Quoting lifekatana, reply 53
Quoting starkers, reply 52
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Yes obviously stopping people from stealing IP that belongs to someone else is one step removed from rounding up all the Jews and gassing them.
You've obviously missed the point. Oh well!!!
Eh no. I repeated your argument, simplified it and then showed how ridicilous it is.
Ok, then, so you wouldn't mind living in a society where the government IS law enforcement, judge, jury and executioner??? One where a drunken politician can run over your child and get away with it.... because he IS the LAW?
This is already the case in America and in 99% of all stable democracies. Jury isn't in America though but I don't see that changing with the goverment going after pirates...
You see, it sets a dangerous precedent when government makes itself responsible to chase down and prosecute matters that should remain with law enforcement and the courts... both separate departments funded by taxpayer... meaning government does not own or run them. If you would like to live in a society where government runs law enforcement and the courts, however, be my guest and move to Nth Korea or Zimbabwe, though I'd expect to see a change of tune in a very, very short while. Yeah, the atrocities committed there in the name of law and order are nothing short of barbaric... horrendous, even... and you want to give your government more free rein over your police and your courts?
I don't think you understand... the government is all these things. But the "government"is broken up into parts (Montesquieu's Trias Politica) to prevent these things from happening like your Founding Fathers intended. If you don't like that you shouldn't be living in America.
Look, I'm not against publishers/copyright owners pursuing copyright infringement, but let them do it at their own expense using their only own resources... as it was originally intended to be. As it was stated a post #7, the RIAA spent 64 million last year to collect 1.3 million from settled cases... so go on, tell me that you want your government to spend your tax dollars to pursue civil matters for extremely wealthy people and tie up the criminal courts. It won't matter that victims of real crime (burglary, rape, murder, child molestation) can't get their day in court to see justice done... so long as the music and movie moguls are happy it'll be alright, right??? Gimme a f**king break!!!!
This is not even true. These site owners can be criminally persecuted for maintaining sites that allow for largescale infringment.
It's one thing to be righteous and all high and mighty, but at least get the priorities straight. The US is one of the most over-policed countries in the world (what with state AND federal police, the FBI and CIA, Homeland Security AND the FTA, not to mention all the hick sheriffs and their deputies) and yet it is one of the most lawless (murders, shootings, rape, burglary, gang violence, etc, etc, etc) in the world. Seems to me, you'd want to be getting all that under some semblance of control before chasing some piddling "Robin Hood' file sharer who's stealing from the rich (read filthy stinking rich) to give to the poor... and physically hurting nobody.
Because there is a serial killer on the loose we should just let the hundred burglars and thiefs go? Also shows us some stats before you go on rambling how criminally infested america is.
I know that I'd like to see murderers, rapists and child molesters behind bars first, but if you think it better to spend the resources to capture and convict file sharers instead, then God help us!!!! All we need is a few more with similar views and we'll be back in Hitler's Germany... Stalin's Russia.
This is not an either/or story, amazingly the government is so awesome it can go after rapist, murderers and child molesters aswell as pirates and thiefs AT THE SAME TIME.:O
So it's alright for government to play policeman for the wealthy... all at taxpayers expense, right?? OK, then, so what about when the government you empowered decides to extend its sphere of influence to pursuing, persecuting, prosecuting you (with a mandatory conviction) for something it perceives as evil and unlawful... unlawful under the new totalitarian arrangements handed to it on a silver platter by the groundswell of unwitting copyright sympathisers. You see, you don't want to give government too many mandates, given what politicians are, otherwise you set them up to take even more liberties and eventually become omnipotent.
Wealthy game developers companies like Stardock you mean?
Elemental Forums
WinCustomize Forums
!!!!! There has been a breakdown of law and order and a systemic failing of justice systems around the world for decades... maybe not so much so for those large corporations and the wealthy, but most certainly for the average small bloke who hasn't two spare cents to scratch his arse. Again, this is the fault of do-gooders and fancy pants lawyers who fight to keep murderers and rapists on the street. So no, it is NOT because I'm personally aggrieved, but rather that I see society going to shit and too many innocents suffering the consequences of a dilution in law and order, a perverted justice system. And as I alluded to before, I'd rather see 10 software pirates go free if it meant the resources were freed up to put just 1 murderer behind bars for life.