File Sharing equal threat as terrorism and drugs

David Israelite, aka the new Eliot Ness, compares "the challenge of enforcing copyright laws in the digital era to combating illegal drug use." He's kidding right? Apparently not. Vanessa Blum, for Legal Times (Going Hollywood: DOJ Joins File-Sharing Fight), reports that:

With just months until the presidential election that could end his term in office, Attorney General John Ashcroft has launched an ambitious effort to crack down on digital piracy and protect the interests of copyright holders. The initiative is led by Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff, David Israelite [who] says the increasing volume of intellectual property crime over the Internet and its impact on the American economy demands a government response. "We view IP theft as a threat to our national security," Israelite says. "As we move into the future, our economy is going to be increasingly dependent on our ability to protect IP. If theft increases at the rate we see long term, you're looking at a scenario for economic disaster."

Well since you guys clearly don't view terrorism as a national threat may as well identify and target something a little easier to go after. I guess the fact that it's probably not even criminal doesn't matter though. It's really amazing to me that the RIAA is able to get the feds to do their work for them. What's even better is that Americans fund this war on terrorism by purchasing CDs and paying taxes.

Clearly the RIAA/MPAA coalition, that stopped by on their way to the future of p2p tech hearing, failed to brief poor mislead Mr. Israelite on the Oberholzer-Gee/Strumpf study [pdf]: "Our study provides the first serious evidence that file sharing cannot explain the decline in music sales in the last couple of years. In addition, in the last two quarters, music sales increased while file sharing has become even more popular."

Oh look, more lawsuits.

update: Defamer points out that America doesn't have a monopoly on fighting this new war -- the fun loving Germans are in on the action as well.

update: David Israelite, deputy chief of staff to Attorney General John Ashcroft, comparing file-sharing to illicit drug trafficking: "We approach the drug problem in many different ways. We target suppliers, we target users, we target education so that we help people make the right choices. I think the same approach is going to be needed in IP theft." [link]