Slashdot Mirror
Piracy Setup Discovered in WV Capitol Building
arakis writes "Someone in West Virginia has apparently spent tens of thousands in state funds to acquire computers and video gear to copy movies and music. From the article: 'Ferguson confirmed Tuesday that his staff found the makeshift audio-video studio amid his widening probe into spending and other abuses at the state General Services Division.' Looks like some employees are getting the axe for everything from purchasing abuse to time fraud."
You think they would have figured out how to get the equipment off-site.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
Pff... That's not a audio/video studio... that's just a guy downloading and burning some DivX movies.
I think "tens of thousands in state funds" is possibly a bit of an exaggeration.
Kayamon
Ferguson recently fired two division staffers, Gary McClanahan and Gary Bryant, after they claimed they had worked 18-hour days 119 times over the course of 2 1/2 years. Ferguson said a $466, 24-inch flat-screen computer monitor was found in Bryant's office but that no evidence suggests either man orchestrated the computer purchases.
Sometimes, an 18hour work day is exactly that.
Some places allow practically all the overtime you can log - simply because its cheaper to let you work greater hours than to hire/train somebody up to your role.
Firing them because they were hard workers is wrong.
Firing them because they made fraudulant claims is right.
(they do sound like the BOFH and PFY though don't they)
liqbase
Are we back into the days of yellow journalism here?
tens of thousands in "piracy equipment"? "computers and video gear"?!
last time i checked my 3 towers and 9 hard disks didn't cost tens of thousands (and two of them are macs!)
piracy setup? come on now! a tower with dvd decryptor and a couple hundred gigs of avis and mp3's is now a vast piracy setup. that's funny. If this is the headline for such a pitifully small collection, i wander if the headline for the arrest of someone on my res hall would read "international organized piracy syndicate taken down".
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
I think that this case underscores how little government bureaucrats understand about the technology being used in their own buildings right under their very noses. Far too often when someone tries to bring a technical matter to the attention of someone with the authority to do something about it, they get The Hand in the Face... 'uhp, uhp, uhp, I don't want to hear about it... if it's not about a massive campaign contribution I don't want to know.' Well, when the suits from the media companies come knocking, well, The Hand in the Face tactic isn't going to work.
This sig, aah-ah, is comin' like a ghost-sig...
The RIAA's argument is that a computer owner should know what their children or other users are doing with their computers and are thus responsible for any piracy that occurs using said computer. By this same logic the RIAA could sue the State of West Virginaia, but of course, the RIAA wouldn't do that. They only go after individuals.
http://www.stockmarketgarden.com/
Is it possible that most of that $88K went to legit computer purchases? 40 movies, 3,500 MP3s, and oh-so-common DeCSS software is all easily fit into one normal PC. And hundreds of blank DVDs/CDs isn't all that much - it's $100 worth of merchandise found on newegg. Sure, this guy was copying movies, but wouldn't bet that this is one of those "zero patient" cases.
This suffice it to say reinforces the image of public sector workers abusing their state privaliges. I remember an interview with Wanda Sykes where she talked about her other job at her job while working at the state. I am a very strong supporter of teh privitization of many Government agencies. I'm sick and tired of seeing my tax dollars being wasted by over payed gum chewing counter people who have no clue.
Yeah, like private sector employees any more competent; and the CEOs are obviously less corrupt than the heads of these organizations. Lets just have Haliburton run the Armed Forces, and Citibank run the US Mint.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
Now that's what I want my tax dollars to pay for! I'm serious!! Really!!!
I kill harmless processes for sport
40 Movies and 14 Gigs of Mp3s? You would almost need a WHOLE ipod Video just to hold all that stuff! And what IT worker has 14 gigs at his disposal?
Sheesh, next he'll want more than 640KB of RAM.
Hundreds of blank DVD's? Oh wow, that's absolutely insane, considering they only sell them in spools of 50-100. I mean, i wouldn't even know where to put 2 or 3 WHOLE spools of DVD'rs, let alone hide them from satellite imagery.
I am a very strong supporter of teh privitization of many Government agencies. I'm sick and tired of seeing my tax dollars being wasted by over payed gum chewing counter people who have no clue.
What a brilliant idea! Then you'll have all of the waste, fraud and corruption, and none of the oversight!
Simply brilliant!
*rolls eyes"
Having worked in corporate America for many years, let me assure you that such spending abuses are quite common there, too. Probably much, much more common, given that the process is generally very opaque in corporate America. If the boss doesn't care, there will be no audit. When the boss is *in on it,* mention of an audit will get you fired. Such problems, while still existent, are less pronounced in the public sector. And the public sector is subject to a form of scrutiny that is generally impossible in the private sector.
At *best* such privatization would add overhead and gain you nothing. At worst (and most likely) it'd turn government into a craven mess of bribery and kickbacks, reduce services, and give you a less effective government at a higher price, to boot.
-- Hello_World.c: 17 Errors, 31 Warnings
Carrot and the Stick.
RIAA: "See the nice juicy carrot, you know you want the carrot"
Congress: "Mmmmmm, carrot"
RIAA: "Now we want you to pass a law making it legal for our representatives to hunt iPod users, because piracy supports terrorism, and all iPod users are pirates."
Congress: "Welll, I don't know...there are a lot of iPods out there..."
RIAA: "This is a stick. This is what you get when you don't get the carrot. Wouldn't you rather have the carrot?"
Congress: "Well, yea, but we can't just..."
RIAA: "BAD CONGRESS! *WHACK* *WHACK* *WHACK* BAD LEGISLATORS MAKE THE BABY JESUS CRY! *WHACK* *WHACK*"
Congress: "Owwwww...okay, okay"
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
WRONG! The difference is that I do not think my degree makes me a genius.
Why would a US Senator from Utah have an office in the West Virginia state capitol?
So you can make perfect digital copy, if you so choose. But the MPAA has decided to prohibit you from making a degraded digital -> analog copy.
Is it just me, or is that ass-backwards?
"Specifically, one hard drive contained approximately 40 full-length motion videos," state Chief Technology Officer Kyle Schafer said in the Jan. 5 memo to Administration Secretary Robert Ferguson. "Two other hard drives contained over 3,500 MP3 music files consuming more than 14 [gigabytes] of hard drive space."
That sounds more like my iPod than a big time piracy operation.
Still, I hope they fire them all.
--fatboy
I fought it, because the people issuing the fines will be the government, and the people paying the fines will be the government, and erm umm, doh! 4. THE LAWYERS PROFIT
Why do so many of you feel the need to insult West Virginia? The majority of you have never even been here. You know nothing about us.