The Global War on Piracy - Repent Now to Avoid Prosecution

Washington, D.C. - In a move to combat global piracy, the entertainment industry along with officials from the Department of Justice announced the formation of the Global Alliance Against Pirates. Members of the Alliance include organizations such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), along with industry leaders such as Adobe and Microsoft. The Alliance will operate under the umbrella of the Department of Justice.

In a statement released earlier today the Alliance announced the start of a new war against all forms of piracy and hacking. Of great concern to the Alliance is the free and open communication of the Internet which they suggest facilitates the trafficking in hacking programs, pirated software and illegal music files. Of particular focus are music files in the mp3 format, which are frequently and freely exchanged on the Internet. Furthermore, this free exchange of data and information can and will lead to "information anarchy" which threatens the peace and security of the cyberworld. According to the statement, the epidemic of open communication has become so severe that there is an urgent need for drastic action.

The President and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Hilary B. Rosen urged global support for the war on piracy by warning the world: "either you are with us, or you are with the pirates."

However, in a surprise move that unfolded today, the Alliance announced that music criminals, software pirates and hackers would be offered a limited time offer of amnesty if they send both an apology and all stolen, pirated or reverse engineered materials to the appropriate authorities listed below.

Any person with pirated mp3s is urgently encouraged to return their stolen mp3's to the RIAA immediately at the following email address: cdreward@riaa.com . In addition letters of apology can be sent here.

By seeking redemption and purging their hard drives of all pirated materials and hacking tools repentant individuals can avoid prosecution. However, "evil-doers" who do not act quickly to take advantage of this one-time offer will be "smoked out of their holes" and then promptly "brought to justice" Alliance officials stated.

Recently conducted Operation Cyberstorm, in which the Microsoft's anti-piracy enforcement department teamed up with the FBI to crack a pirate cell, showed that swift action can deal a mighty blow to the pirated. In this operation 27 pirates were arrested and changed, one of whom allegedly trafficked in “1,000 illegal software packages, including Microsoft NT Server, Microsoft Office and Microsoft SQL Server.”

In addition, previous operations "codenamed 'Buccaneer', 'Bandwidth' and 'Digital Piratez', struck at all aspects of the illegal software, game and movie trade, often referred to as 'warez scene'."

Emboldened by the recent successes of the recording industry and the motion picture association against Napster, MP3.com and 2600 Magazine using Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) the Alliance is also looking to extend the legal battle further into the software realm.

The DMCA was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1998 to implement copyright restriction commitment made to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which operates in conjunction with the World Trade Organization. Along with expanded copyright protections and stiffer penalties for violations the DMCA introduced anti-circumvention clauses, reduced fair use rights, and changed the rules that governed ISP liability.

Although the insidious pirate-mastermind and Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov, accused of "trafficking" in software that could crack the security restrictions of Adobe Systems' Acrobat eBook Reader, has managed to escape the justice he deserves the Alliance is stepping up efforts to fight the pirates.

In a stern warning directed at the EFF, a leading civil liberties organization that has assisted pirates such as Skylarov and 2600 Magazine in court, an Alliance spokesman stated "We will make no distinction between the pirates and those who harbor them."

Some experts have suggested that 2600 Magazine, the hacker quarterly that had made available on their website links to websites hosting the source code of the DeCSS tool which could be used to decrypt a CSS encrypted movie DVD, might pose a significant threat but they recently lost their appeal in the DeCSS case.

Digital Video Disks (DVD) are encoded using an encryption system known as Content Scrambling System (CSS). In order to play a DVD one must use software that has been licensed by the Motion Picture Association of America's Content Control Association. There exists no such software for the Linux operating system and thus Linux users are unable to watch legally purchased DVD's on their computers. DeCSS is a tool created by a group called MoRE (Masters of Reverse Engineering) that cracks the CSS encryption scheme allowing DVD's to be played on computers running the Linux operating system.

However, the MPAA's views DeCSS as part of a process to infringe copyrights because DeCSS cracks the encryption protection of the DVD and as a result the contents of the DVD can be copied. The MPAA sent cease-and-desist letters to the authors of DeCSS forcing the removal of the tool from their website. In response many other websites began to mirror the DeCSS tool and 2600 Magazine posted links to those websites. The DeCSS battle entered the court system and 2600 was ordered to remove all links to websites hosting the DeCSS tool from their website.

2600 Magazine appealed the courts ruling on grounds of free speech rights and fair use of DVDs. During the case the Department of Justice issued a petition to intervene in the case that stated, "this lawsuit is really about computer hackers and the tools of digital piracy" not First Amendment rights. 2600 Magazine lost the appeal.

In a bold move on the software front, Alliance member Microsoft announced that the war would be extended to advocates of "full disclosure" and the open source movement. The term open source refers to software that is released under "licenses guaranteeing anybody rights to freely use, modify, and redistribute, the code." Comonly associated the the Linux operating system and the The GNU General Public License (GPL) the open source model of software development allows for the free distribution of software and source code so that others may use and improve it but all the while protecting the rights of the original author.

However, Craig Mundie, Microsoft Senior Vice President, stated that the open source model needs to be opposed because of its "significant drawbacks" including "unhealthy 'forking'" and "inherent security risks" the latter being something that Microsoft know a fair amount about since they have to often release patches to secure their inherently insecure products.

Mundie explained that the open source software licensed under the GPL "poses a threat to the intellectual property of any organization making use of it." "Clearly, free software is an attack on our way of life", he added.

Microsoft's Scott Culp explained that the open source community is aided and abetted by the "information anarchists" of the full disclosure community. These security anarchists are "providing blueprints" for building weapons of mass cyber destruction.

Although Microsoft and the Department of Justice have had minor run-ins with each other in the past they put those days behind them and jointly announced the formation of the Gilmore Commission.

The Gilmore Commission, also known as the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction, headed by the Governor of Virginia James Gilmore has recommended that Congress create a special "Cyber Court" to deal explicitly with cyber crimes because there is a "lack of complete understanding" of the "nature and urgency of cyber security" among the judiciary.

Secret cyber courts will come into effect immediately after the limited-time amnesty period, therefore all pirates and mp3 collectors are urged to send back all their stolen music to the RIAA.

When questioned by reporters about the offer of amnesty the RIAA responded by suggesting in the limited-time offer is being extended in interest of limiting collateral damage in light of the expected new powers under Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA), the sequel of the DMCA. Under the SSSCA all digital content, whether it was copyrighted or not, would require federally mandated "digital rights management" (DRM) technologies. Trafficking in digital content that had these security measures disabled or in software that could disable the security measures could get you five years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines.

In what has been dubbed the implementation of "America's National Firewall" Sen. Fritz Hollings has introduced the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) which requires "embedding copy protection into all digital devices, from MP3 players to cell phones, fax machines, digital cameras and personal computers." Not only would all programmers, even those who distribute code for free, be required to have copy protection schemes, but downloading non-compliant software from overseas would be illegal. Those who violate the CBDTPA "would be subject to statutory damages ranging from $200 to $25,000 per violation."

RIAA president Hilary Rosen stated "The introduction of the 'Consumer Broadband Act' sends an unmistakable signal about the importance of protecting digital music and other content from piracy. Without stringent protections, online piracy will continue to proliferate and spin further out of control."

The combination of effective operational and legal tactics will ensure that piracy, in all its forms, will be crushed and that the pirates will be brought to justice.

So, do not hesitate - take advantage of this limited time offer now. Send letters of apology and all your pirated mp3s and software to the authorities listed below.

RIAA
Website: http://www.riaa.com/
Contact: Contact Form or webmaster@riaa.com
Report pirates: cdreward@riaa.com

MPAA
Website: http://www.mpaa.org/
Contact: webmaster@mpaa.org
Report pirates: hotline@mpaa.org

DOJ
Website: http://www.usdoj.gov/
Contact: askdoj@usdoj.gov Attn: AG Ashcroft

Microsoft
Website: http://microsoft.com/
Contact: Contact Form

Adobe
Website: http://www.adobe.com/
Contact: Contact Form
Report pirates: Report Form

--- SAMPLE LETTER ---

To whom it may concern:

I would like to take advantage of the limited-time offer by officially submitting to corporate rule backed by draconian legislation. I hereby renounce any and all rights to democracy, protest, and freedom of speech.

Additionally, I hereby recognize your TOTAL CONTROL over every aspect of consumer use of your product. I categorically renounce the right to fair use.

Finally, I genuinely seek forgiveness for the pain and suffering that my downloading of mp3's has cost billion dollar corporations and multi-millionaire recording artists.

--- End Letter ---