In yet another example of politicizing terrorism in order to push political agendas, I present Attorney General Michael Mukasey (with a thanks to Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein):

Criminal syndicates, and in some cases even terrorist groups, view IP crime as a lucrative business, and see it as a low-risk way to fund other activities.

As pointed out on Computer World, Mukasey provided this claim without any evidence:

Mukasey went on to cite numerous cases in which the Justice Department has arrested those who pirate software, and in which the department has cooperated with other countries in investigations. He mentioned arrests in Florida, investigations in China, and warned about the Russian mob being involved in selling pirated software.

In not a single instance did Mukasey include a link to terrorism. Not one. You can be sure that if there were any links, Mukasey would make sure to get them on the nightly news.

And why? Well here is the policy that Mukasey wants to get pushed through:

So why is Mukasey trying to convince people there’s a link between software piracy and terrorism, even though one doesn’t exist? To force Congress to pass controversial intellectual property (IP) legislation that would increase IP penalties, increase police power, set up a new agency to investigate IP theft, and more.

Industry lobbyists have been pushing for it. And now Mukasey is trying to convince the country that the bill needs to be passed as a way to fight terrorism.

So the industry has been pushing this. I wonder if Sony is included in this industry. I also wonder if the U.S. will declare them a terrorist group since they recently got busted with tons of pirated software.