full article from harold on mpaa and "pretexting"

Mawaki Chango ki_chango at YAHOO.COM
Thu Dec 7 15:07:26 CET 2006


Yeah, those folks mean that we need to become terrorists to fight
terrorists or, as an 1980s' French interior minister put it, we have
to terrorize the terrorists... in a democracy (and/or republic.) Is
this all what we are left with?

Mawaki

--- Carlos Afonso <ca at RITS.ORG.BR> wrote:

> http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/750
> 
> MPAA Demands "License To Lie," But Wants To Make You 'Fess Up On
> WHOIS
> 
> Submitted by Harold Feld on December 4, 2006 - 12:35pm.
> 
> I say this for the Intellectual Property Mafia; they do not allow
> either
> consistency or scrupples to get in the way of what they want. Like
> characters out of too many mob movies, “it’s just business” whether
> you
> need to disclose your real identity or not. Unsurprisingly, the IP
> Mafia
> reserve the right to lie to themselves, while wanting big time
> penalties
> for everyone else who tries to mainatin anonymity.
> 
> According to this article, the MPAA lobbied hard to kill an
> anti-pretexting bill proposed in the California Legislature.
> “Pretexting,” as folks who followed the recent scandal over at HP
> know,
> is pretending you are someone else in order to gain access to that
> other
> person’s personal information.
> 
> Why would the MPAA fight hard to kill a pro-privacy, pro-consumer
> protection bill? Because they assert they need to use pretexting to
> investigate allegations of piracy. And if investigating into
> possible
> piracy means puting consumers everywhere at greater risk for
> identity
> theft or other violations of privacy? “Sorry, it’s just business.
> Ya know?”
> 
> On the , consider the never ending flap over WHOIS data at ICANN.
> The IP
> Mafia have continued to press for requiring all registrants of
> domain
> names to provide completely honest information about the identity
> of the
> registrant and contact info. No use of third parties to shield
> privacy
> interests, despite very real concerns from individuals and free
> speech
> organizations in countries that routinely imprison and execute
> critics
> (or, in light of recent events involving the apparent poisoning of
> Putin
> critic Litvinenko, concerns about their personal safety abroad).
> 
> Back in July, the Software Information Industry Alliance told a
> Congressional Committee that organizations concerned about their
> privacy
> just shouldn’t bother to register domain names. In other words
> “We’re
> sorry our policy gives you a choice between exercisin’ your Free
> Speech
> rights or putting your personal safety at risk. But hey, it’s just
> business. Ya know?”
> 
> I hope the folks attending the ICANN meeting in Sampa, Brazil this
> week
> will ask the defenders of a wide open WHOIS why the MPAA and the
> rest of
> the intellectual property mafia fights so hard for a license to lie
> for
> themselves, while demanding that everyone else espose themselves to
> identity theft and personal risk.
> 


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