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Paramount Sues Ohio Man For $100,000
ematic writes "A hapless tech-novice finds himself in a US$100,000 lawsuit with Paramount Pictures for allegedly uploading the movie, Coach Carter, to eDonkey. Paramount had the police seize his four computers, but nothing was found. The tech-novice maintains his innocence, and contends that he is a victim of a drive-by upload. According to the ChannelCincinnati story, the victim 'is either a slick film pirate or an unwitting victim of someone who fits that description.'"
A tech novice with 4 computers? That seems sort of unlikely. I'm not saying he's guilty, but the facts just don't seem to mesh with the description there.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
... what, like Johnny Dep?
either a slick film pirate or an unwitting victim of someone who fits that description
Which is of course why these kinds of tactics don't, and won't, work in the long run. All the unwitting victims just net you bad publicity, while the slick file pirates just sit and laugh.
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
It will be interesting if his arguement holds up, as I always thought this might be a good defense for people who do this sort of activity --- keep your wireless networks wide open and claim that it wasn't you but someone who snuck on your network.
Disregarding whether the man actually uploaded or a drive-by uploaded, it's another reason to secure your wireless connection (preferably with WPA, not with (broken WEP)).
Just another reason to have an open/unsecured wap on your network so you can have plausible deniability.
dupe, dump, deny, and divide.
a slut did tulsa
I want to be like this guy when I grow up ... wait... I mean sail like a pirate...
- - - - - .
Paramount has looked at all four computers in Lee's home, alleging he had one of them cleaned to erase evidence. The company has filed a federal lawsuit against the Blue Ash man.
Movie companies have the right to look at all the computers in your house, because you allegedly commited *copyright infringement*.
Wow.
If he keeps a lot of old machines around it's not that unreasonable.
why do movie/music companies use the naive method of mutiplying the cose of the dvd times the # of movies uploaded?
there are thousands of variables that go into the calculated 'loss'.
- would all the downloaders actually buy the dvd?
- would the dvd stay on sale until all those would be customers buy it?
- would the dvd price stay the same?
more importantly, why does the law accept take their word on it?
"is either a slick film pirate or an unwitting victim of someone who fits that description"
I doubt that Paramount gives a shit. Even if he is unwitted, they're still gonna make an example out of him.
This sig contains repetition and redundancy.
See post above :)
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
That is why you use the next door neighbor's wi-fi... maybe being in jail will keep him from blasting the TV all night... secure your wireless, or have the MPAA come after you...
Since when is someone who uploads a film a "Film Pirate?"
Murder, plunder, and rapine on the high seas cannot be compared to copyright infringement. The language is prejudicial. With feeling kids: Click three times on the slashdot link if you hate my site, twice on the sendmail if the answer is F.O. Now inciting a mob of geeks to melt their server...
http://www.cnybj.com/fullstory.cfm?article_id=3183 &return=frontpage.cfm
What I don't understand is this: Is this sort of piracy really hurting thier business enough to go after "john doe" in pocatello Idaho for uploading a 3 year old copy of $stupidMovie? Last I checked, niether Paramount or Twentieth Century Fox were in the poor house...
Get your Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool Here for FREE! - http://fedora.redhat.com
How long before the MPAA and RIAA start monitoring your Google search terms to see if you are violating their mother fucking copyright? This is just getting insane. Maybe eventually all of our computers will have to be subject to searches by companies protecting their so-called property. How else would they know what's going on? Fuck this shit.
The news article is short on facts. So, what's this guy's motivation for uploading a movie to the internet? Did they even establish that he possesses the movie or a copy of it? Did he admit to such possession? What about his computer that was supposedly "cleaned"--what makes them think so, and how can they prove it? And, one might ask, how can they establish that this alleged uploading cost them $100,000.
There are a lot of unanswered questions here. This is typical of the big media companies now, just like the Mafia: shake down the little people and get the word out that you should toe the line and pay your protection money, or we'll get you.
I do agree that circumstantial evidence seems to suggest he's a bit more tech savvy than one might think, but on the other hand, a tech-savvy person can also get their network broken into or their password stolen. Basically, this company doesn't have a leg to stand on. Maybe that's why they're shaking him down for so much money, to make him feel he has no choice but to settle.
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
1) Is anyone else extremely troubled by the following line from the article "A DVD that retails for $21.99 could cost a local man more than $100,000,".
Seriously? $100,000? Quick math tells me that he would have had to share the movie 4,547 and 1/2 times to have shared enough copies to equal that price tag. I get the idea of a deterent but man. Side note even if the film was compressed to around 700 megs or so (to fit on a CD) that would take 3,183,265 and some change megabyes of bandwidth (3 terabytes if my late nite mind is still working at all) to share that file that many times. Seems a little unlikely the punishment fits the crime.
2) Isn't there a burden of proof on the prosecution in this case? Don't they have to show he was the one responsible for uploading the file? If someone steals my car then commits a drive by shooting, I can't be held responsible, can I? To me, having an open wireless access point seems perfectly reasonable (if that is your preference) and it would seem to be a tough sell to get a judge to fine this guy when there's no evidence he did anything wrong and he can produce a line of reasonable doubt.
I'm not up to date on case law in the US, so maybe I'm wrong but seems really shaky at first glance.
In Iowa, he recieved the MPAA letter through his cable ISP. They requested ~$5000 for his sharing of several movies on Bittorrent. His response was to get a wireless router, tell them that it was someone accessing his unsecured WAP, they let him off. But they didn't have police raid his house. Maybe that raid is the result of guys like him using the "open wap, sorry" excuse? Now that they know people can create excuses, the MPAA has to escalate the response. Soon you'll just get a package at your door that explodes when it hears the MGM or Paramount music and senses a WAP.
Why are women so complicated? Find out how little I know here.
Someone pirated the movie! That explains why it only made $67 million instead of being a hit!
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Even if this man did not know what was done on his machines, he's still responsible. That is the law that the law givers made. The punishment must be death by mahi mahi. Feigning ignorance of the law by claiming that he did not know what was done is a white herring designed to try and make people think otherwise. This displeases the law givers. He will feel their wrath for his ignorance as they beat him.
-Grobo, Son of Chinea in the Tenth Dynasty of Koll
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
He had FOUR computers? That means the damages should be quadrupled!!!
What sickens me here is far more serious offenses than this go ignored if reported by your average citizen. I know countless people who've been the victims of theft or internet fraud, and even with names and addresses of the perps they haven't had any action taken, just another report going in the file bin.
He should countersue for $10 million for pain and anguish.
Shh.
tbh, it doesn't matter if he's Bill 'freakin' Gates, has multiple fibre-lines running into his house and has server rack upon server rack in his basement. If they can't find the files in question on his machine AND he can produce reasonable doubt , they 'should' have a tough time prosecuting him.
And don't you know, internet pirates be dangerous people YARR!!! What's a little bit o' perjury for those scurvy devils....
The tech-novice maintains his innocence, and contends that he is a victim of a drive-by upload.
I admit I haven't seen "Coach Carter", and I'm not using hard numbers here, but I estimate that uploading an entire motion picture at any worthwhile quality would take at least six hours, maybe twelve. That's not a drive-by, that's your next-door neighbor using your bandwidth all day long.
Chimpanzee sues Paramont Studies for ruby on rails...?
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Usually none. If the police execute a search and seizer, it is under the color of their official duty. To be held liable, it has to be shown as a clear abuse, not just a major screw-up.
Fight Spammers!
"I don't even know what they're talking about," Lee said. "I didn't do it."
Paramount has looked at all four computers in Lee's home, alleging he had one of them cleaned to erase evidence. The company has filed a federal lawsuit against the Blue Ash man.
But Lee claims that because his wireless connection was unsecured at the time, anyone could have parked near or in front of his home, tapped in and then driven off.
"If I can do anything to make people understand that please, if you're using wireless Internet, have somebody install it that knows what they're doing," he said. "Because if you don't, they could get in trouble just like me."
nice attempt at defence: but it wasn't me, it was someone else who used my unsecured connection.
Who the hell wants to 'share' a movie with others of p2p networks so much that they would go war-driving? I have a very strong feeling that this guy is lying. Of-course this will have to be proven in court, but it is just a gut feeling. In the case he actually did this, he deserves what is coming to him.
You can't handle the truth.
Only way that dog of a movie could make $100K is to sue someone - that and all the chump change picked up from the PR resulting in curiosity sales. //no body = no conviction, but this is the RIAA so don't count on logic figuring into the case.
I have some friends who live together. Between the three of them, there are four computers in the home. They occasionally get reformatted and reinstalled ("cleaned") due to viruses and the like. They have broadband, and they have a wireless setup. Trust me, none of them are beyond the novice stage.
It's entirely possible for that guy to be telling the truth. It's also entirely possible he ain't.
Another victim of the MPAA. The article makes it look as if he's some "movie pirate" and we know P2P systems really make it easy to share what you've downloaded from them (without even doing something manually).
I believe the guy is far from being "noob" - it's just a smart defense. He's smart, he erased the illegal files on one of his PC-s, kept the rest clean, and he has a pretty good excuse of having insecured wireless network anyone can hook through..
I'd do the same in his place, and it's the best he can do to defend himself. I hope it turns out good for him, since after all it's just a damn pirated movie he downloaded, a sin, but not a $100 000 sin for sure.
Sounds like you've convicted him already; I thought it was "innocent until proven guilty."
Most up-to-date computer (aka, the most tech savvy person in the house's)
Two year old computer sitting in the 'office room' (aka, the backup server)
Four year old computer sitting in the 'storage room' (aka, the 'turn on in the event of an emergency' computer)
The five-plus year old computer 'enshrined' in the basement as a miniature table (aka, the computer Goodwill wouldn't take)
Sniff for IP addresses active during business hours, but essentially are unavailabe after hours .
.... priorities...
Then figure out that persons MAC address, and spoof it with MAC change on ur router/firewall .
Upload ur movie, reset, adios .
Odds are it isn't even that brilliant, the guy with the router prolly picked a MAC address
assigned to a NIC type that he does not even own, as the list is published .
He prolly picked the last few hex digits at random .
Alot of dorm ppl are doing this to ppl that have their computers direct connected ,
and the Uni is too cheap to replace the hubs at the edge of the network .
So they don't get fried for doing p2p over their dorm connect .
If they had managed switches at the edge of their network they could stop this behaviour .
Not all Uni's have switches at the edge of their network yet, ones where sports is
more important often neglect the tech/sci to spend multiple millions on chasing sewn
together animal skin, aka baseball, volleyball, football, basketball .
Stadiums and Arenas that could house all the US homeless 10 times over are left empty
more days than they are full, pathetic .
We wonder why other parts of the world are starting to pass us by
Rome...Bread and Circuses...
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
Dear eno2001 (527078):
It has come to my attention that you have made an unauthorized use of my copyrighted work entitled Planet Of The Apes (the "Work") in the preparation of a work derived therefrom. I have reserved all rights in the Work, first published in Feb 8, 1968, and have registered copyright therein. Your work entitled Ignorance of the law is not innocence clearly used the Work as its basis ("Law givers").
As you neither asked for nor received permission to use the Work as the basis for Ignorance of the law is not innocence nor to make or distribute copies, including electronic copies, of same, I believe you have willfully infringed my rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as $150,000 as set forth in Section 504(c)(2) therein.
I demand that you immediately cease the use and distribution of all infringing works derived from the Work, and all copies, including electronic copies, of same, that you deliver to me, if applicable, all unused, undistributed copies of same, or destroy such copies immediately and that you desist from this or any other infringement of my rights in the future. If I have not received an affirmative response from you by Dec 27, 2005 indicating that you have fully complied with these requirements, I shall take further action against you.
Very truly yours,
APJAC Productions, Inc. & Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Who's going to believe that a man with 4 networked computers (one recently "cleaned"), high speed internet, and a wifi setup (perhaps with security disabled for just such a defense) is a "computer novice" subjected to the attacks of a roving gang of drive-by internet pirates? I'm sure it looks good for his friends and family to hear him proclaim innocence to the claims, but he should be aware that perjury is a crime!
Um... ME? I help friends all the time with their computers. In fact I am about to help a friend set up the fourth computer in his house. He has one, and all 3 of his kids have their own computers. Guess what? They are all networked and they use WiFi to do it.
Why am I doing that? Because he and his family are novices when it comes to networking.
As for the clean machine? First thing I do is wipe the drive and reset it up to get rid of all the preloaded crap from the factory. Guess I'm trying to hide something too...
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
Perjury is lying under oath in a court of law, not to a press reporter.
showed it to 50 friends, in near HD perfection! I only paid $12 for the movie channel, I must be stealing the information!!!!!!!
maybee it's just me, but should they be able to seize his computers simply because they say he uploaded something?? isn't that illegal search and seizure?? Don't they have to have some evidence he actually did it??? havn't they been wrong a number of times already. isn't someone going to stop this. someday. Please.
If he didn't want to draw attention to himself, he shouldn't have been going by the name "Ohio Man" in the first place.
I don't live too far from this guy, and it just struck me that maybe the idea is to hit a sweet spot geographically with these lawsuits.How do they decide who and when to sue anyway? I'd be really interested to see a map overlay of the places media cabals have filed suit against people. I have a hunch its pretty well distributed across the US.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
I have 3 cars, one recently "serviced". Does that make me a mechanic or even an expert on cars?
For your poor moderation, you have been assessed a karma penalty.
Oh... and the concept of a "drive by downloading"?? Get real. In my experience with wifi, unless the access point were actually on the outside of the house, or unless he's using a souped up antenna (and possibly breaking FCC regulations) the range wouldn't generally be long enough to accomodate someone with a laptop in a car on the road. If someone was using his wifi connection, they were almost certainly actually *ON* his property.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I hadn't heard of this movie until this story. Further proof that piracy helps the movie industry.
I have currently:
Sinclair ZX-81 (SInclair/Times if you live on the wrong side of the sea)
Sinclair QL
XBox (Yes, this is a PC)
AMD based PC, running Linux (mail, web etc)
Intel Dual Core PC for gaming and a few other apps
Mac Mini for all the useful stuff.
Then of course I have a Linksys WRT54G (this is a Linux box), a Linksys NSLU2 Network Storage device, running Linux.
I have a few drives in a big box of old equipment.
Maybe I should get busted as an 8-computer geek ?
The right way to share movies would be to use the NSLU2 with an encrypted filesystem (not Samba shared) to do it. They would never find things there.
On the other hand, if you share files, you have the originals somewhere.
Maybe they meant something else.
I have 5 networked computers at home. My WAP's security is a bit shaky. I sometimes "clean" computers. This is not enough information to determine if he did it. I would like to think the prosecutor have more information that we are not privy to.
This guy I know has a lot of guns. He also makes a lot of his own ammo. Recently, he *gasp* cleaned his pistol. Clearly he is hiding evidence and he is the killer we are looking for.
Ronald said nothing. He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse, and rode madly off in all directions.
Like others stated it's a civil matter, it's preponderance of the evidence standard and no one is prosecuted.
He's either guilty or innocent? good headline ....
Why are all of these lawsuits based on false numbers? $100,000 for a movie that sucked which he may/may not have uploaded. "Who cares, take everything he has, someone has to pay!" Its not like Paramount would ever see that money anyway, it all goes to the lawyers. And its not like that guy could just fork over 100grand either. He'd have to file bankruptcy. Aside from ruining the rest of his life financially, they still wouldn't get any money out of him. Sure, you could say "these deter would-be pirates." My ass, just hits home that all any big company cares about is money, even if they have to ruin your life to get it..
I don't get how anyone can draw any conclusions off of this article. Its too succinct to give anything more than a basic "who, what, where, when, and why."
Maybe this guy is smart enough to upload the movie, wipe his files, and then claim it was a drive-by uploading. Or maybe he really is innocent. All that we know right now is that this man is being sued for a buttload of money on some circumstantial evidence.
My Sysadmin Blog
It appears that our man in question, living in Blue Ash resides near where this dot on the map sits.
Although trees to obscure some of the houses, it appears fairly dense. Also the plot size for houses along his stretch are about 40-45 feet in width and 160 feet in depth. How unrealistic is it that someone in a nearby house (or kid) that is fully aware of the risks, is taping into his wireless access point?
802.11g suggests that you can get up to 200 feet and still connect. Minus walls etc about how many houses do you think could have done it? What about the distances on other wireless standards?
Somebody who wants to stick it to the movie industry.
Who's going to believe that a man with 4 networked computers
The article didn't say they were networked. The article said, "Paramount has looked at all four computers in Lee's home, alleging he had one of them cleaned to erase evidence."
And what does cleaned mean, really? The article doesn't clarify. Does cleaned mean he got so sick of Windows running slow from spyware that he reinstalled his operating system, formatting the drive in the process because his friend told him to do so? Do you think that might be possible, mister guilty-until-proven-innocent with your snarky little perjury-is-a-crime comment bullshit?
Do you know how many people have wireless set up because their "Home DSL/Cable Gateway" that the man at bestbuy/circuitcity/compusa sold them on the pretense that "wireless is the future" and "if you get a laptop you can roam your house and always be on the internet." Care to venture a guess at how many stupid consumers get duped into that one? That's right I said stupid consumers, people who don't know how to secure the WAP they just bought "to keep the hackers out of [his] computer."
And before you go on the "why would a computer novice have FOUR computers?" rant, I offer you this: It's 1990, a man gets a computer. It's 1994, the man's computer stops working, he puts it in the closet, he gets another computer. It's 2000, his second computer stops working, he puts it and the first out in the garage and gets a new one. I'm sure you can guess where the fourth computer came from unless you are actually as stupid as your comment would lead me to believe.
Really, I don't know how you got modded insightful at all, because you lend no insight to the conversation, only FUD.
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
This is why I carefully secure my wireless connections. The guy may be guilty or he may be not, but the fact remains - if you have an unsecured wireless AP, for all you know someone may be using it to upload/download kiddie porn. Enable WPA, disable SSID broadcast, enable MAC and IP filtering, use strong password on your router, plug all firewall holes and it will be a lot harder for folks to use your AP without your permission.
Or you can just sit there and wait for the police knocking on your door and charging you with a crime you know nothing about.
it's all capital one's fault. all these pirates have nothing else to do so they upload movies. (please don't mod me offtopic just because you don't watch tv).
As lot of threads says, you cant really judge much to the /. brief, maybe he was a victim or maybe he was clever, but what were his habits. As other says, 4 computers, DSL/Cable access and wifi, somehow this user seems a bit over the average Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Meanwhile at Paramount Pictures:
Smithers: "Mr Smedley, I'm sad to report that we cant find any trace of Coach Carter, but we did find 1000 mp3 songs of various artist and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and some unreadable scrambled data in the empty sectors of the drive"
Smedley: "Darn-ji-ga-di-duh we have to give back the computers to him, we have no logs from eDonkey regarding scrambled data"
(Smithers and Smedley are totally fictive characters)
And the conclusion, people are still using eDonkey, eventhough it is known to be another of the most monitored networks, and some users are not using tools blocking suspectable IPs.
"Hey Frank" "Yeah?" "I need to be towed, my cars broken down" "I can't man. I've taken to much time off work lately anyway. You'll have to wait." "Ahh, shit. Ok then, I'll just sit here and play games on my laptop shall I?" "You'll have to, I really can't come. I'll tow you after work." "Cheers man. Hey, out of it" "What is it?" "My laptop is going off. Some novice tech must have left their wireless open. Hell, its got good bandwidth, bitorrent is maxing out" "Sweet. Oh well. I gotta get back to work. I'll see you after."
/. bug #926803 - Why I can post.
Dude, I'm a 3rd year computer science student, I know how to network 4 computers (I've got 3 at my disposal right now), set up a high speed connection and use wifi... but if someone told me to make my network secure, I wouldn't even know where to start. Well, I suppose Step 1 would be pulling up Google, but I'd still be out of my depth -- all I know about networks (beyond what I need to know to get through a basic network setup wizard) is that they have layers and... uh... stuff. Something about connecting things... and sending packets that look kinda like mRNA when you draw them. And opening sockets has something to do with it as well. I can do that in C.
In any case, the guy may still be guilty, but I'm just saying that basic knowledge of some aspects of computing does not necessarily mean that he has ANY knowledge of network security, and he may well consider himself a novice in part because of his lack of knowledge in that area.
Since when to computer novices have 4 computers?
or else!
i'm curious. i don't hear much about the porn industry going after file-sharers. it's not like there isn't any porn on kazaa, emule, bittorrent, or usenet. hell, it's probably the majority of traffic on any file-sharing network. do they not care or just don't have enough politians in their pocket? or is file-sharing not enough of a loss to them (lower production cost)? also, it seems like the porn film industry is more lucrative than ever. maybe the file-sharing helps them by increasing their market? donno, can anyone shed some light?
Proof of burden lies on the accuser, at least in this country.
Is there a reasonable doubt in regards to what this man did? Yes, because there is no physical evidence that -he- did anything.
Doesn't it seem rational that a $100,000 claim should require substantial proof beyond what one party seems as 'likely' ?
Not anymore. Its now "Guilty Until Proven Rich".
Can he countersue? I know I'd be pretty peeved if I lost my PCs for x months and didn't get any compensation for it.
--
Wireless LANs have a much further range than you think. The "Drive By" can have an external anttenna hooked up to a high power WLAN card. A legal power withan external anttenna can get to 200-300M away and still transfer at 10Mb/s. That is faster than most upload rates here in the US (256Kbps - 768Kbps). Certain older generation 11b cards can push 200mW more than 4 times the legal power limit and that roughly doubles the connect distance. I have seen WLAN cards work at 1500 feet to the nearest WAP.
Much of the time range is reduced not by power distance limits, but by congestion, both by other WAPs and by other devices using the same band like cordless phones and wireless headphones.
Lastly, a drive by would select those unsecured links with a high upload speeds with little use. With a 768Kb upload, you can sit quietly by and upload 700MB in less than 2 hours. Finding a WAP with access to something faster like a T1 or 10BT connection would cut that down to as little as 12 minutes.
And of course, if you left one of those computers unsecured, you could upload the file to it and a script that uploads the file to the bittorrent site and then erases all trace of itself. That can be done at 2AM in the morning when the owner is likely asleep and it takes one less than a quarter hour, no matter the upload speed of the internet connection.
How the hell are these companies able to do this....we talk all the time about protecting the PC from Virus/Malware/spyware,we use antivirus/Firewall/router & all those things to protect the PC,But isnt there any protection from falling victim to these guys???No Software?
For any security hole in browser/OS we crib so much,but what about this BIG HOLE in our computers that allows these companies to do all snooping work??
Why does yahoo do this
I cant wait until the day that MPAA throws in the towel.
They are just wasting their time going after all these people
fining them thousands of dollars they'll never be able to payback.
Spending huge amounts of money on lawyers, agencies that
are tracking all these uploaders and ad campaigns. When really
they are probally costing themselves more in money in the process.
Sure they nab 25 people but by the end of the day 50 more just got
a pc or broadband are uploading 2x as much.
Meanwhile technology will continue to advance and soon people will be
downloading uncompressed hd-dvd quality videos quicker than sh!t.
If they were smart they should be putting the majority of their resources
into finding new and better ways to release films instead of trying to put
out a forrest fire with a super-soaker.
I thought it was "innocent until proven guilty."
Wrong court system. In civil court you have to prove your innocence.
A friend of mine was recently sued by Direct TV because he baught an ISO-7816 programmer. It's irrelevant that he didn't use it to hack Direct TV (he used it on Dish Network, but he could have used it for thousands of different applications). Under Civil law, and especially the DMCA, you have to prove you more than likely didn't do it. In my friends case Direct TV had apparently taken over a hacker website which was in their posession. Direct TV flat out replaced peoples signatures on these files with my friends name. They had him living in Canada in some posts, living in South America in other posts, and back home in America in others. My friends lawyer said at absolute best they could get that evidence thrown out, but they would just create more. Finally my friend listened to his lawyer and just paid Direct their $10K black mail fee.
These lawsuits are not about innocence/guilt. They are the new corporate profit model and scare people into submission at the same time. The DMCA allows these companies to file a lawsuit w/o a judges approval (previously required) and also lets them put dozens of victims on one piece of paper for one low cost court filing fee.
Deuteronomy 13:06-9
Use a system with two optical drives. Load into Knoppix, rip DVD you just rented, upload to several hosts, reboot.
If they can't find the files in question on his machine AND he can produce reasonable doubt , they 'should' have a tough time prosecuting him.
Reasonable doubt in a civil suit? Is no such thing.
I use partimage off a CD for Windows or Linux partitions.
Given that, according to the link you gave, partimage's support for NTFS is experimental and for HFS beta, the grandparent's method of zeroing, dd'ing and compressing seems a safer bet if it's not one of the stable supported file systems.
Yes, yes, I'm sure that it will probably work, but sometimes you need to be sure. After all, a backup that won't restore properly isn't a lot of good.
If your comment title says 'Re: Foo', I'm not likely to read it.
As a little consolation, where I live (Austin, TX), I believe the courts just ruled that the RIAA cannot file once with many victims. Instead, they must file individual ones for each target.
l
Yep. Here it is. http://www.uwire.com/content/topnews120104002.htm
I'm glad my court system is growing some balls!
just stick movies on your xbox :)
For civil cases it's a matter of probability, and for people just bullshitting on Slashdot, there isn't a set of legal requirements. Otherwise, all the people talking about the MPAA being a criminal cartel for suing movie pirates would have to prove their claims in court. Of course double standards are to be expected on Slashdot.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
What the fuck is this country coming to when not even a fucking super hero like Ohio Man is safe from these bullshit lawsuits?
He should get some form of immunity from this kind of crap for all his great work fighting crime in Ohio, don't you think?
The purpose of statutory damages are three-fold: to set damages where it is difficult or impossible to determine, to punish or discourage the violation, and to encourage damaged parties to enforce their rights.
Fight Spammers!
You're making assumptions. IANAL but I believe that there isn't such a thing as guilty because you look guilty.
If I have 5 tvs at home and 3 tape recorders does that mean I bootleg tv shows? If I have 4 computers does that mean all of them are usable? Does that mean I'm a computer expert or am I just a professional who had to start using computers early in the game ? Does having high speed internet and a wifi setup means you're a computer expert? If you have ever worked in tech support you know that isn't true.
Making assumptions is dangerous and that's exactly what Paramount is (and you are) doing. This guy is innocent until proven guilty.
-- Would it be acceptable to just put my name on my sig?
Its communism I tell you
>> And before you go on the "why would a computer novice have FOUR computers?" rant, I offer you this: It's 1990, a man gets a computer. It's 1994, the man's computer stops working, he puts it in the closet, he gets another computer. It's 2000, his second computer stops working, he puts it and the first out in the garage and gets a new one. I'm sure you can guess where the fourth computer came from unless you are actually as stupid as your comment would lead me to believe.
More likely, it is 2002, a man gets a computer. It's 2003, the man's computer stops working...
Nice to know that CS courses are still as crap as when I did mine in 1983 :-)
Yikes. How about reading the manual of the router/acces point first ? Last one I read had a pretty good description on how to keep nosy neighbors out of your WLAN. The biggest thing is turning on WPA, which should keep all but very determined hackers out.
It's probably because file distribution doesn't cut into their business model. They're cranking out cheap, undifferentiated units, whose main selling point is you haven't seen them before. Piracy on their back catalogue is "meh". It might even be a plus if it interests you in a "series" or a particular "talent".
FYI, the "government standard" for removing classified information on an old hard drive is to shred the drive physically. There isn't a standard for sanitizing it electronically, at least that I've ever heard of. Once a system has been used for classified data storage, if it's going to be gotten rid of, the drives are destroyed.
This is, I believe, the document which sets out the standards, and it makes no mention of any way to destroy classified information through electronic means. It's very physical: shredding, mutilating, burning, chemical composition. Although there is an exception for "other methods" as allowed by the CSA, so perhaps something has changed recently.
http://www.dss.mil/isec/nispom_0195.htm
And, no that doesn't mean have the DSL installer set it up.
Installer: (Plop) (Click) (Click) (Click, there you go you are now wireless.
Customer: Is that it? What about security?
Installer: Oh yeah, it's perfectly secure, I know what I'm doing
Customer: Okay thanks.
Yeah people who know what they are doing really will save you. LOL.
in the event of men with black overcoats / sunglasses come nocking on your door flush the memory stick down the toilet / bury it in the back garden / swallow it / disguise it as food etc http://www.dynamism.com/solidalliance/pricing.shtm l
Where is this suit taking place? I couldn't find a record of it in the Hamilton County court website.
- Sig files: contemptibly familiar the second time around.
Well - if he was smart enough to run a winders box then he can claim the script kiddies got it and used his bandwidth to serve pr0n and movies and such.
When he discovered this he had his machine cleaned and like most bozzos just hooked the same old shit back online unpatched. Right?
Maybe he broke the first 3.
More like each one got overrun by viruses, so he had to buy another one. Unfortunately there are people who do that. I know a couple of them. They just think that their computer got old.
DT
Is this thing on? Hello?
What the fuck? "Sues Ohio Man $100,000"? Can I get a preposition? Is this a double-object construction? Dative shifting? What the fuck is a fucking linguist supposed to do around here?
MARK YOUR PERIPHERAL ARGUMENTS APPROPRIATELY!!!
I understand that without encryption a hacker can monitor your network traffic and steal credit card numbers, passwords, etc. What I don't understand is why simply turning off DHCP and using MAC filtering isn't considered sufficient for keeping people from connecting to your network and using the internet?
How does one manage to connect to my network if it only permits a single IP which is choosen at random and in use all the time by me?
Is he from Blue Man Group or something? [grin]
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I've got my Wireless-G access point in my attic. That high up, in a room with no insulation, my laptop picks up my network up to 1,000 feet away (I only maintain about 1.5 mbit transfer speed from that distance.) You don't need to boost your antenna gain or make a cantenna, you just need thinner walls and a higher elevation. Why do you think radio towers are so tall? 50,000 watts of broadcasting power high-up in the air will provide vastly better coverage than 50,000 watts broadcast only 5 feet off the ground.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Before united states was born, there were guilds, much like MPAA, RIAA, that put limits on how a BOOK is copied, and by who, and controlled everything about it. Samething is applying to us today. MPAA, RIAA, movie industry, DISNEY etc, are all doing the samething, that caused a huge backlash, that resulted in the guild's removal of ALL rights.
Those entities, not PEOPLE, tread on people, not COMPANIES. If i were them, i would quickly change directions, before they have no political say in the matter, and their fates are decided by us, the true power of this nation, the common man.
Why would a Wookie, an eight-foot tall Wookie, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does NOT MAKE SENSE! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does NOT MAKE SENSE! Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a major record company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, [approaches and softens] does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does NOT MAKE SENSE! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.
Why would he upload it to edonkey, isn't that just like kazaa or some shit? Wouldn't there be better places to upload it to if he knew what he was doing?
One year later, no problems so far.
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
"Not all Uni's have switches at the edge of their network yet, ones where sports is
."
more important often neglect the tech/sci to spend multiple millions on chasing sewn
together animal skin, aka baseball, volleyball, football, basketball .
Stadiums and Arenas that could house all the US homeless 10 times over are left empty
more days than they are full, pathetic
Study after study after study, mountains of them in fact, show a strong positive correlation between sports activties and positive educational outcomes. You don't like sports, fine, but your opinion about something you've obviously never bothered to learn about isn't really worth much.
Also, as someone else said, MANY schools fund thier extracurricular activities through athletic department dollars.
I have my own problems with college athletics (FOOTBALL! UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE that they get so many scholarships, and other sports get fucked by title IX) but those aren't rants based on ignorance likes yours.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
I say Paramount parked outside his house and uploaded the movie. Talk about "perponderance of evidence" ... They get publicity for a crappy, unknown movie, and another lawsuit on their side to boot--sounds like the #1 corporate strategy:
...am I joking? Hmmmmm
1. Do illegal and/or unethical things
2. Profit
How in the world was this man stupid enough to let paramount walk into his house and take the computers. Isn't copyright infringement a civil matter. If it was up to me I would let the MPAA goons in and bury thier bodies into the fresh cement in the basement.
Due to the lack of information and proof is this guy 50% innocent and 50% guilty ? then what ? must he paid 50% of $100.000 ??
My parents had two desktops and one laptop (on wireless of course). This could have easily have happened to them if I hadn't set up their network for them.
That is 3 working computers. There were also some much older (Commodore 64, Vic 20) computers that were not working.
Note that the article doesn't say that he had 4 WORKING computers. I could easily believe that a relative tech novice had 3 broken computers in a closet and one working computer.
Well, after this action by Paramount, I think I'm going to stop watching new Star Trek movies. Oh wait, after that last one, I was going to do that anyway.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
According to the ChannelCincinnati story, the victim 'is either a slick film pirate or an unwitting victim of someone who fits that description.'"
And a computer is either in state 0 or in state 1
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
that typically, when the police seize anything--ESPECIALLY computers--- they tend to hold on to the items as evidence that they "did the public duty". Worse, than having your shit seized is having it in THEIR hands for MONTHS because of either their being backlogged (in which case the complainant should pay an expedite fee so that even IF their is their stolen material on it, it should be scraped, tagged, and your original stuff returned PRONTO so you can get back to work or homework), OR the cops LIKE what they see and decide to drag ass on returning it.
With digital content being wrung harder for profits and with the studios and others hell-bent to make examples of others, and with the police needing to show the public its money is being well spent, it's probably inevitable that more people will be pulled into the hollywood/content provider dragnet.
The best thing WE can do is to archive ALL our work and make SO many identical copies that it would be PROFOUNDLY egregious (in the eyes of a FAIR judge AND in the eyes of the public) for ANY police or complainant to say "give us ALLLLL of your archives, no matter how redundant they are".
What the law enforcement agencies need to do or be FORCED to do is this:
Perform NO search and NO seizure unless the party asking for the warrant provides forensic and archival equipment to protect the accused from suffering work stoppage, psychological damage (hey, I'd go goddam ballistic if my shit were seized, as I PAY for my DVDs and music, even if it costs $15-$30-- I don't even really lament not copying music from amaroK), and to keep unnecessary eyes from prying too deeply and too long at stuff on the seized machines that is NOT their business (business plans, school work, love letters, research...), not of danger value and probably would take them YEARS just to sort out before even reading the multiple versions and revisions of endless stuff.
Nice police will insist the accusers not run all over the accused. We're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. With abuse of unsecure (not INsecure) internet access, poorly protected windoze boxes, ignorant users, and a lot of greedy or lazy pirates and "fair-use" abusers, it's just a matter of time before almost ANYone with a computer connected to the Net is a recipient of a boilerplate letter.
SCARY.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Osama Bin Laden is an extremely wealthy fanatic who believes that all Westerners and all Americans in particular are criminals because of either their religion or just their nationality.
He believes that he has the authority to do anything to these 'criminals', including the most extreme and gruesome murder and maiming.
But there are just too many Americans around, and Osama is just one man. So he randomly selects 'criminals' to be 'punished' in the horrible ways imaginable.
Paramount is a wealthy corporation that believes that all of the Westerners and most of all young Americans are 'criminals'. They bought the laws from politicians to ensure the legal details were in order from their perspective. They believe that all of these criminals should be punished. But they aren't Arabs, so instead of blowing people up, they just take everything that a person has ever owned and get a legal warrant to take from the person everything that they will own in the future. All for their 'crimes'.
But there are too many young Americans, and Paramount is only one legal person. So they randomly select people to be punished in the most spectacular fashion. Criminals are punished: all is in order in the world.
Osama is a terrorist; hunted by all civilized people on earth and protected by the uncivilized.
Paramount is a respected corporation owned by General Electric.
But they both operate in exactly the same fashion!
Victims likes this really need to set up donation funds. We're all in this together people, let's start acting like it. Help your brothers and sisters in the copyright revolution!
Hell, if I was inclined to perform questionable behavior on the web, I'd certainly be making a Pringles-can antenna for my WiFi card, and I'd hunt down some poor rube's AP several km away. I absolutely wouldn't be abusing my neighbor's AP ... too close to home. The police will come knocking within 300 feet of the offending AP because they *know* WiFi doesn't have more range than that.
Sitting in front of a house leeching WiFi access will probably get you noticed, expecially if you're there for hours. The busybodies in my neighborhood will call the parking enforcement asshats if you park your car on the street for more than one day. (Yeah, I gotta move.)
but I just blew all my mod points yesterday. They expired today, anyway, so I figured I had to use them up. Then this genius comes along and screws up my whole theory!!
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
I'll practice some restraint and avoid calling you "stupid" or "dumb" like many, many other people have done for other reasons.
Then figure out that persons MAC address, and spoof it with MAC change on ur router/firewall
Instead, I'll just point out the flaw in your plan. MAC addresses don't traverse over routers. If there are any routers between your workstation and a server, the server sees "your" MAC address as the router on the same subnet as that server. Your spoofing trick would be a colossal waste of time.
I advise you to study the ARP protocol and really learn what a MAC address is and how it works.
I'm a big tall mofo.
It will be a sad day in America if a judge rules otherwise.
How does death by mahi mahi work, exactly?
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure say that to get into federal court, you have to assert more than $80k in damages. Unless Paramount can assert that somehow he redistributed 'Coach Carter', I'm not sure there is much room to charge him with more than $20 in damages...Unless they want to make him pay their legal fees (ouch). The filing fee just to bring the case is $250.
heheh, the exact reason I bailed on my CS degree. They teach crap compared to what you really need to learn. I have learned more just by working on my CCNA and getting certed by MS.
there should be a limit on how much the Chumps can sue for. I know that they are trying (or have) a limit on what patients can sue a doctor for if they get hurt (or dead) by their mistakes. I say this: if a movie "Grosses" 100 million dollars, drop the decimal up and make the fine 10,000. this way, everyone will be happy. right?
"Coach Carter"? Shouldn't the users of eDonkey be the ones demanding that this man be punished for sharing a movie of that quality with the world?
Why is it that the user can be held responsible for someone else using his internet connection through an unsecured access point, but the ISPs are not in any way responsible for what is sent over their connection? or will he get off based on "someone else was using my connection"? Not that I want the ISPs to be responsible - I just wonder: why the appearance of a double standard?
It's not like a wireless router is a "smart connection" it's just part of the infrastructure.
At this point, I really think that "The government is running amok".
About 5 months ago, I had a knock on my door by the "Drug TaskForce". They informed me that they had a warrant to search my house, and had been given an anonymous tip. I was a "Black-tar heroin dealer", they claimed. They had about 20 people, they searched my place end to end, brought the dog through, looking clearly dissapointed (I don't even drink).. and in the end, they said, "Well, we have to take your computers to look for activity on there". I work from home. When they seized my machines, my company lost 2 weeks of work right there.. I had to hire an attorney to get my PC's back, and in the end it was 4 months before I had my machines returned to me. I took them directly to the local computer shop so I would have a witness when I powered them on, and sure enough, one of them was completely hosed. They'd probably plugged in their diagnostic machine backwards or some crap.. The motherboard needed replacing. When I informed them that they broke my machine, they started threatening that they found a couple mp3's on my machine.. If I shutup about the whole ordeal, they wouldn't come after me for the mp3's. I said, um, those mp3's were ripped from a CD I own.. That's perfectly legal, and not even a circumvention of the DMCA. Well, I got the shaft. Unless you're willing to sue the government in a 1983 suit, you're totally out of luck.
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
I would justify having an open WAP - for use with NintendoDS wifi play. That way you can actually say you have an open WAP without implying you know how to secure it but still left it open for no apparent reason.
Personally, I'd do that with 2 routers (if you actually use the wireless) 1 encrypted with WPA so no one can sniff your traffic, and one open for your gaming.
By reading this, you have given me brief control of your mind.
he wasn't uploading a movie, he just happen to have been uploading random data and by some freak accident it just happened to have be EXACTLY like the data that would make up the movie!
i'm never heard of this movie either, until now. like someone else said pirating does help movie sales!
now back to downloading movies..
First off, how fucking stupid can someone be to even upload or download pirated movies from Edonkey or any other gay ass file sharing service. Thats like saying "Hey, I'm here downloading your shit, come get me!"
Secondly, coach carter was on ftp servers,news groups and irc servers way before Anything was on Edonkey. Only noobs use file sharing to get movies and others things of value.
Lastly, it figures they go after easy prey, instead of going after the real thief who pirated their movie in the first place, they go after some lard ass noob who probably still lives at his parents house and wacks off to porn. They probably just picked someone to pin this on, anyone who they could trap and lure. As I said, Easy Prey. Nice scare tactic if you ask me, although I'm personally NOT scared.
~Later~
This is how big coperations handle this. I know this becuase it happened to my brother.
They have no conclusive evidence that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he in fact did this illegal upload. They will hound him anyway until he runs out of funds and settles out of court just to make them go away. They will make him sign a confession to settle. They don't care that there is no clear evidence of his guilt.
I saw DirectTV do this to someone just becuase they ordered something that could be used to bootleg thier service. It doesn't matter that they never did or intend to.
Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
I have a friend who worked at Pratt & Whitney who started his own, independent company to do finite element analysis. He had no firewalls (this was 5-10 years ago) and one day the FBI showed up because some had hijacked his server and was distributing child porn on it. The whole thing was straightened out in a civilized manner and of course, now he has layers of protection. But that is interesting, if you have a unsecure wireless network, you can claim that your system is not secure and others have access to it. ....and interesting defense.
The question isn't whether or not he owns multiple machines, or if he can prove someone else used his connection to upload a movie.
The question is: can Paramount prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was he that sat in the chair and executed the commands? Do they have witnesses that can be trusted? Is there video of this happening?
If they have no proof, there should be no case. Fin. Same with any other case.
And just leaving your computer on 24/7 should not be "contributing" to a crime. We are not required to secure our PC's. We don't even require that of guns.
But I've no doubt a court will back up Paramount.
Is it just me or does this read like a press release for MPAA? I mean short on any details, just the message "We will sue your ass for 1 Billllllllon dollars!"
I am a republican not by choice, but rather by lack there of.
They still don't know how to operate any of the devices and call me to explain how everything works.
Oh yeah, for Christmas, I'll probably get a $25 gift card to The Home Depot.
I think you should probably re-read it yourself.
"It's not illegal to have an open WAP. However, there may be legal consequences that stem from this course of conduct. And to the extent that there are, it doesn't matter whether or not you knew that there were."
That was never the point, and restating your argument repeatedly won't make it so. You seem to be arguing a point that no one else is even talking about.
The point is most juries will not have expertise on wireless routers, and the defense of "I had no idea it was open to outside access, and being open would allow someone else access" is reasonable. Save your spiel, it is and you know it, and a decent defense attorney would use it.
You points all relate to the law, which you should know if you're worth a shit as an attorney, is not even remotely close to what the jury uses to make its decisions.
Do you understand now? It's about convincing a JURY, not your interpretation of the law. I know you want to show off your law chops, but maybe reading comprehension chops should come first.
And the comment about amateur attorney hour? Priceless while you were in the middle of ignoring the entire point of multiple posts in an effort to impress with your expertise.
"I find it more amazing that somebody asks for links to the studies that you claim to know about, and you point to a page with nothing."
I posted a link to the APA's psychinfo database. Here's what you do, enter a search term and select from HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of studies. I find it to be a better way of discussing these issues than linking to some crap from google that only supports MY viewpoint, which seems to be SOP here.
"So, please point out the studies or keep your ignorance to yourself."
Kindly follow my previous instructions, select any of the THOUSANDS of studies (I found 3 thousand) that realate to the topic, and read them to educate YOURSELF.
Then choke on a dick and die AC.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
Agreed. Note that San Francisco solves only 20% of murders.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
You were in the wrong degree program then. CS is NOT for people who want to do IS/IT work. If your goal is to be a sys admin, or get MCSE or some such crap, try a CIS degree from your local community college or a 4 year degree from a business college. They teach you how to run an IS department and a little about computers.. like what windows 2003 server does and how to get netware certified.
Computer science is not about administration, or technical details of hardware. Its about learning how to program, how to learn, and some theory behind software design, architectures and the like. If you think programming is visual basic or perl you are mistaken. There are a lot of algorithms, patterns and methods to solve problems that you can put together. I really wish people would learn. Computer Science is NOT an envelope degree for every computer job. If you want 8 bucks an hour to put pcs together at best buy, its not for you. If you want to run an ISP its not for you. If you want to design a new file system for Linux, rewrite windows, design a new search algorthm for google, or research a new way to make the internet protocols 10 times faster and more reliable then its for you.
The worst part is that CIS people often have to hire people into CS. You guys don't get our jobs or ideas. I started as an IS/IT person. I was a sys admin at an isp for several years before I went to college. Trust me, there is a big difference between using Windows NT4 to host websites for customers, writing a vbscript windows scripting host program and solving real problems with real programming languages.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
A friend of mine got shot in the leg. It was a stray bullet from a gun fight that broke out down the street. They know exactly who shot the gun, and where he lives. The police said, "Well, he wasn't shooting at you, so you can't even get him for assault." They did absolutely nothing about the shooting. After ~1.5 years, my friend has recently started walking without a cane. The guy who shot him still lives down the street. yeah, priorities.
Many computer science programs do offer network security courses. My university, for example, offers a course on hacking windows and linux machines. The class starts by installing windows and linux desktops and servers. Then 4 teams work on cracking the others using known and unknown exploits. The rule is you can only patch up to a certain level so that its fair for all involved. After so many exploits, you pass the class.
:)
:)
My wife took the course and it certainly helped her a great deal. My friend stopped attempting to hack us after she demonstrated her knowledge on his server
As for wireless security, rule number 1 is to assume you'll never secure it 100%. I don't care what technology you use, its possible to crack it given enough time. Remember we are talking about a network everyone has "physical" access too. I can sniff my neighbors networks. I know of programs to figure out keys. Watch traffic to find valid mac addresses and spoof one to get past mac address protection. There are ways to get into wireless networks. When i added a wireless router to my network, i put up firewalls on each of my hard wired machines. I'm even considering making a seperate interface in my main router (a freebsd machine) for that traffic to lock it out of my main network using firewall rules there. I'm using WPA2 personal and i don't feel all warm and cozy. Just remember, anything you do on a wireless network should be encrypted if its important with another layer of security. For example, my imap and smtp servers use ssl/tls encryption for logins. My websites have SSL enabled so that i can access them securely while using wireless. I use sftp to transfer files to wireless machines, etc. I also realize that any IM conversation i have can be read by others either on my end or on my friends end. Think about it this way, I can do everything right here, but he could be at a cafe with no encryption on at the other end.
Finally, buy a copy of 2600 sometime and find out whats possible. It isn't the end all source, but most people with any computer background can get something out of those articles. Its a good read. Best Buy had a lot of wireless problems because they are idiots.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
My bad, I probably should have stated my reason for going for the CS was to learn how to program computers. The classes they had set out for us to learn was cobolt, pascal, and i think basic. I asked "What about C++ or visual C++" etc and I was told that I would have to pay extra for those types of classes and that is what turned me off to it. I do agree with the point about people getting hired into jobs that they are not qualified to run though. I see posts all the time looking for IT admins and MUST have a CS degree no acception. hehe oh well...
Oh come on, just use a hammer. One good whack on the hard drive, one second, and it's all over with. You'll crack the platter for sure. If you have enough time, give it a couple of more whacks.
If you need a hint on where to whack, you could draw a nice bulls-eye on the case where the hardrive is located behind. You could hit the hard drive directly if you're like me and leave the case on loose.
Only spooks in the deepest corners of spy world could get good data from the fragments and piece it back together.
On the topic of secure erasing (I doubt that the MPAA disassembled his drive for the ultimate in recovery efforts, but one can never be sure), what is the best, preferable free, product for erasing PC drives. MPAA is not my concern here, but I'm thinking from an overall security standpoint when donating computers to charity.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
It's called dban and it's available for free (just punch it into google). It works by writing random numbers to the entire drive repeatedly, thus filling the entire drive with random noise.
If you were to only write zeros, it'd still be possible to read the physical patterns on the drive and use statistical methods to recover what those zeros used to be, but a program like dban raises the noise floor to a point where it's just impossible to recover any information at all.
It's not so big a stretch to think he had
a neighbor or someone in a nearby
neighborhood riding on his network
coattails so to speak.
My work laptop has wireless and as a
traveling system administrator I see
many, many unsecured wireless networks
in the course of my duties.
My neighborhood has probably half a
dozen unsecured access points that I
could help them secure if I had a clue
whose networks they are (many of them
have really great descriptive titles
like "Linksys", very few actually have
real identification as to their owners
unlike many of the secured sites I see).
My feeling: if it's not this guy, if he
really had someone using his access it
is likely a teen or twentysomething who
was surfing using his facilities.
In fact, a log could be set-up to
detect the IP and/or mac address of
whatever device was attempting to
connect to it but then again that
would require expertise.
And that's presuming this guy isn't
lying thru his teeth of which remains
to be seen.
A true computer forensics expert
could look at the drive of the
machine to truly determine whether
or not he had shared this in all
likelihood.
What I am wondering is how a warrant to search your premesis for drugs could possibly also allow them to take your computer as well to "look for activity". That sounds like a judge who needs a swift kick in the pants.
Slashdot: Where anecdotes and generalizations can be freely substituted for facts, logic, or intelligence
I call bullshit.
Something seems odd about this whole story. First of all, it's very sketchy on the details. It's covered by one local news channel and nowhere else. You think this would be bigger news or at least be corroborated somewhere else. Secondly, the Slashdot summary mentions that the police seized his computers, while it's mentioned nowhere in TFA. Everything is wrong about this.
I'm betting it's a ploy by the MPAA to make the public more aware of unsecured wireless networks. I think they know it's an excuse people could use if they're caught sharing files. I'm sure the MPAA wants government legislation requiring secured wireless networks just so this isn't an option for people. What's an easy way to do that? Slide in an inconspicuous news story and hope it gets picked up by bigger news organizations. Does anybody know if this alleged "federally filed lawsuit" is publicly accessible? I'm betting it doesn't exist.
"If I can do anything to make people understand that please, if you're using wireless Internet, have somebody install it that knows what they're doing," he said. "Because if you don't, they could get in trouble just like me."
Yeah, that sounds like something I would say if my computers got seized without a warrant by a gigantic corporation. I'd be fuming about the violations of my rights.
MPAA, you sneaky bastids.
I work from home. When they seized my machines, my company lost 2 weeks of work right there.. I had to hire an attorney to get my PC's back, and in the end it was 4 months before I had my machines returned to me. I took them directly to the local computer shop so I would have a witness when I powered them on, and sure enough, one of them was completely hosed.
Um... so tell me WHY you haven't brought a lawsuit against whatever police agency was responsible for this? It seems like you have lots of quantifiable monetary damage here, which is more than many valid wrongful search cases have.
You're lucky you didn't have any "threatening" looking animals. They have a tendency to start shooting the place up when they see dogs during a search.
Even if you DO secure it, your wireless can still be broken into pretty easy, with zero evidence it happened.
Personally i have my encryption turned off for this very reason, its breakable so why should i make it harder on myself for perceived security?
Does that mean im now contributing? Remember it takes active intent to sit out side my house and steal my bandwidth. You cant do this by accident. Its not like if i left my firearms in the middle of a parking lot with a sign on them ' steal me '.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
These aren't new words symbolizing new concepts or new ideas. These are bastardizations of words we already have.
Did you mean to say that the previous poster was using the natural standard of language as known since the beginning of recorded time, or are you just mud?
You're very right. I even live in Tennessee, the site of the infamous Dog Shooting..
3 02745.shtml
http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/03/01/27
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
True. I really need to learn what the statute of limitations on such a suit would be, I'm still trying to dig myself out from the hole that they stuffed me into. I was flat broke by the time I was "left alone".
They probably mostly grabbed the PC's because they were hoping they could end up in a "Seized Property Auction" and then bid on the items themselves..
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10350334/
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
Doesn't your jurisdiction have a concept like transfer of malice?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
At this point, they figure a PC can be used for anything. Who knows.. Just an excuse to take something, I guess. The first thing I thought afterwards was,
"If I was actually going to be doing something illegal on my machine (like selling drugs or something), I'd use Knoppix!"
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
I attend VCU in Richmond VA. My girlfriends bike was stolen, and she saw the guy take it. The police said they were busy, someone would be out tomorrow. No one ever came. A friend had their moped jacked, they got someone out to take a report two days later, after the roomates moped got stolen as well.
Then, we get an email from the Dean of Students, that said in part.
This letter is to inform you that a Party Patrol, consisting of
officers from the Richmond Police Department Third Precinct, the
VCU Police Department and the Virginia Department of Alcohol
Beverage Control, has been formed. The Party Patrol will patrol
areas of the Fan on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights during
the month of December. The goal of the Party Patrol is to reduce
the disorderly nature of parties that occur in that area.
The Patrol will have the ability to arrest individuals who are
publicly intoxicated, who provide alcohol to minors, or who are
underage drinkers. Additionally, information on the owner of the
residences where the parties are being held will be provided to
neighbors so that warrants can be obtained.
People call the police and they are "busy" and have to "prioritize the call volume." Those kids having a good time must be a threat to society. Police go where the money is.
Out of curiosity, how did Direct TV find out that he bought the programmer?
What school was this? Sounds like one to avoid when I'm recruiting...
Achra, last week I had my computers (and disks) seized by police officers with a warrant for the house I am renting a room in. I denied a consensual search and we all waited an extra 2.5 hours for them to have the judge expand the warrant to include my rented room.
They were looking for child porn that supposedly my landlord possesed. They found nothing, but took everyone's computers and disks (and cameras, and scanners, and accessories). Turns out my landlord has an ex-girlfriend with one very vengeful and unstable mother. Well, that's his story, and I'm believing it for now.
All the cops told me that four months was a standard turn around for seized items. The fact that I use those computers to make a living didn't seem to make the slightest difference. Did you ever have any luck expediting a return; by calling, calling the right person, etc.?
Would you recommend the computer shop diagnostic routine again?
Thanks for sharing that story, and any advice.
-d
damaged by dogma
And you were doing so well. Up to a point.
"But they aren't Arabs, so instead of blowing people up..."
Shame on you.
Multiculturalism is a good thing. But it is basically an illusion because it assumes that all cultures are equal and that people are basically good.
However, we owe it to the thousands of people who have been randomly murdered by the adherents of a specific culture that there is the possiblity that certain cultures may be disfunctional and therefore be unable to be able to understand and follow the ideals of multiculturalism.
I deliberately chose to emphasize the fact that since the beginning of the modern age of terrorism, it has been the Arabs that have consistently and deliberately blown up random non-Arabs to bring world attention to their issues. No other people have done this to the extent that the Arabs have. I therefore am compelled in the memory of the people randomly and horribly murdered to call attention to the possiblity that it is the Arab culture that is unable to function within the ideals of multiculturalism. I should be ashamed and would be ashamed to say that this particular culture is disfunctional in the modern world, were it not for all the blood and body parts lying in the street whereever Arabs feel that they have been mistreated or slighted by either history or the modern world.
That police can only hold the hard drives and storage media.
I'd much rather face the RIAA if faced with death by Snu-snu!
We've made a small difference in the world.
Between your post, and this one we've changed the ratio to 1:52.
--
Don't ever doubt that a small determined group of people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
University of Akron
"But they both operate in exactly the same fashion!"
Neither the RIAA or the MPAA has blown up buildings full of copyright infringers.
Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
...four computers, one in each room, and four computers, all in one room. Yet it makes all the difference.
The first and most important step in making your network secure is taking a hammer to the wireless access point. Pretty much everything else after that is optional.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Just out of curiousity, what do you use to zero the free space, and do you have something that works on both FAT/NTFS and 'nix filesystems?
My name's Friday, and I carry a badge !
Because in this system, you need money to have your rights enforced. Does a guy who is upset because of lost work for lack of a computer sound like the kind of guy who can hire a lawyer for that sort of thing? No. Instead, he sounds like most of us, who don't have that option.
Not being argumentative, but unless you or someone on this board can recommend a lawyer admitted to the bar in his state that would take the case on spec, he might be just as out of luck as the rest of us would be.
How do you justify your faith?
"But all your emitter and collector are belong to me!"
You know, it occurs that the definition of a computer is:
A device that computes, especially a programmable electronic machine that performs high-speed mathematical or logical operations or that assembles, stores, correlates, or otherwise processes information.
In other words, a computer = a processor. The processor controls the storing and correlating of files on a hard drive, this is true, but the drive itself is a pretty stupid device.
Point? Store your drives in another location, physically. Run an extended cable through the wall, so it is just another wire for the tech savvy people in Ackron, Ohio to unplug from the wall. They'll probably call it "the DSL".
If, parchance, the search warrant uses some terminology not exactly meaning "computer", but rather encompassing the CPU, hard drives, and the $500 video card that will mysteriously disappear and show up in a computer forensic specialist's Christmas stocking, at the very least you can run your OS off a small hard drive, and have the main disk storage in another physical location, as detailed above. Even if the search warrant uses a legally nebulous term, you can write off their failure to remove all preterint data as their failing, not yours, as you showed them "where the computer(s) are", because despite the wording of the search warrant, that is probably what the millicents are going to be asking for.
Corporations are legal savvy, techs need to become acquainted with their rights and the various, ultimately unfortunate loopholes associated with most any law, if only to continue to be able to perform their jobs.
I dunno, but if I opened someone's computer and it wasn't filled with dust bunnies, I'd think that was pretty fucking suspicious...
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
How thorough are the searches. I mean, if you had CAT5 running through your walls, and it just so happened that a V-Gear LanDisk was connected into that network and actually dry walled into the wall... would they ever find your data? They'd essentially be hauling away dumb terminals :)
I think that's an awesome idea. Basically, you're dealing with idiots that love power. They were careful to take all of my "CPU's". (You're taking my CPU's?!? Why? I hope you brought something static sensitive to put them in!)
They didn't take any optical media, they didn't take any thumbdrives, pda, etc. If I were actually going to be perpetrating illegal activity on my machines (and have absolute faith in my transport encryption), I'd use Knoppix and a thumbdrive.. Keep no HD in the machine at all. Wouldn't they feel like doofs when they tried to search the machine and there was nothing there at all!
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
I'm at work for >8h a day. I also have my wireless rig setup downstairs, though it is connected to a server through which I have a VPN for sensitive stuff.
The point is, if the guy is using wireless at home then
a) It's probably because his computer is not located conveniently near a network connection, thus his connection is not necessarily near where he might see das blinkenlights on the router as his bandwidth is being leeched (and how many people would notice anyhow). b) Even if he did have the router somewhere he can see it, what are the changes it would strike a chord that bandwidth is being used by others, and what's to say it wasn't when he was at work, etc?
Strange, I am taking programming, though it's more of a hobby at this point anyway. However I can't see myself NOT knowing as much as I can master in networking, os/network administration, and hardware. It just seems like the most logical topological understanding of how things 'should' be done. When I program, I want make an efficient use of the network, the graphics card, the browser, w/e. I can't exactly do that not having many of the same skillsets proffesionals in those fields have.
I think this person's excuse is lame. As far as I am concerned - you are responsible for your own computer security. Anything that happens on your network because you were too stupid to secure it - you should be liable. I hope this man loses. If I have never driven a vehicle before, then take a car for a joyride and kill someone in the process - I can't use, "I didn't know how to drive" as an excuse. Maybe this will send a message to all the morons out there that don't know how to use a computer that maybe they should learn before they go on the internet. This man deserves whatever he gets.
I think the industry has hit upon a new revenue model for mediocre films and CDs that have underperforming retail sales.
m That comes to $11,569 per screen for the four day period. Now if you augment that with a few $100,000 infringement suits, then even bombs like Ishtar, Waterworld, and Gigli can turn profitable.
Over last year's four-day MLK weekend, Coach Carter grossed $29 million on 2,524 screens.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1654&p=s.ht
Direct TV had a site selling the ISO-7816 programmers confiscated and they took posession of all data and sales history. The site had a lot of hacking content on it. Direct TV in one swoop obtained a list of people to sue and evidence in the form of posts which only they own, so they could just replace people's signatures and make the evidence say anything they wish.
I guess the moral is if yuo're going to buy anything that can be used to copy another product, don't leave a paper trail. I wonder if I was to sue someone at Direct TV for buying paper (prove you didn't copy any of my copywritten articles) if I would either win or get a portion of the DMCA overturned.
Deuteronomy 13:06-9
Open, neighborhood wireless access points are becoming a hot topic. I just heard a story on NPR's All Things Considered talking about how they're great and easy to set up.
ISPs don't like open access points (recall the Bellsouth-New Orleans story). This is likely because it increases circuit utilization, limits overselling, and ultimately affects their revenue stream. It's in their best interest to discourage sharing bandwidth with an open AP. They also have the ability to monitor everyone's traffic. Now, who do you think the tip came from?
Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately attributed to ignorance. -Napoleon
Funny comment, but not really relevant to the discussion. Modded up as Insightful, however.
Does that mean that anyone who is laughing is a slick film pirate? 'Cause there are a lot of laughs from the /. people here.
The law works the same way as bin Laden and Paramount. This is why punitive damages exist -- because law enforcement can't catch every violation of the law.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
Who's going to believe that a man with 4 networked computers (one recently "cleaned"), high speed internet, and a wifi setup (perhaps with security disabled for just such a defense) is a "computer novice" subjected to the attacks of a roving gang of drive-by internet pirates? I'm sure it looks good for his friends and family to hear him proclaim innocence to the claims, but he should be aware that perjury is a crime!
Well, two points:
(a) Let's say that, like many people, you live in an apartment complex or other reasonably dense residential environment. You want to run your peer-to-peer client all day. Most people are not going to be technically knowledgeable enough to configure their router to make this a background operation, and are going to have to resort to things like capping data rates. Like many people, you have a wireless laptop, and a neighbor with an Internet connection and a wireless hub. You simply use their network for your laptop, which keeps your own connection peppy.
(b) If the guy does do this, is it a good thing for society to fine him $100K? I'm not saying that it necessarily isn't, but I'm very much not sure of this. Today, the only reason that waiters/waitresses can reasonably make a living is because of tips -- I could see musicians operating the same way. We just don't know what's feasible yet, but I'm not really worried that our society will become deprived of audio or video entertainment because we don't have life-crippling fines on those who copy them.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
And even worse: Half of /. already so brainwashed that they think this guy must be guilty because of his four computers. What's next?
The difference between Arabs and Americans is not that one side is savage and the other benign, it's that one side has 10000 car bombs and the other side has 10000 hydrogen bombs.
...clean... when they killed the 10 million}. It will be worth it to them to have peace on their terms, and to have another 40 years of cheap gasoline. ....And listen there, bud, I didn't say 'defective culture', I said 'disfunctional culture'. Big difference. Ask your kid's school guidance counselor about the details. Don't change my words and call me a bigot.
And one side is playing a rather dangerous game of seeing how many car bombs that they can toss at the other side before they retaliate in a more drastic way than drafting 45 year olds and giving away fat bogus defense contracts.
Perhaps I am being too obscure. How's this for clarity: the Americans have enough hydrogen bombs and chemical weapons to decide one morning to kill every Arab on Earth, spend the morning planning it, the afternoon doing it, and still have plenty of time left to smoke some weed and watch cartoons before dinner.
Two hundred years ago, native American tribes ruled most of North America. The Europeans came, saw, conquered. The natives fought back with terrorism. The Americans killed almost all of them and put the rest in reservations.
Forty years ago, the Americans just woke up one morning and decided to kill a million Vietnamese. For no reason at all. Just go there and do it. The Vietnamese didn't send shaaheeds to any kindergartens or pizza delis.
So if the Arabs don't put an end to this business of wrapping young people in plastique explosive and sending them out to blow up ordinary people, they run the serious risk of finding themselves, their history (the books will be rewritten so that they will have never existed), and their culture...seriously dead.
Pushed too far, the Americans will accept that they must assume the burden of being thought of as the greatest mass murders in history. {Germany now holds the championship belt in this event, simply because they were so
And, oh yes, one last thing...
When people kill Americans, then those people deserve to die for what they did.
When Americans kill people, then they were killed because they deserved to die.
Is it justice? Possibly not. Justice only happens in individual cases involving small numbers of people. You won't find justice in international relations and war. Mass murder is the order of the day. But it keeps the peace and keeps the world humming.
When you understand this, then you will know your place and will be able to have a long life and happy family. Which is more important than how many people were killed for what reason so long ago.
Fuck the DMCA. But fuck the pirates whose extremism lead to knee-jerk laws like the DMCA in the first place. If you bunch of shits hadn't decided to "fight the man" by copying "the man"'s music to as many people as possible via P2P, we wouldn't HAVE the fucking DMCA. The DMCA is YOUR FAULT you pirate fucks.
Netflix is uploading copies of movies via the USPS. Bet a whole bunch of people are making perfect copies from them.
He'll need DNA evidence to get out of that one.
Would the law's and Paramount's actions be justified if I ran into Walmart, dropped a recording of a movie on a cassette on a shelf there, and ran out, bothering no one and taking nothing? Would that be a $100,000 - dollar crime?
Mount some shotgun shells at the top of the disc. Wire them to security system that blasts the discs at forced entry. Refuse to open the door to the cops, let them do the destruction job themselves.
Alternatively, use an encrypted filesystem, with key stored in an EEPROM chip secured the same way. Destruction (and secure off-site backup) of 256 bits is easier than operating on whole discs. Also does not require entire shotgun shells and gun-like assemblies, likely to be problematic in some jurisdictions, as a teaspoon or two of thermite should do the job in a much safer way. Or use a microcontroller with a challenge-response scheme, in a tamperproof enclosure, which will destroy itself when mishandled (eg. physically moved without authorization).
I was downloading stuff (porn, anime music videos, etc) on eDonkey once and accidentally started downloading a Paramount movie. Before I realized it and cancelled it, about 200kb had been uploaded back over the p2p network from my computer. The next week I got a phonecall from my ISP saying that Paramount was banging at their doors blabbing about getting a subpoena unless I delete the movie data.
At that specific moment I didn't even remember the movie (nearly) passed through my belonging, so I did whatever any normal person would do when they feel they're wrongfully accused, I got pissed and denied the whole thing. I didn't hear back from them.
Just goes to show you that eDonkey is a terrible and policed network. Don't use eDonkey/Kazaa. Use torrents for your needs.
Just a quick comment on the ethics of Paramount doing this shit: if your movie has been out of theatres for a long time, and nobody is buying it on video or dvd anymore, you need to be fucking THANKFUL someone is trying to download it for free. I'd say more than 75% of the time I download a movie off the net (and like it), I go out and buy a copy the next week. If it weren't for people doing this, then movies like Se7en and Fight Club and The Matrix would have been that much less of a post box-office success. The same goes double for music.
And I'd prefer to see a 200GB drive there filled with randomly generated files, just for the satisfaction that it will actually cost them something to copy images and analyse the "data".
Computer science has become quite specialized. Its good for companies and bad for us. If you pick the wrong thing to specialize in, you may find yourself out of a job.
Programming as a hobby is a great thing, but remember most professionals don't write games, web browsers or operating systems. They don't need to know how to tune for best graphics or network performance because they are several levels away from the hardware. Most programs written now are business centric apps. An accounting app for example doesn't need to be a speed demon on the internet nor does it render opengl graphics for accounting figures. Now if a computer scientist is doing research in an area, they will learn everything they can about that area. People who like to wear many hats like me and you aren't appreciated anymore. Recruiters and companies often don't know where to put me. We are valuable to small businesses who can't afford 10 people, but its hard to break into big business with diversity.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
I can tell you my experience. I first went to the university of michigan flint. They pushed cobol, pascal and basic and followed up with fortran. I dropped out of that program for similar reasons. It didn't seem practical and unlike a real cs program, they didn't focus on how to learn new languages either.
.NET 2.0 next fall for almost everything. All new classes will be C#, except for operating systems and system programming which will continue to use linux. They are still decideding on the sparc assembly class. Its a shame really as many students there learn C# on their own time and few get exposed to *nix like systems otherwise.
.NET personally, but its not the solution to every programming problem. I had hoped the program would switch to java and then teach C/C++ later on.
I worked for a few years, and then went to a community college. I did basic, visual basic and C there. Two of the three were quite useful, although I had learned a bit of both in my own time. I earned a degree there and then went on for a bachelors at western michigan university. The intro class is C++ currently. You use C++ for the first two classes, then learn a little C and sparc assembly. Then you take a systems programming class taught entirely with C and another class tailored to C++ on data/file structures. Most of the classes were taught with linux or solaris. I recently finished a gui programming coarse using Gtk+/Gnome 2.6.
The down side is that the program got "encouraged" by microsoft to switch to
Until recent events, the program was very good about allowing for multiple platform use on laptops and things. It was ok to have a mac or a linux based laptop in class. They don't plan on using mono either.
There are two opinions one can take from the change. The good news is that its a more practical program which will appeal to people like myself that went to community college and the like. The bad news is that you won't learn how to learn and instead will be brainwashed into Microsoft is the only way rederic. I like
The CS degree requirement will change. Around here people explicitly ask for CIS degrees already. The logic in the past was that a CS person was taught to learn and so they can pick up the new stuff. With changes like the ones at my university, that will no longer be the case. I suspect the diversity is to help justify outsourcing. Most people agree its hard to outsource CIS type jobs overseas aside from helpdesk techs.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
Most programs written now are business centric apps. Yeeeep... that's what I do for a job :).
Wow, that is really nasty.
Makes me wonder how to order something like that securely (while assuming the site does keep records)... its easy enough to set up an email blind somewhere and negotiate with the site to pay/mail cash, but getting delivery is tricky if you assume they will keep the shipping address.
The only real differences seem to be why somebody's pissed off and what resources they have to do something about it. The Arabs have done a lot of suicide bombing rather than simple car bombing, mainly because it really freaks people out, but they're hardly the only ones. US propagandists talk about US soldiers sacrificing themselves for their country as the highest good, while they talk about suicide bombers as bizarre cultists that Western culture can't understand. It's all a load of crap.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks