[IP] more on The Shadow Internet

[David Farber]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Marc <marcaniballi at hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 14:27:05 -0500
To: <dave at farber.net>
Subject: RE: [IP] The Shadow Internet

Dear Dave;

I find the entire piece to be rather amusing and I wonder if the source
isn't a card carrying neo-conservative. The concept of these "dark nets"
terrorizing anyone is ridiculous. Terrorism is the act of instilling extreme
and usually generalized fear, and consequent action (or inaction) in an
enemy/oppressor through excessive and/or seemingly random acts of violence
usually involving significant loss of "innocent" life.

What is the motivation of these "pirates?" It certainly isn't "booty;" They
won't be getting rich by ripping and broadcasting media! It seems to me
(having absolutely no direct personal experience of this corner of the net),
that these folks do it to simply prove it can be done, and to prove they can
do it better and faster. It strikes me that this makes it very difficult to
eliminate this type of network. The usual methodology for crime syndicate
elimination involves finding the money flow and stopping it and following it
upstream - here however, there is no money flow! And since the community is
very closed, highly distributed and has the best tech a "crime" syndicate
could ask for, it becomes somewhat more problematic, especially introducing
jurisdiction issues that can in some cases render the activity innocuous to
local law!

Cutting off the head of these broadcast networks is impossible - they are
hydralike, and when you take out one head, the others instantly become
immune to the previous style of attack.

I have long subscribed to the concept that "soft piracy" shows the world an
inefficiency that is impeding progress/evolution. In the 80s it was software
piracy; the message? Too expensive and not useful enough! In western society
this problem is being addressed fairly well, and piracy of software such as
Windows (ignoring counterfeiters who resell, etc.) is more of a recreational
sport than a serious impact on Microsoft. In the emerging economies piracy
is still rampant, and will be until the average person can easily
afford/justify the expense. Now, in the media world with CDs and DVDs, we
have a similar situation. A VHS tape of a new release movie was $20 and a
vinyl LP was $12 20 years ago. The technology has improved (one can hope!!)
and volume is high enough to allow for scale economy to kick in - why are
DVDs still $30+ and CDs $20+ ?!! Same game, different industry - possibly a
more insidious game this time, because with software one can plainly see
increasing capability with decreasing/static prices as a general trend - not
so with media. (Recent developments such as iTunes aside).

In my opinion, modern soft piracy is a necessary component to technological,
commercial and social evolution - so long as it is the type of piracy that
is founded on fun, not profit.

Regards,


Marc Aniballi


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ip at v2.listbox.com [mailto:owner-ip at v2.listbox.com] On Behalf Of
David Farber
Sent: December 30, 2004 1:14 PM
To: Ip
Subject: [IP] more on The Shadow Internet

I strongly agree but don't think it is just poor use of words, It has a very
specific use and aim which is NOT nice.

Dave
------ Forwarded Message
From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk at gsp.org>
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 11:33:25 -0500
To: David Farber <dave at farber.net>
Cc: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne at warpspeed.com>
Subject: Re: [IP] The Shadow Internet

On Thu, Dec 30, 2004 at 10:41:33AM -0500, David Farber quoted:

> Inside the pirate networks that are terrorizing the entertainment
business.

Please.  I would like to suggest that anyone who uses the words stemming
from "terror" in any context which does _not_ involve death, injury,
torture, rape, etc. be repeatedly pummeled upside the head with a copy of
the closest available unabridged dictionary -- preferably wielded by someone
who has been an actual victim of actual terror and thus has a clue what it
means.

---Rsk

------ End of Forwarded Message


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