The Tek 0212: War on Christmas | Tek Syndicate

As far as inviting other gaming-related youtubers to LAN Syndicate, it would be amazing if you guys got Totalbiscuit to go :D Perhaps you could get Jesse Cox or Dodger to come as well (Dodger is from Portland originally, but both Jesse and Dodger are located in LA now). I wonder where Sinvicta is located. He's a bit of a metalhead as well, so he'd fit right in.

Before going any further, I must note this from rough drawn up sources and checks into law. Feel free to correct me where I am wrong.

This post is in reaction to the first 20 minutes or so of the Tek.

An Analysis and notes of the Kim Dot Com Saga. Internet freedom martyrdom is merely an act to influence public opinion.

First off please read this in depth article from Sean Gallagher posted in 2012 on Wired.com, to follow Kim's criminal past.

(http://www.wired.com/2012/01/kim-dotcom/)

The Fast, Fabulous, Allegedly Fraudulent Life of Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom
Quotes from the article

“What he did do was steal phone calling card codes and conduct a premium number fraud similar to the recent rash of Filipino phreaking frauds. He bought stolen phone card account information from American hackers. After setting up premium toll chat lines in Hong Kong and in the Caribbean, he used a “war dialer” program to call the lines using the stolen card numbers—ringing up €61,000 in ill-gained profits.

In March of 1994, he was arrested by police for trafficking in stolen phone calling card numbers. He was held in custody for a month, then arrested again on additional hacking charges shortly afterward — and again released. In 1998, he was convicted of 11 counts of computer fraud, 10 counts of data espionage, and an assortment of other charges. He received a two-year suspended sentence—because, at just 20, he was declared “under age” at the time the crimes were committed.”

““Neighbors too were wary. The New Zealand Herald obtained an e-mail sent from Dotcom to his new neighbors in which he tries to reassure them about his past through humor. “First of all let me assure you that having a criminal Neighbor like me comes with benefits,” he writes. “Our newly opened local money laundering facility can help you with your tax fraud optimization. Our network of international insiders can provide you with valuable stock tips.””

Pleading quotes of other Defendants in case and two opinion posts in relation.

“(41. ... even though defendants received more than 85 notices regarding a particular user's
infringing uploads, defendants paid that user $3,400 pursuant to the Uploader Rewards program.

(42. ... Indeed, defendant van der Kolk readily acknowledged that Megaupload's "growth [was] mainly based on infringement," and so terminating repeat infringers would be "counter productive [sic]. and very costly." – (http://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014-04-07-Stamped-Complaint.pdf)

“The case hinges on the continued and frequent infringement against copyright holders rights and clearly shows whet we in the industry always new, kim.com knew he was infringing but the 150 million made was worth the risk. The question is, now that all the dust is settled and he is up for some serious charges and a likely decision to have his ill gotten gains seized, was it?

Kim.com at this time is spending money like water to remove the ability for the funds to be paid in compensation. He is even currently trying to buy the NZ elections through questionable ethics with the, mana party.” – (Lloyd Gallagher May 19, 2014 my.gamaspace.com, http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/04/civil-suit-blows-kim-dotcoms-case-out-of-the-water-hes-toast/)

Granted the quote above and the site link, are merely opinion pieces, but the lawsuit with a guilty plea from one of the benefits, will have weight for the case in the future

Ars Technica points out why he can be extradited in this article from nearly a year ago.

(http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/why-kim-dotcom-hasnt-been-extradited-3-years-after-the-us-smashed-megaupload/2/)

Ars Points this out again, in the following link below, but does get the citizen naturalization wrong. New Zealand's naturalization law is not similar to Germany's which is what his defence lawyers will try to use, if it comes down to it.
(http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/12/kim-dotcom-to-be-finally-extradited-to-the-us-new-zealand-judge-rules/)

This page here shows despite the fact he is now a naturalized citizen of NZ, because there have been alleged crimes committed, the courts have the authority to withhold his naturalization for citizenship until the case has been settled.

“While holding a resident visa, you have been convicted (whether in New Zealand or not) of an offence for which the **court has the power to impose imprisonment for three months or more, and that offence was: **
**committed when you were in New Zealand unlawfully; or **
committed when you were on a temporary entry class visa; or
committed not later than 2 years after you first held a residence class visa; or
While holding a resident visa, you have been convicted (whether in New Zealand or not) of an offence for which the court has the power to impose imprisonment for two years or more, if committed not later”

(emphasized text*http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/alreadyinnz/residents/nextsteps/character-requirements-prv.htm)*

Most of what I have put up, are not my own words, but facts following Kim's life. Mr. Dot Com is due for extradition, and I can't wait to see him roast in the states. He is no hero, never has been, he is a criminal, and has never changed.

My concern when it comes to piracy, it does have damning consequences. It is easy to say, so and so studio made X amount of money. However, no one ever mentions actual workers, putting their sweat into the media. I'm referring to those who are, assistants, clean up crew, actors, screen writers, editors, etc. Not the big shot Directors, Producers, and Executives, raking in millions upon millions for themselves. Excluding well known celebrities When you pirate something, someone somewhere, loses money in their pay check.

Observe the Anime industry, and see the many animation companies which have closed in a startling number around 2009. This also includes those in the dubbing business. Options are quite limited. It is the best example of why piracy can be so costly to any company and person. Out of these many closures though, companies like Crunchyroll made deals for streaming license rights, and so has Funimation. So there is some light to all this. Piracy has forced Anime to move into the 21st century but at a large financial cost to many artists, animators and writers.

I'll let Gigguk explain as a humorous closer to my feelings on piracy, and being more mindful of those who make media.

1 Like

'Piracy' is costly (and illegal), yet many seem to regard the practice as a 'right', which it is not; you've raised some great points in your post.

With the recently signed 'trade-deals' (FTA's) between the US, and Australia you will see more-and-more corporations pursuing end-users who 'pirate' digital-content (the fine-print in the FTA allows the corporations recourse)

I noticed you talked about having a podcast active.
Where could one find that? I've looked on the main page, the forums, the video description, channel info, patreon page, didn't find anything.

Should be at the bottom of this post.

https://teksyndicate.com/videos/tek-0212-war-christmas

There is just the audio file. I am looking for the feed for my podcast app.

Well that's an entirely different question.

I'll get back to you with specifics.

https://teksyndicate.com/teksyndicate-podcast.xml

This will be the home for the podcast RSS, and will populate as we add our backlog.

Still, "trying before I buy" seems to me as the only way to, as a consumer, decide whether I will support something or not. And I don't care if this is right. I spend big time on DRM-free stuff and purchasing more directly from the artists, like through bandcamp (which incidentally in most cases lets me do exactly what I am asking for - try before I buy!). I rather pay an artist $60 for an album of which half goes to a creative team of 2, than $5 for an album of which half goes to DRM-creators, legal and owners, and a cent to a creative team of 50. It also takes me extra time to search and to decide on something. So, I pay more, and it also takes me more time.

Unfortunately, consumer freedom costs knowledge, time, and money, and not everyone can afford it. Not to mention the piracy aspect of it, which is illegal. And piratey. Unless allowed by the IP owner as a fully representative preview of the product in one shape or another.

So, a pig-in-a-poke, or a try-before-you-buy?

I am a professional software developer, and I still support piracy as a means to gain power over your consumption (try-before-you-buy). I believe this to be in interest of both consumers and companies without the big money, but I know this also to be strongly at odds with the competing big money industry practices. I do not support piracy as a means for self-serving cheap-shits to avoid parting with money they probably haven't even worked hard enough to earn.

All that being said, why not try on another dimension to the argument that I haven't heard mentioned as often:

The anime-industry vid is telling me that their target audience isn't as willing to buy after they try. Perhaps the audience of AAA-movies is of a similar make? Perhaps also AAA-music? So is it then really such a tragedy if we never got to see another AAA-game/movie/album again? And what makes everyone think that the people affected would not be able to end up having another job? A different job? Why on Earth is that so horrifying? If I had not had a job as a software developer, I can assure you, I would have had another job. Or I would have started a company that better fits the economy than the one I had left. "Protecting the jobs" argument almost always feels to me very much like a terrorist hostage situation with a rampant Stockholm syndrome.

Thanks.

FYI It doesn't work for me, seems something is off with the references to the content.

Nvidia made their bed when they not only sued Qualcomm but also Samsung. A pretty frivolous thing by any measure. Kind of poetic that they lost so hard and are facing halted sales.

for data caps, I think in "theory' they are a good idea, make heavier users pay more, let light users pay more I.e why should grandma who uses 1gb of data a month to check her email pay the same as joe watching netflix 10 hours a day.

but the company's aren't doing this, they're not giving the light users the saving, they're just using this to extort more money, like Comcast implementing data caps and keeping the price the same, effectively charging users the same money for inferior service. The worst part is that they already charge heavy users more via business plans, if you're blowing terabytes upon terabytes a month, they're going to push you really hard, even force you to upgrade to a business plan.

it pisses me off, thankfully where I live ISP 1 (bell) has 150/30 for the same price for of 100/10 from ISP 2 (Eastlink who I'm with) and even though Eastlink has data caps, they're too scared to enforce them since they know the moment they bug you about it you're going to go to bell who has none and offers a better service.

Those CDs only line the pockets of the producers. The artist(s) already got paid for that music. Now if it's an Indie artist(s) selling their music via CDs; I question their sanity for not using digital distribution first, then I acknowledge that that money is going to the artist(s). Also it's been proven that most CDs are not lossless recordings and are typically lower quality than the originals.

Pirating itself is a misnomer, but a globally accepted term. There can also be a multitude of rationals for the act such as the music or other software not being sold in their region or country. Or the individual being too young to have an income and their legal guardians unwilling to buy it. There's also the fact that whether the person got it through piracy or not they could spread it's existence around and others will pay for it.

Torrenting is not bad. It's peer-to-peer file-sharing. Nothing more, nothing less. It can be used for anything legal or otherwise. Many downloading and updating functions of games lately use internal P2P torrenting engines.

Piracy is going to happen no matter what you think, say, or do. That feeling of pride you have for helping line the pockets of producers who have already paid their artist(s) for their work only furthers the industries of turning art into a product. Blindly making the middle-man rich and saying "Please sir, may I have some more?" Personally I don't have any music made within such an industry, but I did pay for all my music. All of which went to the artist(s) who created the art I so enjoy. And yes, many of them torrent their own music and merely ask for donations. That's a great thing. Means they are proud of their art enough to just get it out there, and don't care about making money. I support that many times more than those that demand payment up-front.

@DeusQain @Logan, invite Cr1TiKaL.
[email protected]

Delivering presents

Maybe @Logan and the team could house sit Kimdotcoms house (looks
like the one in episode 209 of the Tek intro) whilst he's visiting ya cousins in your
neck of the woods. I believe he has a half descent internet setup too. Imagine the LAN party his servers could host.

Luckily this popped up in the news section on Tom's because this win 10 nag has been irritating the shit out me too.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/remove-windows-10-upgrade-notifications,30818.html
Ok so after a reboot the nag was back but I found this which did take care of it. Apparently removing that patch only works for 8.1. http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/gwx_control_panel.html

As far as piracy goes I have nothing to add because on that issue as we are of a hive mind. Been using soulseek again to find rare bootlegs.
Btw I searched for epicpants and tek syndicate on amazon and nothing came up. Could someone kindly send me a link? If not I'll just go through epicpants. When I'm ready to order It'd be nice to get my stuff rushed through prime :)

Sleeping Dogs was amazing. Running people over on the sidewalk to the Sabre Dance on boosey and hawkes radio lol. I know GTA V is bigger, better, etc in everyway but I didn't really get into it like with sleeping dogs. Enjoyed the storyline and combat more than gta. Only gripe was not enough song selection on road runner records radio.

I'm a snooty tin foil snob. Broiled some chicken about a week ago with dollar store foil and it burned a hole straight through smoking up the oven. If it can't survive a broiler how the hell is it supposed to protect against the mind control satellites?

Was the band complaining about piracy (as in more people who knew the lyrics, despite low sales), Dark Tranquillity? They did that when they came to Chicago several years back. I think it was around when We Are the Void came out.

I'm not sad they stopped production on triad wars, it was just going to be some gta online-like thing. Many fans of the first game were pissed that they had no plans to make another great story like the first game. It was one of the few games with a story that sucked me in, and kept me playing it until I finished. I haven't played a game like it in years(before or after it) that has a story that I just wanted to play through. Bought the game(definitive edition) again(a while ago) when on sale, for the dlc, since the game was so good, and just to support them.