In a farcical display of opportunistic politicking, a the Senate Homeland Security Committee has heard from a police lieutenant that DVD piracy may be used to fund individuals that are alleged to sympathise with a terrorist group who have never attacked America, but could. ArsTechnica has a great tongue-in-cheek writeup in which they point out the obvious logical fallacy in this: supporters of Hezbollah work in a range of industries, from gas stations to supermarkets. Are the petroleum and consumer goods industries supporting terrorism? We must stamp them out, whatever it takes!

The fact that the LAPD even has an “Entertainment and Trademark Unit” is astounding in itself. In a city as rife with violence and social problems as LA, they have a unit dedicated to hunting down those who would violate copyrights? It’s like having a crack “fake watch” unit.