for John Locke on Piracy?
John Locke on Piracy?
