Posted by: RobotCaleb
In reply to:
Isn't it illegal to go "raiding" people when you're (a) not the police, and (b) don't have a search warrant?
In reply to:
Especially if you impersonate the police when doing it?
In reply to:
I certainly agree that some guy selling pirated burned copies of CDs and DVDs in a parking lot is exactly the kind of person that the RIAA should go after, but this just sounds like the wrong way to go about it.
Well, thats how I recall it used to be in the US, before DMCA and 9/11.Yes, because if you violate intellectual property, then the terrorists have won.
Actually, it seems to me like they're talking more like they're from the deep south...That doesn't make him sound like he's from the deep south at all. This article, and the person quoted, are in Los Angeles, which has a significant number of low-to-no income immigrants (some legal, some not) from Mexico. Drive around for a while, and it's true -- a large percentage of the people selling stuff on the roadside are Hispanic, and when you're dealing with illegal immigrants trying to earn what meagre living they can, they certainly do change their identity often. It's a common sight here to see a group of a dozen or more Hispanic folks outside places like Home Hardware, looking for temporary labour jobs. The guy's not being a bigot, just making an observation about reality.
"A large percentage [of the vendors] are of a Hispanic nature," Langley said.
No, my bad. They were bigots.
many of the people I met [in GA] were very enthusiastic about making their own "observation(s) about reality."Aye, I have no doubt that bigots see their comments as just being "observations about reality." The difference with this particular quote, though, was that a) he was talking about demographics of people selling bootlegs in LA, and b) he was stating a reason it's difficult to keep the "pirates" from coming back when you catch one. There were no racial slurs that I saw, no suggestion that all Hispanics are pirates, no suggestion that only Hispanics are pirates, no suggestion that Hispanics shouldn't be allowed into the country, no suggestion that they should all be in prison, and, in fact, no attempt to cast a broad generalization about Hispanic people at all. It would be akin to me, after having lived in LA for two years, saying "the majority of gardeners in LA are Hispanic." After all, in those two years, I haven't seen a single non-Hispanic gardener, though I'm sure there are some out there. The only thing I can fault that guy with is lack of knowledge of common Hispanic sur-names, which hardly constitutes an example of bigotry.