Mukasy – Piracy Fosters Terrorism, ZeroPaid Offers Pirate List

A report on Threat Level details attorney general Michael Mukasey saying that intellectual property theft threatens public safety and fosters terrorism. We here at ZeroPaid understand that terrorism presents a very real threat to millions of people, so we have compiled a short list of notorious pirates in an effort to help do our civil duty.

The posting on Wired says the following:

during a 20-minute speech in which he took no questions — added that the “the continuing worldwide escalation of counterfeiting and piracy poses a threat to both our economy and public safety.” He said the “mission of the Department of Justice is clear: whether it’s a complex international narcotics ring, a corrupt public official abusing his office, or some scam-artist selling counterfeit software, our job is to enforce the law and bring to justice those who perpetrate these crimes.”

The Department of Justice, the attorney general said, has deployed as many as 230 federal prosecutors around the country as part of its Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property, or CHIP, network. The DOJ has steadily increased the number of IP prosecutions, filing 217 last year, a 33 percent jump in two years, he said.

“We’re devoting more resources and more personnel to IP crime, and we’re sending the important message that we take these crimes seriously, and we will punish the actions of counterfeiters and pirates whenever we can,” he said.

We here at ZeroPaid do understand that terrorism presents a very real and prominent threat to civilized nations around the world. Obviously, any help to prevent the spread of terrorism would be greatly appreciated by the attorney general – particularly when it comes to the theft of intellectual property. This is why we have compiled a short list of well-known pirates – about 3 organizations worth – to help restore general public safety.

1. Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting And Piracy (BASCAP) – It may seem strange that an anti-piracy outfit would be the first place to look, but often, the best place to look is the last place one would think to look. Last year, Gieschen Consultancy thought their intellectual property was safe with the organization. Unfortunately, they thought wrong when the organization was busted for pirating the software in order to conduct anti-piracy operations. Clearly shocked at the revelation, the software company took matters into their own hands and detailed the revelation in a press release (no longer available) that they had to take action to protect their Intellectual Property accordingly. Said Gieschen, “it is both surprising and extraordinary that an organization dedicated to protecting intellectual property would take this action.”

2. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) – While filming a documentary about this well known organization in 2006, Kirby Dick submitted his film, “This Film is Not Yet Rated” to be rated. While it was being rated, it turns out that the organization made illegal copies of the film while defending that the film would be locked up safe in a vault. It’s likely the reason why there was an additional section to the movie was added to highlight the dangers of things like file-sharing lawsuits. In another report:

“The MPAA defines piracy as ‘any single unauthorized duplication of a copyrighted work’,” he chuckles, “so by their own definition they pirated my film.”

3. Sony BMG – In a timely occurrence two days ago, Sony BMG, as reported here on ZeroPaid, was sued for software piracy, not to mention having some of their assets seized. PointDev was behind the raid, already finding the pirated software on four of their servers.

“I think piracy is linked to the policy of a company. If the employee has the necessary funding to buy the software they need, it will. If this is not the case, he will find alternative ways, as the work must be done in one way or another.” said the CEO of PointDev.

Does piracy = terrorism? That may be a question for the attorney general to answer. Obviously, he seems interested in correlating piracy to a threat to public safety. Many have had their financial well-being compromised by RIAA member Sony BMG as well as the anti-piracy actions of the MPAA. Obviously, large sums of money and terrorism could prove to be a dangerous threat. There is large sums of money flowing through these companies/organizations. Of course, it’s important to leave much of this important thinking and planning to the experts of these cases. In the mean time, these actions of piracy do appear to come to light on a seemingly yearly basis at the very least – a potentially disturbing trend indeed.

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