TheMushroom lets us know that according to this article, organized criminal groups are getting rich from the theft of America's copyrighted products. Organized crime syndicates are frequently engaged in many types of illicit enterprises, including supporting terrorist activities:
John Malcolm, a Justice Department official who oversees the computer crime division, warned the panel about the connections between copyright piracy and terrorism. |
"Organized crime syndicates are frequently engaged in many types of illicit enterprises, including supporting terrorist activities," Malcolm said. "All components of the Justice Department...will do everything within their power to make sure that intellectual property piracy does not become a vehicle for financing or supporting acts of terror."
The article also describes a loophole in current copyright laws. Microsoft has for instance developed a new method to prevent piracy. By adding a hologram to a disc it's impossible to copy them. However pirates have already developed holographic stickers that closely resemble the look of the hologram. Problem is that these stickers are not illegal. These kind of loopholes need to be fixed via a possible change to federal anticounterfeiting laws.
Source: ZDNet
