[Reader-list] Music Piracy and Terrorism Linked By Interpol

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear all,

I thought this would be of interest to all those on this list who have a 
curisoity about the everyday life of  intellectual property. We (the Raqs 
Media Collective) have been on an artists residency in Oslo for the past 
two  weeks, and in the course of our forays into the city, have often 
walked  into the Gronland district of Oslo. home to many migrants from 
South Asia, (mainly from Pakistan, but also from India and Sri Lanka).

Of course, as in any other such neighbourhood, anywhere in the world, 
you can walk into shops that sell and rent dvd's, cd's and video tapes of 
the latest hindi film, and the latest music. We saw copies of dvd's of 
'Bhoot' and 'Supari' for sale, as well as ancient films from the fifites. The 
material arrayed for sale displayed a healthy range of various shades of 
legality. 

However, if you read the article below, you would no doubt expect the 
little shop in Oslo's Gronland and of course the arcades in Delhi's 
Palika Bazaar, as well as the pavement shops in Sarojini Nagar and 
Janpath that sell variations on the Benetton or Gap label to be the 
subject of search and destroy anti terrorist operations.

If you want to know why, read the following article, which appeared in 
today‘s INDIAN EXPRESS

Some of us always expected the neat dovetailing of the disocourses of 
intellectual property, national security and the 'war against terrorism', but 
I did not expect it to be stated with such clarity. But then, power can be 
just as surprising as it can be predictable. What is surprising is just 
how predictable it can be.

cheers

Shuddha

______________________________________________

Music piracy used for terror financing: Interpol 
Press Trust of India/ Associated Press
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=23082
The Indian Express, July 16,2003

Paris, July 16: The head of Interpol on Wednesday called for a global 
crackdown on software and music piracy, saying the illicit proceeds 
help finance al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and other terrorist networks. 

The international police agency's secretary-general, Ronald K. Noble, 
urged governments and law enforcement agencies to treat such crimes 
as a priority, saying in a statement, "it is becoming the preferred method 
of funding for a number of terrorist groups." 

 
The statement was issued on Wednesday ahead of a speech on the 
subject that Noble was to give in Washington to the House of 
Representatives' committee on international relations. 

"There are enough examples now of the funding of terrorist groups in 
this way for us to worry about the threat to public safety," Noble said. 
"We must take preventative measures now." 

An Interpol document to be presented in Washington later in the day 
said that a wide range of terrorist groups have profited from the 
production or sale of counterfeit goods, including al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, 
Chechen separatists, ethnic Albanian extremists in Kosovo and 
paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, the statement said. 

Noble called for stepped-up efforts to trace the proceeds of pirated CDs, 
DVDs, computer software, and counterfeit clothing and cigarettes. 

Interpol, based in Lyon, France, coordinates information-sharing among 
police forces in 181 countries.

-- 
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
SARAI
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road
Delhi 110054
Phone 23960040