Whats the role of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security?

[XPUser1]

It is an iframe to the IP 192.31.21.68 , which is registered to 'San Diego Supercomputer Center '

Hi David,

Gee so its spoofed? I picked up the url (www.elitetorrents.org) while reading the news article from reuters. The news url is here

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,102027,00.html

excerpts:

MAY 26, 2005 (REUTERS) - U.S. law enforcement officials have shut down a computer network that distributed illegal copies of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith before it appeared in movie theaters.
Federal agents executed 10 search warrants and seized the main server in a network that had allowed people to download nearly 18,000 movies and software programs, including many current releases, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.

The Elite Torrents network, found online at www.elitetorrents.org, relied on a technology called BitTorrent that allows users to quickly download digital movies and other large files by copying them from many computers at once.


Regards

 

[ksb007]

The US Dept of Homeland Security pushes to evaluate all threats and all criminal activity, therefore the reason they were involved in this situation is because they were alerted of criminal activity taking place.

DHS encourages individuals to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity and cyber security incidents to Homeland Security. This was taken from their website at http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home6.jsp. Although I do disagree with them being involved in something so trivial, this does explain why they were involved.

 

[Giancarlo]

but whilst there are still people running around in places all over the world waiting to kill hundreds and thousands of people. the departments have bowed to the preassures of hollywood and started to go after the easy targets (kids downloading movies), rather than the gun toting maniacs...

This is a very fallacious argument. Dude, the US government has a right to enforce other laws. These laws are in the book. The US government did not bow to the pressure of anyone. It is merely enforcing laws already on the book. I mean come on... how can you possibly justify yourself with this? The government has enough resources to prosecute people for other crimes too, as well as take care of the terrorist issue.

it was only a matter of time before the law enforcers would be bullied into taking resources away from more important issues to protect the wallets of the hollywood producers...

This is false because the US Government has resources dedicated to this issue already. There are enough resources to go around. They have a right to investigate these matters. They have enough man power to do so. The law enforcers weren't bullied to do anything.

This matter isn't trivial. In fact we have laws in this country. I know some of you don't like law enforcement and rather would prefer anarchy and stupidity, but welcome to America. Where we go after terrorists and enforce laws. Ever heard of multi-tasking? WELL THIS NATION CAN DO IT!

 

[root]

OK... so why was thast site not a problem untill star wars episode 3 came out? why was internet muic piracy only such headline grabbing attention, and people only go t arested for it after the producers took an interest and applied preassure?

face it the government would turn around and drop their trousers if some hollywod big shot asked them to...

Like I said it might be an emotinal argument but I do feel there are things they could have better spent their time on...

So far as multi tasking goes...
My PC can multitask, it can as it's doing now... work for a folding project, and let me surk the internet, whilst also listening to music (all legal)...

so far as governmental multi tasking goes...
shutting down one site is hardly a positive and affirmative action...

(in fact anyone could have done a whois search to find out who the site belonged to, any one can gather IP address information and ten ask a service provider for personal details)...

so the one task wasn't exactly complicated, and we are yet to see results from any other tasks...

 

[Giancarlo]

It is highly emotional and very fallacious. I do not consider your argument valid either. The site was breaking the law and the Bush adminstration is not fond of hollywood. You know why? Because most of the people in Hollywood are staunchly anti-Bush. But this is breaking the law nonetheless. The government can multi-task. I find your pro-anarchy beliefs stunning. This wasn't too complicated anyways. they have the man power to do it, and shut down sites like that. I bet it took them five minutes to do it too!

The government can fight crime like this and fight terrorism at the same time. Again they have the man power to do many things at one time. In fact they are. Next thing you would say... well the government has better things to do then collect taxes! Lets face it, your argument against this is just plain horrible.

 

[root]

I am very pro anarchy actually when it come s to creative matter...

I'm a furvative suporter of copyright and the creative commons license, that is to say I like to pay for things, but not feel like I'm being ripped off to keep Simon Cowell livnig in three houses accross the world, drivnig nice cars and sponsoring shite TV shows...

As it happens I've said twice, and now three times.. yes my argument is very emotional...

but to be honest it pisses me off that my house was robbed a few years ago, and people who could have bee policing the streets, or money that could have been spent on in town survelance systems was instead pissed away finding kids sharing music over the internet...

If a shop is being robbed they have to pay for their securty systems to be enhanced... they have to make an effort to protect themselves or else not even their insurance wil pay out...

if hollywood is being robed, they make a quick phone call and all of a sudden hundreds of hours of police work is devloted to stopping people downloading a new star wars film...

emotional - yes...
Anarchic - Yes...
plain good sense - I'd like to think so...

 

[Giancarlo]

I'm a supporter of copyright laws and the fact that people have a right to protect their own work. It is awful that people choose to be thieves and illegally distribute this work. Honestly I don't know about your country, but in this country law enforcement has different people working on different things. It is called multi-tasking. We have enough resources to do it. Your argument is anarchic, and is not plain good sense. I didn't really detect that in your argument. And plus the spelling errors are getting worse.

Hundreds of hours of police work? Care to have evidence for that? The site was pretty straight forward and I bet the law enforcement agency who looked at it could tell immediately what it was. And besides the FBI doesn't patrol the streets of the US. They have offices in their agency and plenty of resources detected to copyright enforcement.

Do you really have any evidence what-so-ever to say that law enforcement was busy only going after music filesharers? Because your argument seems to be pretty awful in that regard. How do you know that? I believe law enforcement can multitask.

It seems I have the good old common sense.

 

[root]

I believe Law enforcementcan multi task...

in fact they have differnt departments speciallising in different things... my ponit is that resoources and budget are finite and I dont' think that protecting big business is the best use of a finite resource...

Hundreds of hours... OK that was prehaps and exageration.. but raids on houses will inevitably mean seized computer equipment and time spent analysing the hardware... perhaps not hundreds, but certainly a lot...

I'm aware of the fact that the FBI don't poice the streets, but surely you realise that there is only a finite amount of money in a country. (yes they can print more but thats besides the point)...

there is only a finite amount and an extra million to the FBI in a computer crimes division is an extra million taken away from the narcotics division...

you've already pointed out how the FBI doesn't have the time to read emails from scammers, or try to trace them back to the source...

so why is it when the citizens who ultimatly fund these departments through taxes arebeing riped off, the departments dno't have time...

but when Goerge Lucas looses a few bucks in cinema box office tickets the FBI comes in heavy handed arrestng people and sieznig equipment... performing dawn raids on houses...

I never said that the law was only going after file sharers, I said that an amount of the resuorces available to the law was being spent on that, and not on services the public (who pay taxes) actually want and need...


my spellin has very little to do with my argument, (althoguh you like to make personal critisisms as you start to loose arguments)... as I said you before, if yuo are looking for a fight... look else were because I can't be bothered.

 

[Giancarlo]

The site was pretty straight forward... if I stumbled across it, chances are I could figure out what it was almost instantly. I highly doubt law enforcement used much resources in shutting down the site, let alone much time. You are full of exaggerations and half truths I think. There is plenty of money in this country to allocate to the computer crimes division. And your committing a logical fallacy by saying an extra million in the FBI to computer crimes is an extra million taken away from the narcotics division.. that's false reasoning. You care to provide any evidence for that? As far as I'm concerned, the President's budget highlighted increases for the agency across the board. Not increases and decreases.

You need to learn there is plenty of money in this country for all sorts of law enforcement. The FBI doesn't have the time to trace emails back to the source... but that website is pretty obvious. Anyone with half of a brain could figure out what they were doing. I bet it took them a day or two to shut it down.

"FBI comes in heavy handed arrestng people and sieznig equipment... performing dawn raids on houses..."

Have any evidence for that? As far as I'm concerned they shut down the site.

"so why is it when the citizens who ultimatly fund these departments through taxes arebeing riped off, the departments dno't have time..."

Another logical fallacy.. you seem to be full of these today! The agency has better things to do. The website was a pretty easy matter. Even if I went on it I would know. So shut it down. Don't leave it up. They were required by the law to shut it down.

Your argument is just plain bad. It is fallacious, doesn't take into account the facts and reality, and is very one sided. You need to open your mind to the facts. I'm not the one losing the argument, you are and you should be concerned about that. Your spelling was brought up because it makes your own argument look unprofessional. That's all.

 

[root]

The agency has better things to do

(i.e they won't try to protect you from con men, who are after your money... they have far more pressing issues like making sure george lucas doesn't loos a few bucks...)


The whole point of the argumet is it is completly emotinal, it's illegal to send out 419 emails, it's illegal to try to con people... it's illegal to setup pyramid schemes, but these are al over the place, (how many Ipod adversthis year alone on this board?)...

So why is it the only computer crime the FBI seem to have taken the time to actually solve is file sharing?

Why not the 419 emails, which as you said your self... they simply don't have time to deal with...

(actually my argument is flawed, because I think they do have time to deal with them, and I think yuo were wrong when you said they didn't)...