BSA hijacks Somali pirate hype

Conflate the two?

The whole point of mislabelling copyright infringement as "piracy" is to legitimise attacks on more important rights by conflating an unlawful act with an illegal one, surely?

Appears to be working just dandy too, judging by the amount of ip-tards that subscribe to this idea.

There's lies, damn lies and statistics

There's also inflation, deflation and conflation.

I could so write the public service tv ad

This is a music company executive, because of piracy he has to use last years model learjet.

This is a Hollywood executive. He has to go home tonight to explain to his wife why they can only afford to eat caviar six nights a week.

This is an aging rock star. Because he never invested in a lesion like you should, he's going to have to sing for his supper, in front of millions of fans paying extortionate ticket prices.

This is the face of piracy.

Hey, I know!

Let's send the BSA on an all-expenses paid cruise to Somalia, and they can tell us first-hand the difference between software piracy and REAL piracy... assuming of course they make it back. Tards...

Repeat after me

The BSA are a bunch of self aggrandizing twats. The closer in peoples minds they can make actual piracy and the use/uploading/sharing/etc etc etc of software the better off they are. After all it's far easier to wage war against "software pirates" as opposed to trying to wage war against "that pimple faced sixteen year old seeding torrents of Spore and X-Men Origins"

Paris cos even she could teach the BSA a few lessons on ethics.

A reponse I'd like to see

Hello, I represent the Somali fishermans guild and they object strongly to the BSA's blatent attempt to use our hard won branding to furtther their own political agenda. They also object to being linked to copyright infringers as a group, due to ehir extreme poverty.

My clients are willingo to accept a public apology and removeal of the offending material otherwise they will engage in their preffered form of resolving such matters which I'm told involves gutting your entire management team like fishes unless 2 million dollars is not provided within 30 days...

But what are the piratical connotations?

Long John Silver and Captain Jack Sparrow or a gang of marauding foreigners? Somalis in speedboats don't register as pirates - they're just another african militia on the news.

Truth be told, we like pirates. They have elegant ships, talking parrots, pieces of eight and mad sailing skillz. There is damsel who is rescued (from utter scumbags, a loveless relationship or perhaps her own haughtiness), true love is found and the bonds of convention and society's onerous expectations are broken, swapped for a simpler life of freedom on a paradise island. Financial requirements are met by liberating booty (always ill-gotten) from oppressors or discovering buried treasure which was owned by someone long dead. Its Zorro on the high-seas.

I'm not sure that the BSA have really thought this through. They may as well call themselves "Captain Bligh!"

Ironic Piracy

Its funny. BSA have kinda pirated their own video. They uploaded a recording of their flash video. There is a little play button that shows at the beginging of it.

http://global.bsa.org/faces/index.html

What a bunch of stupid...

...arses.

Really.

XP held to ransom.

Right, that's it. I'm taking the Somali method.

I'm going to keep using my pirate copy of XP. I'll keep using it until MS give in by giving me a free copy as the ransom.

Simples yeh.

Stop it already

Its not software piracy, it copyright infringement, and besides, the 'Pirates' in Somalia are Privateers, not pirates (They are 'Government' sponsored to go after their enemies, IE everyone else, pirates are in discriminate)

ITS NOT PIRACY...

FFS the correct term is copyright theft.

Piracy is robbery committed at sea.

Guns for show, TCP/IP for a pro.

I have to agree

Strict enforcement of software anti-piracy laws (preferable with harsh sentences) must be the best thing ever to happen to open source software. Just imagine what all those milions of illegal Windows, MS Office or Photoshop would use if they actually had to pay for their software... Software piracy is IMO the no 1 reason for the lockhold of companies like Microsoft and Adobe on the IT business.

Wrong parallel

I read an interesting article a while back noting that many Somalis only turned to piracy when European fishing vessels muscled in on the local fishing grounds thanks to some shady deals with the various factions in the region.

There's surely a more apposite parallel with the way grey imports are handled :o

Paris, because she's been conflated with the beautiful and interesting.

Up to $1m??!?

If they're giving out rewards for reporting piracy...

You boys should get down the Glasgow Barras.

Send my check to Random Noise c/o El Reg.

Making it attractive

Surely if the BSA count every piece of software as a 'lost sale', presumably at full retail price, then that's going to result in a huge figure especially if they use questionable mathematics to extrapolate it from seizures.

The sort of figure that piratetards then believe they're going to make by selling dodgy copies, when in fact they'll make £1.50 selling them from a holdall or boot sale - if they're lucky. In fact what they're really costing the industry is vastly LESS than the BSA are saying. Shot in the foot for the BSA if you ask me.

Heave to me buckos!

(Heave two back at the, I say)

/with the cutlass

Aye Aye Cap'n

As a whole I support the idea that people who put time and effort into developing software for sale should be rewarded. What I dislike intensely are the overpaid bully boy leeches of the BSA who make their money on the back of the fees paid to software companies. Their piggybacking on the news about pirates is an excellent example of why they should go on the same space craft as the Telephone Sanitisers.

@AC 21:36 GMT

"There's also inflation, deflation and conflation."

And then there's of course my personal favourite, conflagration...

Violence??

"The BSA may claim the difference between the two crimes is just the level of violence.."

That'll be an interesting claim. Does copying any type of media actually constitute violence? Also, high-sea piracy also involves the taking and vandalism of actual, tangible entities. Copying media doesn't.

BSA = Bloody Stupid Arseholes!

How hollywood and microsoft benefit from "piracy"

In US/europe piracy of movies / software makes some dent in the topline of these companies. Yes.

But the real clincher is how Hollywood and Microsoft have captured market in emerging markets without spending a penny [on marketing and distribution]. If not for pirated copies of windows; the Asia, Africa and South America would have long migrated to Linux. Also, they would have no idea who Brangelina are or why wolverine needs to be nicked.

Today Hollywood is securing a global future thanks to blatant piracy in last 15 years. Without piracy the reach of Hollywood would have been restricted to a westernized population residing big cities of the 3rd world.

So all the hoopla is to cut losses in US/EU by creating noise/guilt/fear- without letting it affect the free ride in rest of the world.

Paris, coz she likes a pirate's hardware.

I have a suggestion

Tell the Somali pirates that these execs think of them as the same sort of a threat as a bunch of fat nerds and 15 year old girls copying Justin's latest album. Just a bunch of wusses, effectively. Not brave, manly, AK47-weilding adonis-like privateers like they so clearly are.

Then pass the RIAA/MPAA's contact details (and probably some C4, lots of ammo and some US passports) to the pirates.

@Luis Ogando

"Does copying any type of media actually constitute violence?"

only if you use shoddy equipment.

Wow....

Wow, just wow.... Words change over time and take on new meanings people. Pirate* is a good example. Remember that Computer used to be a job title, not a reference to your internet shouting box. Get over it, move on.

"Classy exploitation of current events there. It's like promoting fireworks safety by citing a recent suicide bombing in the news." Austin Modine, you have just killed another keyboard, add that to your scoreboard. I'll replace my keyboard and coffee out of my own budget.

* Wasn't it Lloyd's who defined pirates, some 3 hundred years ago, as operating near ports and Rogues as operating on the high seas?

Home cooking is destroying the restaurant industry

Yeah, shame on you pirates, the hardship and suffering that you are forcing on music and film executives is shameful, look at poor Mel Gibson, who's 30 year marriage just broke up over all the stress film piracy is causing him, had to give his poor wife $350 Million as part of the settlement

And look at the effect piracy had on the most pirated film of all time "Dark Knight" because of piracy it has only managed to gross $1,001,921,825 in the past 8 months…...

Hang on, I think see a flaw in my argument...

BSA = Bollocks, Shove-it-up-your Arse

Paris, She can shove [Censored]