Why is Department of Homeland Security worrying about file-swapping? [ip]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: June 8, 2005 10:49:37 PM EDT
To: politech () politechbot com
Subject: [Politech] Why is Department of Homeland Security worrying  
about file-swapping? [ip]


Previous Politech messages:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/06/07/hollywood-foots-bill/
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/05/25/federal-polices-new/


-------- Original Message --------
Subject:     Re: [Politech] Hollywood foots bill for LAPD spy cams: How
generous! [priv]
Date:     Wed, 08 Jun 2005 09:31:08 -0400
From:     Paul Rapp <paulrapp () adelphia net>
Reply-To:     paul () paulrapp com
To:     Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
References:     <42A65CF8.5070406 () well com>



Surprised Homeland Security isn't in on this, too.  Or maybe they are.
See the attached article I wrote for an Albany alternative weekly on the
Elite Torrents bust.
Also available online (until, I think, tomorrow) at
www.metroland.net/opinion.html)

++++++++++++++++++++
Paul C. Rapp, Esq.
348 Long Pond Road
Housatonic, MA  01236
MA Phone     413.553.3189
NY Phone     518.935.4568
Fax       413.528.2079
www.paulrapp.com



------------
Metroland Magazine; Albany NY  June 2, 2005

Terror-Level Infringement?

Since Sept. 11, 2001, most folks agree in principle that we ought to  
be on a heightened state of alert. There are bad people who want to  
get us: They’ve shown they can do it, and stopping them before they  
do it again is a good thing.

And when we tell the government to circle the wagons, it’s to be  
expected that mistakes will be made. There will be overreaching, and  
rights will get stepped on. It’s inevitable. But it is the citizens’  
job to tell the government when it has gone too far, because the  
government isn’t equipped to stop itself. Like a nasty fungus or a  
bad roommate, the government will expand to fill any available space.  
Along the way, the government will gobble up everything in sight— 
including fundamental rights—until somebody stands up to the inertia  
and says “stop that.”

This column is supposed to be about intellectual-property issues, so  
why am I harping about the “war on terror”? Because the two things  
have become joined.

Last week, a multilevel governmental strike force, apparently led by  
the Department of Homeland Security, shut down the Elite Torrents Web  
site, where bit- torrent-based peer-to-peer file trading was taking  
place. (Bit torrent is a new and superfast peer-to-peer networking  
technology.) If you go to www.elitetorrents.org, you will see,  
between the official seals of the Department of Homeland Security and  
the FBI, the following message: THIS SITE HAS BEEN PERMANENTLY SHUT  
DOWN BY THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION AND U.S. CUSTOMS AND  
IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT. Those running the Elite Torrents site are  
being criminally prosecuted by the Federal Department of Justice.

Maybe I’m missing something here, and I hope that I am, but the  
Department of Homeland Security (according to its Web site,  
www.dms.gov) “has three primary missions: Prevent terrorist attacks  
within the United States, reduce America’s vulnerability to  
terrorism, and minimize the damage from potential attacks and natural  
disasters.” And Elite Torrents was allowing the free distribution of  
copyrighted materials over the ’Net. According to news reports, Elite  
Torrents made the new Star Wars movie Revenge of the Sith available  
six hours before the movie’s premiere, and was responsible for more  
than 10,000 downloads of the movie before the site was shut down.

One of these days I’ll discuss the legal ins and outs of file sharing  
over the Web, but suffice it to say that right now in this country,  
downloading free music, movies, and software without the copyright  
owners’ permission is a lot more illegal than legal, and it’s likely  
to stay that way. So the folks running Elite Torrents should have had  
an inkling that posting new movies—especially Revenge of the Sith—for  
free download on the Web would bring the wrath of the Motion Picture  
Association of America (MPAA) raining down upon them. The MPAA has  
always been super-aggressive against piracy and counterfeit goods,  
and of course it’s going to be absolutely tenacious as technology  
begins to allow for the quick and easy transfer of movie-sized files  
on the Web.

But the Department of Homeland Security? What are they doing here?  
Shouldn’t they be doing things like making sure some fanatic doesn’t  
bazooka a chemical plant or fly another plane into a building? Are we  
supposed to feel safer because geeky college kids can’t download  
pirated Star Wars movies any more?

What’s particularly distressing here is that we’re talking about the  
movement of information. OK, pirated information, but information all  
the same, and fairly benign information at that. Yeah, piracy’s a bad  
thing, and infringement can often be a bad thing, but frankly, not  
always. There are civil penalties for piracy and infringement, and if  
the activities are bad and systematic enough, there are criminal  
penalties as well. There have always been policies and processes to  
punish bad guys.

But it appears that the resources that are supposed to be used to  
keep the country safe are being used instead to keep the information  
industry happy and profitable. And beefed-up laws and mandates that  
were supposed to be used against enemies of the state—you know, the  
freakin’ evildoers—are being used against, at best, high-tech common  
criminals.

Dwight D. Eisenhower wasn’t a flaming liberal, and nobody ever  
accused him of being unpatriotic. Eisenhower warned in 1961, in his  
last speech as president, that the titans of national defense and of  
business, if allowed to run together, could nibble away at normal  
citizens’ basic liberties until the liberties were all gone:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition  
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military- 
industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of  
misplaced power exists and will persist.

“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our  
liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for  
granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the  
proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of  
defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and  
liberty may prosper together.”

—Paul Rapp


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