Comments on: Justice Dept. probes for pirates

Agents search homes, ISP in criminal investigation that could portend greater scrutiny of casual downloads.

What were they sharing?

It's interesting that they were able to join into the DirectConnect system. In order to do that, especially on the busiest hubs, you usually have to share between 5 and 20GB, yourself.

Were they breaking the same laws that they are trying to implicate others on? I wonder how many movies I downloaded directly from them. I'd like to sue them for making them available to me. Yeah right...that'll happen.

They would have to have been..

They would have to have been breaking the same laws. I think these peoples lawyers are going to have fun with that. Our justice system should not allow the authoritize to break the law themselves just to catch people that are. Because of this this sting just became entrapment.

Robert

They only accused the Web Page

They did not connect to Direct Connect to implicate Underground Network. They are trying to say Tyler Durden used the web site to promote illegal file sharing and the like.

[jadester]

I agree

Were they online sharing files? Isn't that illegal and called ENTRAPMENT?
And also with winxp pro, when I installed it, it made its own shared files directory - which is now technically illegal - so can microsoft be sued over this issue in their software?
The USA is obviously on a witch hunt - the reason for decline of sales of music is because the music out there is ***** - and has been for the last 5-7 years - so RIAA if you want to keep customers get some better music out there and stop suing individuals!! Make more live bootlegs available as well - i want to hear live music more than buy a crappy cd that has maybe 2-3 songs on it that are okay - the last cd i bought was pearl jam live bootleg recently - before this cd the last cd i bought was from 2 years ago. I'd rather jump off a cliff than buy ***** music which i will never play - why would i waste my money on it?

Stealing Music = JAIL, Steal Millions $ as Corp. heads = freedom

Does it seem odd that companies that have caused major economic problems for the entire country because of fraud and other illegal activities are escaping punishments?
Yet if you steal a song or two, according to this article, you can get jail time?

I haven't heard of too many corp. execs being held accountable.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think stealing on either end is wrong, but why should those stealing "pennies" get a harsher punishment than those stealing "millions"?

correction

Last line should have read "Don't get me wrong - I think stealing on either end is wrong, but why should those stealing "pennies" get a harsher punishment than those stealing "millions"?

[Prndll]

Nothing is being stolen.......

When an MP3 is downloaded, NO ONE at all is denying who wrote and performed the song. I (for one) would never claim to have written or sung any of the music.

What this is, is a ploy by the powers that be to maintain absolute power over all of us. Even when the people of the world have the ability to do things for themselves, the recording industry still maintains the line of thinking that it must go through them. Even to go to such great lengths to use federal strongarm tactics and lawsuits against little girls.

There is a better way. The RIAA does not want to use that better way because it is not the "norm", it is not the thing they are use to. What they fail to realize is that the world is changing. They MUST change with it or be trampled under the wheels of all humanity. Everything they do to try to inforce copy protection just angers people even more and causes those that have a tech savy mind to come up with a way to circumvent them.

If their sales are truly going down, it has nothing to do with downloaders. It has more to do with the industry itself: The crap they put out, their business ethics, and power hungry train of thought that keeps them from making smarter business decisions.

I for one would rather pay TimeWarner for the installation of Winamp than to see all this.

TimeWarner owns Winamp. TimeWarner complains about people downloading music to play on Winamp. It is (in large part) TimeWarner's servers that are used to download mp3's. TimeWarner even creats the hardware to play and record mp3 using cd's.

They give us the ability to do something and then use their influence in the goverment to put people in jail for using that ability.

It is not MY morality that is in question here, it is THIERS. THEY are they true thieves here.

Ya know, the man that owns the "MP3" format is proped up and allowed to further his work. If the RIAA wants to complain about someone, let them complain about him.

The ONLY way the recording industry will ever win is to have pc's not able to record or play sound. As long as computers can play and record sound, people will continue to do this kind of thing with music. WAKE UP......Pandora's box has been opened.....The RIAA does not have the power to close it.

Did we catch the Thieves or the Network Admins?

As a friend of someone who was questioned by the F.B.I. about the offending service provider I must point out that the Law enforcement agencies should remember that Underground Network was only providing a service. The webpage was nothing more than a chat/forum server page. I know that the great Tyler Durden was questioned along with Spartacus, but what of the other owner? What exactly is the Government searching for in the Underground Network? The webpage like I said only provided help with connecting to Direct Connect and whatever else one had trouble with could find help on the page. I'm just trying to state that the members so far questioned were only the Web Page adminstrators. Why hasnt the FBI investigated Diret Connect if it is so illegal?
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