Hong Kong Using Children to Hunt for Piracy 259
westcoaster004 writes to tell us that according to The New York Times the Hong Kong government will be using some 200,000 youths to scour the internet for piracy. Members of the Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, and nine other youth organizations will be drawn from with the first 1,600 being "sworn in" this Wednesday. From the article: "Tam Yiu-keung, the Hong Kong Excise and Customs Department's senior superintendent of customs for intellectual property investigations, said the program should not raise any concerns about privacy or the role of children in law enforcement. The youths will be visiting Internet discussion sites that are open to all, so the government program is no different than asking young people to tell the police if they see a crime while walking down the street, he said."
Search != Stumble Upon (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
Of course, China isn't trying to destroy the relationship between parents and their children, but they're certaintly being systematically used for espionage.
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, and let's not forget the East Germany snitch network [wikipedia.org].
It's funny how copyright enforcement seems to create more and more such parallels, isn't it ? Kinda makes me wonder if we don't regard the Copyright Lobby in 50 years the same way we regard Nazi Party now.
Yeah, copyright Nazi. Nazi copyright. Copyright mass murder Hitler Stalin terrorism evil RIAA MPAA DMCA DRM. Eat it up, googlebot :).
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2, Insightful)
However, I think you'll find that many will either pretend that certain views are not fascist, or even claim them to be a Right Thing(tm)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
The whole hilter did it and it was bad thing comes form hitler doing many bad things. It is an attempt to associate behavior with those bad things. People tend to dismiss someone who warns of a scenario hitler has done but then wonder what happened when we are facing the same if not simular things.
Hitler (and i think stallin before him) had the children spying on the adults. But after a child turned an adault in, these
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
Are you sure about that, given that this is Slashdot?
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
The events that the Hitler Youth were reporting upon were crimes, by Hitler's definition.
Nowadays we wouldn't tend to regard them as such; but, according to NSDAP standards, crimes they were. What every "law-abiding citizen" should remember is this: you are just one government-imposed ban away from becoming a criminal.
The real reason (Score:2)
2) Hong Kong is losing about 0% due to piracy each year?
For some reason, however, HK wants 200,000 kiddies to start looking around the places that will introduce them to the underbelly of computing
Now let me ask you, what would China want with some 200,000 script-kiddies?
Considering that the US of A already has a computerized powergrid, huge internet backbone/banking systems/telephone/cellular networks/freaking traffic lights and
Re:The real reason (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, but that's really dumb, even for a conspiracy theory. If you were the Chinese government and wanted to hack in to American information infrastructure, you wouldn't hire 200,000 children, you'd hire 200 really bright graduate students, and have them write automated attack programs. Not hundreds of thousands of amateur volunteers who are (a) not going to be very effective, and (b) are going to be impossible to keep quiet about their activities.
There's also the minor detail of China having the USA as their largest customer -- attacking the USA is hardly in their economic interest.
Re:The real reason (Score:3, Informative)
You obviously know nothing about Hong Kong. China does not trust Hong Kong people politically, (having beeen tainted by British colonialism and western concepts of democracy) and they not allowed to join the PLA. For various reasons the Beijing govt keeps a hands-off policy with regard to HK governance (except for ruling out real elections, etc), and I can assure you this idea is entirely home-grown and in line with other of
Re:The real reason (Score:3, Insightful)
Ahem... Hong Kong has made some damned good movies (including some [imdb.com] of [imdb.com] my [imdb.com] all-time [imdb.com] favorites [imdb.com]). And I'm sure they get pirated.
Self invoked Godwin's.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not a new idea (Hitler Youth, anyone?), but it seems our capacity for learning from history seems tied only to short-term memory.
I think the "...asked my son to explore dark alleys at 3am, just to figure out if drug deals are going on
Face it, it is hard for the would be dictators/over-control ty
Re:Self invoked Godwin's.... (Score:2)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:3, Insightful)
I would be pretty concerned if the government asked my son to explore dark alleys at 3am, just to figure out if drug deals are going on in that part of town.
I think there's a wee bit of safety difference between exploring dark alleys at 3am and surfing the net.
Asking children to do something like that is a form of indoctrination, making the implication that "ratting" to the government is grand thing to do.
So you're saying that you'll teach your children to ignore any crimes they see and just bury
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:5, Insightful)
So you're saying you'll teach your children to report every crime they see? Old lady jaywalker is SOOOOO busted.
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
And by the way, old lady jaywalker SHOULD be busted, for good reasons (although law enforcement will not likely lay a charge). What would you choose, a warning from a police officer, or getting run into by a car?
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:4, Interesting)
The same way I discriminate between anything else, common sense and my personal system of ethics. I obey laws when they're not too unreasonable. I agree with most of the regularly enforced laws in the U.S., hence me and a lot of other people in the same boat live here under a government that will enforce these laws and prevent other people from committing acts like rape, murder, theft, et al. Plus give us a fair shake if we're accused of any of that nasty stuff.
We also have a police force to investigate these crimes. If we were to start telling little Johnny to keep on the lookout for nasty copyright infringers, we've just given him the go ahead for a witch hunt and breached another hole in the healthy distrust he should have for his government.
Hell, the legal system already assigns different penalties to different crimes, ranking them by their severity. It's not really an astonishing idea.
As for old lady jaywalker, there's some old ladies that shouldn't be crossing some streets. The laws exist so the police officers can stop them. The appropriate action for a strapping young lad that sees an elderly lady having trouble crossing the street, however, is to assist her, not to call the feds on her.
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:5, Insightful)
Will you have children looking for online molesters soon? They are the most qualified to do so, even if it does put them in a dangerous situation.
Think about it.
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
Physical safety, yes. However, there's a very real chance of getting used to being a spy, and that have the potential to lead to doing very nasty things indeed. Besides, once you'll get known as a snitch, who would want anything to do with you ?
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
search != stumble upon (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:3, Insightful)
Absolutely. (Score:2)
Very good citizens there, I tell ya.
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
Asking children to this is cheap labour, any other country would be ashamed to admit drafting so much child labour but China seems proud of the idea. These children should be encouraged to focus on their school work rather than scouring the internet for music and probably looking at lots porn while they are at it because that is what funds the warez sites.
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
It was called "The Hitler Youth"
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:5, Insightful)
Substitute in a bunch of things for piracy in the above statement based on laws of different countries, like "homosexuality" or "democracy."
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
If you perform a search and know your facts, Hong Kong is running a system that is WAY more democratic than China, and many so-called "democratic" countries. In fact, it has more freedom now than when it was under British rule.
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Search != Stumble Upon (Score:2)
If it wasn't so easy to pirate software, do you really imagine everybody would suddenly start buying the stuff, or even turn over to using non-pirateable software {Free and Open Source}? Almost nobody would have computers; we'd all go back to using pencils and paper, the way we used to do for years without problems. Even the Free Software movement benefits, however indirectly, from piracy: the presence of p
Its not that hard (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Its not that hard (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Its not that hard (Score:5, Informative)
It's kind of like education kids about drugs by showing them where to buy all the ingredients to make meth...
Re:Its not that hard (Score:2)
Re:Its not that hard (Score:2)
That would be Walmart. No joke, they've got it all.
Re:Its not that hard (Score:2)
I think this is quite right. Interestingly enough, I'm sure the local law enforcement is turning a blind eye to the illegal Versace and Gucci knockoffs in the local night market. I have forgotten the name of the street since it's been 9 years since I was in Hong Kong, but there's a famous night market on some street that is notorious for selling counterfeit goods. I bought what I'm su
Re:Its not that hard (Score:2)
Why did this get modded "funny"? I'd almost call it obvious, but not really all that funny, just a fact. "Insightful", if anything.
Seriously, finding pirated material takes so little effort even a child could do it - As Hong Kong apparently intends to demonstrate. Just search Google for "[warez/appz/gamez/serialz/keygen]" AND "[name of product]" and then filter through the literally thousands of hits until you find something p
they had better be prepared (Score:5, Insightful)
to see porn and all its flavors, casiono/poker scams, spyware, popups, circle jerks, top20 gateways and all the other scum that floats on the bottom of the warez scene
Re:they had better be prepared (Score:2)
Bad idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, yes, I know that any kid can go online and find whatever they want to look at. I'm getting at that maybe this isn't a task for children (in the government-run sense).
Re:Bad idea (Score:5, Funny)
Save the pirates! (Score:5, Funny)
Yarrr!
Re:Save the pirates! (Score:3, Funny)
like 1940's vice squads (Score:4, Funny)
Oboy! (Score:5, Funny)
Anti-Piracy Merit Badges!
To earn one you must:
Breaking news: Chairman Moa is doing 3,500 RPM in his grave.
Re:Oboy! (Score:2, Insightful)
and in other news Chairman Mao is doing 75,00RPM in his urn.
Re:Oboy! (Score:2)
Just attach wires and magnets and you have the energy crisis solved ;). Urns make nice portable generators, too...
And here I thought that various administrations were just incompetent, stupid and treacherous, but now I realize that they're just doing their part in developing alternative energy sources for the world after peak oil !
this merit badge has a problem (Score:3, Funny)
hard to stich that on your average girl scout/ boy scout uniform
additionally, due to D.M.C.A. rules, each boyscout/ girlscout must get preapproval from 5 separate companies and 6 layers of lawyers before they are able to legally wear the merit badge
and finally, anyone viewing the merit badge on the person of a boyscout/ girlscout must gain preapproval from the same companies/ lawyers or they are in violation of fair use of the merit
The Junior Woodchucks are coming! (Score:2)
Fear the Junior Woodchucks [wikitruth.info].
I can see it now... (Score:5, Funny)
Pirates: Aha! You are using child labor!
Joe Everyday: Oh no, who should I hate more?
RIAA/MPAA: The pirates, they're the worst kind of criminal!
American Government: Think of the children!
Joe Everyday: [glares] Not helping!
And then Canada just kind of laughs and goes back to whatever its doing.
Wow, what a bad idea (Score:5, Insightful)
So let's dump that on 200k kids. Lovely.
Second, kids are idiots. Truly, they are. I remember when I was a kid, I was an idiot. So now we are turning out 200k kids in to an enviroment ripe for molestation. And porn, lest we forget.
This is a bad bad idea, no mater how you slice it.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wow, what a bad idea (Score:2)
Re:Wow, what a bad idea (Score:2)
Be that as it may, I'm still for blocking children from seeing donkey shows. And worse.
Nothing can go wrong! (Score:5, Funny)
1) Force children, who no doubt understand teh intarwebs better than those in charge of this, to swear that they will search out piracy
2) Encourage said children and young adults to spend time searching for movies and warez
3) Wait for the reports to roll in.
Whoever thought this up is brilliant. This plan has no flaws. Why didn't my government think of this?
Re:Nothing can go wrong! (Score:2)
You own a government?
Re:Nothing can go wrong! (Score:2)
Re:Nothing can go wrong! (Score:2)
4) ?????
5) Profit!
P.S. I see where you're going with this and agree with you, but could not resist.
It's the vodka talking in me, honest.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The lesson.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Only the "uncool" and "morons" are actually signing up. In fact, even those that do sign up, are just all reporting the same websites to gain "credits", they are not actively doing anything.
All the while, they are doing the searching on their pirated WinXP computers...
this reminds me of... (Score:4, Insightful)
Boy/Girl scouts report..... (Score:2, Funny)
child labor laws? (Score:2)
What next, use real kids to push child p0rn rings?
slippery slope!
Re:child labor laws? (Score:2)
Re:child labor laws? (Score:2)
Sounds familiar. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:2)
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:5, Insightful)
'It was my little daughter,' said Jason9x19 with a sort of doleful pride. 'She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear her any grudge for it. In fact I'm proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway.'
G Orwell [online-literature.com]
That's nothing (Score:5, Funny)
However, we do outsource the collecton results in Sweden so I guess we can't take all the credit.
Scouts? (Score:2)
Hmmm.... (Score:2)
Not as bad as we think perhaps (Score:2)
I wonder what the other 693 kids in pilot program where doing during this time? Or maybe it slows them up when they decide to d/l them all,hehe. It is either that or the pilot program only lasted 20 minutes before they implemented it full-scale
Program is available for export...i dare you to try that here...hehe they would probably download 1600 for every 800 found
ok, back to how sleezey this is.....
Boy Scouts? (Score:5, Funny)
The dispute started in 1998, when the Business Software Alliance noticed that the Boy Scouts of America, a quasi-military organization headquartered in Irving, Texas, had the same three letter initials as them. They promptly sued for damages and infringement. While many legal scholars believed that the Scouts would prevail as they have existed for nearly a century, the Business Software Alliance won the case by throwing wave after wave of lawyers at them until the Scouts relented.
"I cannot continue to sit back and allow the Boy Scouts to continue to sap and impurify all of our precious intellectual property," said a Business Software Alliance representative, "God willing, we will prevail, through the purity and essence of our trademarks and copyrights."
Bob Talbee, a scoutmaster in Grand Rapids, Michigan, stated that he would cancel the weekend campout to comply with the order, "Sorry kids, we've got to spend the weekend on the internet looking for something or someone called warez," he announced at a recent Scout meeting. Talbee, a bricklayer by trade, was not sure what a warez is, but thought it sounded thoroughly unwholesome and worthwhile for the scouts to work towards eliminating.
The lack of Peter Pan jokes is disheartening. (Score:2)
Children fighting pirates? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Children fighting pirates? (Score:2)
RIAA/MPAA: Do you believe in intellectual property? If you do, clap your hands! C'mon, people ... if you don't clap, the idea of perpetual ownership of an abstract intangibility will die!
Reminds me of (Score:4, Insightful)
So
since this is Hong Kong (Score:3, Insightful)
The idea that the children of Hong Kong are being sent on a crusade to supplement the RIAA is absurd, and should not be taken on face value.
Perhaps the Hong Kong politicians who have received gifts from the pirates along with honorariums (to cover expenses, of course) from the RIAA need to show everyone involved on both sides that they are making 'a sincere effort' to address the 'problem'.
Re:since this is Hong Kong (Score:2)
If they were serious about stopping piracy they'd just send the Police to three or four locations I've visited several times
Another Exciting Adventure brought to you by .... (Score:2)
Do not be fooled! (Score:3, Insightful)
FTA: "The program may work better here than it would elsewhere, local officials suggest. Hong Kong teenagers are surprisingly obedient, possibly because of a Confucian tradition and very strong social pressures to study hard and serve the community."
That's right! Their kids are more brainwashed! Go MPAA/RIAA.
Re:Do not be fooled! (Score:4, Interesting)
LOOK AT THE MAN'S WRITING. IT'S TRUE
Re:Do not be fooled! (Score:2)
Re:Do not be fooled! (Score:2)
Consider this.
I make a new philosophy. It involves having herbivores as the servants of carnivores. The herbivores are supposed to serve and obey the carnivores, and in return, the carnivores are not supposed to tear the herbivores into ribbons and feast on their entrails. Now, this of course would not work, because it defies the basic nature of the carnivores. If I suggested this philosophy to a serious person, and
A new merit badge (Score:3, Funny)
The numbers don't add up! (Score:3, Interesting)
That would mean that 1 in every 5 youths would have to become part of this program. Sounds....unlikely.
Sources:
The secret to ending piracy is... (Score:2)
1 parts - Living Wage that provides a quality life, and covers all medical needs.
2 parts - Lower Prices for software
3 parts - Lower Prices for music
4 parts - Lower Prices for movies
Put them all together in a bowl, mix them up gently.
Re:The secret to ending piracy is... (Score:2)
Today, in the marketplace of the Internet you have a real choice: pay or not. Period. You want a copy of Adobe Photoshop - you can pay any amount from $0 to $1000. You get to choose. The fact that some people will pay $1000 but most choose something less is a fact of life. Where the rubber meets the road is when everyone (or at least nearly everyone) chooses $0.
This is where music in China has gone. Everyone chooses $0
In soviet russia (Score:2)
maybe they've been reading (Score:3, Informative)
which is a damn fine webcomic as well
Re:Merits (Score:2)
In America it is becoming... (Score:2)
In America it is becoming Rumsfeld Youth [freerepublic.com], complete with the natural lead-in to the military.
Re:The Internet (Score:2)
Re:The Internet (Score:2)
Re:Why are they wasting their time? (Score:2)
No gods => everyone is responsible for their own actions.
Many gods => even gods you don't worship can still punish you if you transgress against them.
One god => any fuckin