A congressional hearing on the links between terrorism, organized crime, and the illegal trading of copyrighted material produced more complaints about college students using peer-to-peer (P-to-P) networks and other governments sanctioning copyright violations than it did evidence of nefarious connections. Witnesses and representatives at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property hearing Thursday did express fears that profits from widespread copying of movies, music and software outside the U.S. were being funneled into terrorist organizations, but the hearing produced no concrete examples of that happening. John G. Malcolm, deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice did say there seems to be some connection between illegal copying and organized crime, in that many of the groups profiting from illegal copies are highly organized and can have international distribution networks. Organized crime often supports terrorism, he suggested. Full Story
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