In The Name of Microsoft, We Oppress This Media!

from the convenient-excuse dept

Before its recent ouster, the government in Krygyzstan began to crack down on pro-opposition media. In one case, Kyrgyz financial police raided Stan TV, an independent TV channel and shut it down by seizing all of its computers, it claimed, on the authority of Microsoft (via Boing Boing), because they were supposedly running pirated software. It should be stressed that Microsoft had nothing to do with this, it was solely an action of a repressive regime. But we’ve reached a point where a government seizing computers on behalf of private companies because of piracy is a believable excuse used to justify repression. Also, don’t think it’s something that can only happen under some repressive regime in a small country on the other side of the world. The FBI’s done the bidding of the entertainment industry here in the US — a role several entertainment industry groups would love to see grow.

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Companies: microsoft

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Comments on “In The Name of Microsoft, We Oppress This Media!”

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43 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

did i say microsoft is to blame? it is just stupid to take the actions of some third world tin pot dictatorship and try to link it to the FBI or DoJ and the entertainment industry. it is a stretch even the masnick wouldnt try to make. carlo is trying to raise outrage and fear by tying the two together. its pathetic.

ChurchHatesTucker (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Re:

“the fbi doesnt serve at the behest of the riaa or anyone else. that is just a stupid lie, and you know it.”

C’mon dude. If you’re going to troll, at least avail yourself of google first.

http://www.riaa.com/whatwedo.php?content_selector=whatwedo_fbi_seal

Also, the caps key is your friend.

Anonymous Coward says:

The DOJ has not “done the bidding” of the “entertainment industry” (an undefined term in the article), your creative interpretation of federal law notwithstanding.

It does not pursue civil matters. That it the responsibility of rights holders if they choose to do so.

It does pursue criminal matters under appropriate circumstances, including the criminal provisions of copyright law, though such provisions are not the highest priority on the DOJ’s “plate”.

Its role in a civil matter is limited to those circumstances where a party to such matter seeks to invalidate a federal statute on constitutional grounds.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

That’s what I think we need to do, create more organized opposition. and I think that this is one of the very few opportunities we have really had in a long time, especially in America where the Internet still allows free speech. Everything outside the Internet makes it impossible to organize opposition without breaking some kind of law (ie: retard FCC laws) and the corporations and big media that control all the laws and public airwaves and information distribution infrastructure are part of the problem. All this needs to be fixed and if it doesn’t get fixed we might get our Internet communication, like the communication we have here on techdirt, taken away just like it’s been taken away everywhere outside the Internet. I see this as a small window of time to allow us to take and maintain control of our government and force them to act in the public interest for once in a LONG time. and if we let this rare opportunity pass us we may not get it back in a LONG time, perhaps one day when unstoppable quantum communication devices have been invented and are distributed to everyone illegally through some sort of black market. but I don’t see that happening in a while.

For now we can create stealth communication devices that aren’t currently beyond our technical ability to create.

http://sciencestage.com/d/5719178/stealth-communication:-zero-power-classical-communication,-zero-quantum-quantum-communication-and-environmental-noise-communication.html

but I see the Internet as a rare golden opportunity to hold governments and corrupt corporations accountable for their actions, and I think we should take full advantage of this opportunity before it gets taken away.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

We already have people holding corrupt individuals accountable for their actions. If you kill someone you go to jail if caught. No one said that corrupt individuals shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. We’re just saying that corrupt corporations and governments should also be held accountable and, by and large, they are not.

Anonymous Coward says:

While I understand that MS was in no way involved in this incident, I still believe it would be wise of them to issue a press release diplomatically detailing any/all correspondence they have had with that government.

May be they have been contacted by Krygyzstani government after the fact in regard to their intent on pressing charges or being awarded a portion of the defendants “fines”…

Full disclosure from MS is in order despite the likelihood that MS is only being used as an excuse for the raid.

Sam I Am says:

Change of heart

When I was younger, before I built a company from scratch, I would have been outraged at the thought of a government seizing computers in response to piracy.

Now that we all see what some people will do misusing technology and our privacy to cloak unlawful behavior for pure illegal gain for themselves, I have far less of a problem with it.

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