FITUG e.V.
Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
FITUG e.V.Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft |
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<http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1263360,00.html?=rss>
Introducing Del-Qaida
Worried about losing money, the entertainment business is peddling false links between DVD pirates and terror cells
Duncan Campbell Saturday July 17, 2004 The Guardian
If you buy a pirated DVD from a bloke in the pub, you could be personally responsible for the deaths of innocent women and children in terrorist attacks. That, essentially, is the message being promoted this week by the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness (Itipa), the body that represents some of the world's largest film companies. This week it launched a £1.5m "public awareness campaign" to inform people of supposed links between the "Del Boy" characters who sell pirate DVDs and terrorist cells.
Posters claiming that "terrorist groups sell DVDs to raise funds" are at the heart of the campaign. Anyone renting a video will now be receiving the same message. So where is the evidence for this claim?
The industry group cited as its chief witness Ronald Noble, secretary general of Interpol. It quoted him as saying: "The link between organised crime groups and counterfeit goods is well established, but Interpol is sounding the alarm that intellectual property crime (IPC) is becoming the preferred method of funding for a number of terrorist groups." The "preferred method of funding"? A call to the Interpol office in Lyon seems appropriate. We are referred to Mr Noble's speech last July,to the US House of Representatives committee on international relations, on the subject of the links between IPC and terrorism.
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