Being a Pirate ain’t what it’s cracked up to be any more. Let’s define the traditional term first:
PIRATE. A sea robber, who, to enrich himself by subtlety or open force, setteth upon merchants and others trading by sea, despoiling them of their loading, and sometimes bereaving them of life and, sinking their ships; Ridley’s View of the Civ. and Eccl. Law, part 2, c. 1, s. 8; or more generally one guilty of the crime of piracy. Merl. Repert. h.t. See, for the etymology of this word, Bac. Ab. Piracy
Source: Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
So, the modern term does truly apply here does it? But hey, let’s take an old term and twist it so that those who fall under the establishment’s decision or radar, will be branded as such. This usually happens when a language doesn’t have the right words to properly describe something.
What gets me is how far they will push this concept and to what extent they will go to prove they have a valid term and claim against those that oppose them. Take the recent crusade against iiNet by AFACT. (please close attention to the words used…..especially the name AFACT. That clearly implies an automatic authority and ‘fact’ to their cause, of which neither is inherently true. Just an assumption of ideas to justify their stance.).
“AFACT continues to insist that iiNet should be responsible for becoming copyright cops themselves”
This statement alone makes such broad and sweeping claims of authority that it should scare the living shit right out of you. Some group claims that a company responsible for providing access to a resource should comply with their (made up) demands and hand over ‘the booty’. Does this not simply chill to the bone? No? Then let me put it in other terms: “You phone company that provides Internet Service has been ordered by a PRIVATE company to hand over your information without legal demands.”.
Hey, this makes as much sense as RIAA blaming the Ministry of Transportation for them allowing ‘those damn meddling kids’ access to roads that took them to the house where this ‘Internet theft’ occurred! Seriously, where does it stop? Those who allow access to public resources should not held accountable.
The key here is the definition of public. Generally speaking, anything ‘public’ is acceptable. Access to public parks, roads and land is all public. The Internet should be considered a Public Resource. Like the real world, there are things that are illegal based on the country you are in. So, if it is illegal to buy/own a gun in your country, then doing so online should be illegal. Noone goes out and blames the Gov’t (who ‘owns’ the road) for someone walking down and purchasing a gun. The road was merely a means (resource) to be utilized by the public.
So, if Gov’t = ISP’s, then why are they getting the blame? Just because theses stupid pseudo-police-wanna-be groups are looking for a target to blame? Geeze, they would be better off by creating programs to educate children….but wait….that would mean they have to teach kids to think for themselves and thus make them obsolete…..that would put them out of a job that they created for themselves. Damn….so much for the evolution of teh human spirit.
Jaded Tech 