/sarcasm
The following cutting comes from [http://imdb.com/news/sb/2007-06-04/#tv5|a June 4, 2007 post] at IMDB.com:
A Chicago man has found himself caught in a tangled web after admitting that he found four never-before-broadcast episodes of Fox's 24 on an unnamed website, then uploaded them in January to the website LiveDigital.com. Acknowledging that the man, Jorge Romero, was not the first to post the pirated copies on the Internet, the FBI said that he was nevertheless being charged with distributing them. He was identified after Fox TV, which airs 24, subpoenaed LiveDigital demanding that the uploader by identified. In a statement, Fox said that it hopes Romero's case "will serve as a powerful warning that uploading copyrighted TV shows and movies to the Internet can be a crime with significant penalties and will be prosecuted as such."YEP, that's right--the FBI is going after, not the men behind 911, not the guys in the White House (who have broken a few laws, themselves), not again drug runners, but are in fact going after (apparently) something much more important, bootleggers. That's right, uploading unaired episodes of 24 can get you in front of a judge.
This is so unbelievably absurd, it's not even funny!
"So, Agent Johnson, you got any leads on domestic terrorism?" Agent Smith asks.
"Oh, no, but I'm real close to nailing this guy who watches 24 illegally!"
"Snap! Get that bastard! Uh, say, did you have to snag any episodes, you know, for evidence? I hear the new shows are kind of good."
"Of course, man! I'll email them to you!"
OK, so the dude in Chicago got in trouble for distributing the episodes, not just watching them. But so friggin' what? Is the money the Fox people lost worth a man's freedom? Worth more than putting FBI agents on jobs that actually keep humanity safe, as opposed to oppressed?
I used to know a guy who worked in the (paraphrasing here) Copyright Enforcement Department at Warner Brothers. I asked him how he handled bootleggers when he found them. He told me they'd find them at scifi conventions and rather than arrest the bootleggers they'd just scoop up the tapes and throw them away because actually prosecuting these guys would cost more than the company was losing.
Of course, now they don't have to do it themselves, they just call the FBI who are more than happy to put aside their jobs protecting Americans to protect their big, fat bottom line.
Don't you just love it when companies get better treatment than us normal citizens?
Orignal From: FBI ARRESTS MAN FOR DISTRIBUTING TV SHOWS
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