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MPAA Caught In Copyright Scandal

zekrahminator

zekrahminator

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The Inquirer cites the MPAA as the "champion of nothing good nor right, on a crusade against it's customers for nearly as long as the RIAA." While the MPAA would ordinarily scoff at such allegations, they seem to be right in the middle of them this time. While they frequently are seen trying to get software pirates and copyright violators off the digital streets, they were recently caught violating copyrights. It all started when the MPAA released a toolkit for universities to use in a quest to find potential software pirates. This toolkit was compiled with a lot of open-source material. However, it would seem as though someone at the MPAA overlooked part of the GPL agreement.

The MPAA modified the source code of said open source programs and neglected to release the modified versions. Since doing this to an open source program is against the GPL agreement, it didn't take long for concerned copyright owners to contact the MPAA. The copyright holders got nothing more than "clueless secretaries". In a twist of fate, the copyright holders contacted the ISP that the MPAA was using, and got the content removed. It is not clear whether or not the original copyright owners will get monetary compensation for the infringement.

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Whats the punishment? There is no plagerizing...:eek:
 
New GPL license agreement required

GPL should be revised. (e.g. GPL2008). It needs to include automatic penalties for infringement. Payment, cash, goes to the GPL foundation. GPL foundation needs to be set up as a trust and have only 3 functions:

1./ Collect money from naughty naughties
2./ Disburse bursaries to students/teachers that are forwarding GPL principles, e.g. to study, or lecture, in certain "freedom" and public rights subjects
3./ Oversee and monitor, maybe even archive and publish, GPL and GPL released material

The automatic penalty and point 1 are important... to give GPL the teeth it doesnt have. In the 21C, unfortunately, the people who believe that people and corporations will do the ethically right thing, esp. with repect to GPL, are a little naiive in that hope. So we need some bulldogs and some lawyers on the cause.
 
SUE THEM!!! Get a HUGE HUGE LAWSUIT. FUDGE THEM UP. Them and Comcast.
 
Down with the MPAA! :nutkick:
 
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