Right wing concern trolls crying about how pirate music sites are shut down by DHS/ICE

[zulchzulu]

The latest turn in hypocrisy with a little cluelessness from the Obama Derangement Syndrome crowd comes with them siding with music/DVD pirates who steal stuff and think it's cool over the Obama administration:

In what appears to be the latest phase of a far-reaching federal crackdown on online piracy of music and movies, the Web addresses of a number of sites that facilitate illegal file-sharing were seized this week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

(snip)

“ICE office of Homeland Security Investigations executed court-ordered seizure warrants against a number of domain names,” said Cori W. Bassett, a spokeswoman for ICE, in a statement. “As this is an ongoing investigation, there are no additional details available at this time.”

Among the domains seized were torrent-finder.com and those of three sites that specialized in music: onsmash.com, rapgodfathers.com and dajaz1.com. TorrentFreak, a news blog about BitTorrent — a file-sharing system that has tended to elude the authorities because it is decentralized — said that at least 70 other addresses had been seized, most belonging to sites related to counterfeit clothing, DVDs and other goods.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/technology/27torrent.html

Here are just a few choice samples of the ODScrowd:

I guess the question that comes to mind is what can our newly elected Congress do about all of this? Is this the first salvo of the “ignore Congress and implement state control of everything via executive order” business plan our marxist fearless leader, the 0 (that’s a zero) has in store for us? Let’s hope we can last until 2012. Sarah, we need you NOW!
- Dickhead

Rush said they would be coming after him. Might as well take down the flag and turn out the lights. My sister in law voted for the Won, just wait til the next family reunion.
- Another Dickhead

Looks as if DHS makes us all less secure in our person and property. Wonder how the Constitutional Scholar in Chief reconciles these and other acts by DHS with the 4th Amendment Rights guaranteed by the Constitution?
- Yet Another Dickhead

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/11/27/homeland-security-seizing-websites/

Oddly :crazy:, none of these people were complaining when it was happening in 2005, under the Bush Administration:

Agents shut down a popular Web site that allegedly had been distributing copyrighted music and movies, including versions of "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." Homeland Security agents from several divisions served search warrants on 10 people around the country suspected of being involved with the Elite Torrents site, and took over the group's main server.

The agency said it was the first criminal enforcement action aimed at copyright infringers who use the popular BitTorrent file-swapping technology.

According to the investigators, "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" was made available through the Elite Torrents site before being shown in theaters and was downloaded more than 10,000 times. Investigators said that the site had 133,000 members and that it distributed more than 17,000 individual movie, software and music titles.

http://news.cnet.com/This-week-in-copyright-infringement/2100-1026_3-5722887.html

[liberal N proud]

1. I have noticed over the years that the right does not think much of copyright laws

These people use what they want when they want and don't feel the need to pay those who created the work should be compensated.

Software, music and other creative works cost more to pay for those who violate the laws.

Pisses me off that I have to pay for these cheap bastards all the time.

[TheWraith]

3. That's not really true.

There is absolutely no evidence that people who acquire stuff from torrents, etcetera would ever pay for it in the first place, particularly when you consider that it's a route disproportionately favored by poor college students.

Moreover, the price charged for music and movies has little if anything to do with compensating the creators, and everything to do with the will of the conglomerates that produce them. A relatively new musical group or performer, for instance, usually ends up taking a net loss on CD sales, because in order to get published they need to sign a contract that gives them pennies on the dollar in royalties.

The narrative that "piracy" raises costs for paying customers is a fiction created by the industry. I would ask that you do a little reading on the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Business Software Alliance. They each have a record of spin, manipulation, and outright lies that would make the US Chamber of Commerce green with envy. In short, they're the Wall Street of the west coast, representing a comprehensive list of everything that is wrong with capitalism. The "blame the pirates" mantra is simply one of their ways of obfuscating the facts and trying to defer responsibility for price gouging that has been going on since long before internet piracy became possible.

[joshcryer]

7. That's no longer true in the age of digital distribution, you can expect 70% or more returns.

While 70% is admittedly low, an independent developer of applications, music, or even movies, can expect that at the bare minimum, if they go the digital distribution route. So, piracy does hurt these people, however, we can see that good games tend to avoid this: http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1121596044/how-piracy-works

(Guy is a millionaire making one single game, that's really fun to play.)

It's still extremely hard on independent developers: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/05/and_yet_it_moves_developer_cla.html

95%+ piracy rate for applications.

Times are changing, we'll eventually move beyond petty monetary reward for creative efforts.

[joshcryer]

6. Anti-copyright is an intrinsically left-wing phenomenon.

http://www.stealthisfilm.com/Part2/index.php

Right wingers who don't care about copyright or who are upset about copyright generally fall into three camps.

1) Those who are big L Libertarians, who think Copyright and Patents are unjust, these are a very small minority, and generally find themselves in an internal conflict with capitalism and Copyright or Patents. Copyright and Patents are the very definition of non-possessive capitalist "property," and therefore any capitalist who is against them is against capitalist property, creating an inconsistent view of property.

2) Those who are anti-liberal entertainment and ignorantly believe that their piracy is hurting the bottom line of the big media industries (which are typically considered "left leaning" though it's hardly the case from the point of view of actual progressives). They will pirate music or movies that are blockbusters and laugh about it because it comes from the evil liberals. These same people will happily purchase right-wing type movies, and will probably go out of their way to do so.

3) Those who think piracy is OK because as yet the penalties don't affect them. But this isn't really a camp that is exclusive to right wingers, as all people from all spectrum's will happily pirate things if only because it's the less expensive route. Most people who pirate would fall into this camp, regardless of their political orientation.

Which only brings us back to the fact that anti-copyright is an intrinsically left-wing phenomenon, the non-corporatist left supports and represents the poor. So a poor person who ignorantly supports Palin against their own interests, and who downloads copyrighted material because they cannot afford it, is going to be represented by left-wing ideals even if they are manipulated by the information that they receive to vote or support politicians against their own interests.

They just don't know it yet.

I expect that copyright will be abolished in a few decades yet, especially if the government keeps clamping down on such innocuous behavior.

[karynnj]

9. Pretty ironic given their love of Ayn Rand

[Ozymanithrax]

2. It is not surprising there are so many people over there who want...

something for nothing, and who get their jollies stealing from artists.

[Ter]

4. It's not a right-wing/left-wing issue

Napster, WinMX, and LimeWire were some of the greatest programs ever to come out of computing. The first .mp3 I ever seen was in 1996, Pantera's Walk. From then on, the technology world became a much better place. Who still buys CD's in 2010, really?

[zulchzulu]

8. People expect thievery to just be an expected part of society

I buy CDs and music online. I also have legitimate legal copies of my software.

I'm such a dick. :crazy:

[Historic NY]

5. Remember when they were going after the downloaders....who

actually were targeted by the music executives & recording corporations.