A young man in the United States stands accused of a horrible crime. Federal agents recently raided his home, and he faces as much as ten years in a federal prison. According to his accusers, his wanton illegal acts are many and varied, and all necessary steps should be taken to insure he pays for his crimes.
What did Matthew Crippen do that is worthy of such quick and sure action involving numerous agents and investigators? He was modding XBoxes and PS3s, enabling them to run unofficial (and presumably illegally copied) software [1].
While Mr. Crippen faces hard time, thousands of murderers, rapists, ponzi scheme operators, anti-government gun fanatics, and evangelists stealing millions from their parish wander free. What elevates the crimes committed by this university student above these others? It is the fact that he is potentially stealing profits from greedy, litigation-driven organizations like the RIAA, the ESA and the MPAA. These organizations spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on lobbyists, who skillfully line the pockets of government officials year-round. Of course their concerns about the crimes of Mr. Crippen get immediate and forceful attention.
Numerous appointees to the Obama administration are former ESA/RIAA/MPAA lawyers [2], fresh from years of successfully threatening teenagers and unemployed single mothers with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. But that isn’t good enough. Now it is time to throw those youngsters and poor people in federal prison, since we all know they are the real cause of the downfall of the American economy. The cancerous greed of the banks and investment companies had nothing to do with it. And if you believe that, I have several thousand premium shares in my new get rich quick scheme I’d love to sell you…