Hi. I'm not a pirate. Are you? No? I didn't think so. You see, no one's a pirate, until such time as a government declares them to be. That's why the idea of "Piracy" in the modern legal sense used against soccer moms with movie downloading habits is so much hissing cat spittle and childish name calling.

Shit. Are you a Pastafarian? Even so, I stand by the last sentence in the paragraph above.

A maritime pirate steals by force and is willing to kill to obtain the goods, whatever they may be. This kind of pirate, you know an actual pirate, is where the term piracy came from. And, it's why every thinking human being should be pissed off by the long running smear campaign that the U.S. government has engaged in against "illegal downloaders." There are seriously bad people on this planet that do some seriously heinous shit to innocent people. There are places in the world that still have actual pirates attacking people at sea.

To compare a finance-strapped illegal downloader with a greed-driven murdering pirate is a bit like comparing a Chihuahua to Cujo. One's annoying, the other will kill you.

The sign is right. Piracy, in the maritime sense, is not a victimless crime. In fact, many piracy victims ended the ordeal by meeting Davie Jones which is the pinnacle of victimhood on the high seas. The propaganda campaign to make people believe that the act of intellectual property theft is on par with plank walking piracy, is in actuality, lunacy on behalf of the propagandists. The proof sits in the financial ledgers of the industry giants that pay the lobbyists that pay the legislatures that were also paid by the donors who worked for the industry giants...it's a circle-jerk of ginormous proportions. Thing is...they've paid for laws like DMCA. They've made persecution a business. Consequently, this has led to more Americans being arrested and/or killed by the cops tasked with enforcing the laws paid for by industry giants.

If no one dies when Betsy downloads the newest episode of whatever the hell she wants to watch on her computer while she's traveling, but the very act of downloading could cause Betsy's potential death from an over-zealous police officer's itchy trigger finger, then who is the pirate?

Pirates kill. Downloaders don't.

ENTER: the pir8aye network

FOSS Fun for education

Which brings me to the point. I'm a big fan of Free & Open Source Software and I've started a little FOSS Fun web page that gives a brief definition of some of the terminology that goes with FOSS. More terms will be added over time. FOSS Fun is a small part of a much bigger effort that I call, the pir8aye network.

Want a FOSS term added? Leave it in the comments.

pir8 FOSS for highlights

At pir8 FOSS, free and open source software is the order of the day. Amazing things happen while cruising the net. Wonderful doors open and absolutely stunning resources are made available. pir8 FOSS wants to help open the door to the wonders of the FOSS rabbit hole. The people that drive the open source communities are pioneering humanists. They provide humanity with access to technology that lets us interact and exist in ways that no known generation in the history of the world has ever previously interacted. These open communities shine a light on the possibilities. So, pir8 FOSS shines a light back at them. Occasionally, a Spotlight is shined on open source projects that have agreed to a brief interview.

Want a Spotlight on your open source project? Leave an elevator pitch in the comment.

the pir8aye network: coming soon

1. build www.pir8aye.net
2. create pir8aye bot to resteem content with FOSS subjects
3. write pir8aye steem faucet to share steem with off-site faucet users

That's really all there is to it right now. I can see the pir8aye network getting much larger, maybe one day including it's own pirate-themed interface for STEEM. Who knows what the future holds?

The tags #pir8foss and #fossfun can be used if you want to have your post appear on either site. Shit, now, I'm thinking of creating a twitter bot that scrapes the blockchain to post those two tags.

  4. create pir8aye twitter bot to tweet #pir8foss and #fossfun

Sweet heaven, SteemIt is dangerous. I keep having ideas. The kind of things some people call "intellectual property." I better leave now, Pinky, before I give away all my treasure...

Sources

Pirate
Piracy
Pinky and the Brain: A Meticulous Analysis of History