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May 29, 2005
Expanding the war on terror to Star Wars?
Does the war on terror now include a federal war on unlawful Star Wars downloads? United States law enforcement agents raided a series of servers allegedly hosting file-sharing servers. Operation D-Elite targeted sites supporting files using the BitTorrent protocol, focusing especially on the EliteTtorrents site. "Torrents" make files available in many small sections, which increases uploading and downloading speeds.According to Wired News, the Department of Homeland Security was the force behind the copyright raids: ICE, the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, spearheaded the investigation because of its international scope.There's much more at BitTorrent News. And I really hope the hyperbolic rhetoric is just hyperbole, because despite my penchant for morbid sarcasm and sometimes bitter satire, I'm trying -- hard -- not to be an alarmist about this. But I find myself forced to ask whether the federal government really believes such bullshit should be in any way a part of the war on terrorism. I hope not, because I don't want to have to rethink my support for the war. (No word on whether the Patriot Act might be applied.....) MORE: It's worse than I thought. Via Glenn Reynolds, I found this trumped up nonsense on stilts, which would be comical except that certain poseurs are pretending to take it seriously: Counterfeit DVDs and cigarettes may be funding terrorists.Sheesh. I've seen plenty of political hackery, but none crasser than this. Why be in such a frantic hurry to get rid of freedom, anyway? (You'd almost think they were afraid that pretty soon there won't be any more!) Today, DVDs and cigarettes. If we're not careful, the supporters of Hezbollah will go into in the oil business! posted by Eric on 05.29.05 at 12:02 PM
Comments
This is the sound of one bureaucracy trying to expand its mandate. Either that, or the people trying to stop the movie downloads are going through HSA because they're "HOMELAND SECURITY" and don't need no stinkin' due process. Raging Bee · June 1, 2005 11:37 AM |
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I'm against it. I'm 100% for the War Against the Terror Masters, but I'm against this illegitimate extension of War-granted authority to prosecute something that doesn't have anything to do with the War. Something even more alarming: Jeanine Ring and I talked on the phone a few weeks ago, and she said that the United States Congress was considering a bill to make prostitution a federal crime -- blatantly un-Constitutional, just on the Tenth Amendment alone. Have you heard anything about this? Sounds like Santorum is behind it.