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."

Comments

Time Fraud?

[GuruBuckaroo]

What a great phrase! Makes me nostalgic for Doctor Who...

Re:Time Fraud?

[joincamp]

Time Fraud is a real thing. It isn't a joke. It's when you're paid to do one job but you do something else. Like when you hire a lawyer to work a case for you, and they are charging you hours while they are actually doing something else.

you mean like we are all doing right now at work? oh crap!

Oh, no!

[PornMaster]

14GB of MP3s? I'd bet that one in three Slashdotters has at least that much. Anyone know what the "crack the headers" bit refers to for CDs?

Re:Oh, no!

[tulmad]

Anyone know what the "crack the headers" bit refers to for CDs?

It means "I'm a journalist and really have no clue what I'm talking about, so I'll make up words that sound dramatic".

Re:Oh, no!

[omeomi]

Anyone know what the "crack the headers" bit refers to for CDs?

It means "I'm a journalist and really have no clue what I'm talking about, so I'll make up words that sound dramatic".

Actually, the author of the article never refers to "cracking" the headers of CDs. The article states "software 'commonly used to crack header codes on copyrighted materials such as movies and music to allow duplication,' Schafer's memo said.". Regular redbook audio CDs don't have any sort of DRM to crack, but many DVDs do, and so do DRM'd music tracks downloaded from services such as iTunes or Napster. So, while it may certainly be true that many journalists don't know what they're talking about, this journalist has said nothing incorrect with respect to cracking.

Re:Oh, no!

[Stan Vassilev]

"14GB of MP3s? I'd bet that one in three Slashdotters has at least that much."

When translated from DontSueMe to English this goes like: "14GB of MP3s? I have at least as much." ;)

Obviously, they were fighting terrorism

[Dark Paladin]

We know that the MPAA has claimed that buying pirated movies supports terrorism.

Therefore, these proud patroits in West Virginia (death to all tyrants!) were simply providing a means for Americans to purchase pirated movies without supporting Al Queada (or however they spell thier name). After all, we've learned that breaking the law is perfectly legal as long as you put the words "fighting the war on terrorism" in front of it.

Now, if we can just get them to take care of that whole "get money from oil revenues to finance terrorism" thing, and we've got it licked!

Heh

[grub]

"Capitol Records"

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

"Studio"? I think not.

[Kayamon]

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.

I bet the CIO/IS Director is a MBA

[Kylere]

1. Take one college educated idiot (Usually a MBA)
2. Place in charge of a group of geeks who actually know their jobs
3. Pay Fines!

Did Anyone Check The Content?

[Black-Man]

Was it gigabytes of "Take Me Home Country Roads" on mp3 and the movie "Deliverence"?

Fired for overtime!

[LiquidCoooled]

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)

Re:Fired for overtime!

[Anonymous Coward]

I once met a group of government IT workers who, by applying the union rules, were able to stretch their hours considerably. It had something to do with the fact that the minimum claimable overtime period was 4 hours, but they were permitted to claim overtime even if they only worked 15 minutes. So by staying 15 minutes past the end of the day, they were able (were required to, in fact) to claim an additional 4 hours of overtime.

This group was actually working hard, and doing legitimate 12 hour days, but by doing strategic 15 minute increments they were all able to charge 24 hours a day. This lasted for about a 2 week period.

They appeared to be quite proud of themselves.

Gotta love that headline.

[plasmacutter]

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".

Re:Gotta love that headline.

[kimvette]

{
last time i checked my 3 towers and 9 hard disks didn't cost tens of thousands (and two of them are macs!)
}

You didn't buy them from state-approved vendors who are on the official bidding lists.

State bidding lists work like this: when the contract is about to end, the state invites vendors to bid (more actually they obfuscate the process to make it more difficult to newcomers to get in on the process, so the system is weighted toward favored vendors), in a superficial effort to meet state law in controlling budgets.

In reality, the bidding process is made as difficult as humanly possible. The regulatiosn are hard to find, each responsible person tells you to call someone else, and the folks who succeed in getting in on it invariably are the ones who wine and dine the officials.

ANYWAY the bidding process usually gives you two optios:

  - bid cost + percentage (which practically no one does because it would reveal the markup)
  - bid MSRP/List Price minus a percentage (and as you know on most products list price may be as low as 30% over cost, or as much as 300% to 400% over cost on average for different products and brands)

Once you win the contract, you now have the "right" to sell directly to state and municipal agencies, completely bypassing any further bidding processes. This is intended to reduce the budget by being able to plan cost of operations up front, and to eliminate paperwork and delays introduced by conventional bidding processes. Unfortunately it's all to common for vendors to get in on the list bidding a PITTANCE of a discount (example: Dell, 2% off of list price, which is an inflated work of fiction) knowing that the process to get IN on the bidding is painful at best.

Even worse, the lowest bid does NOT always win on the bid lists (this goes for both state and GSA lists) and in fact the officials/agencies overseeing the bidding process can choose to ignore the bids and pick whomever the heck they want to win. They can cite support reasons (Yeah. Dell support is just WONDERFUL compared to local Dell vendors), size of the company, or any other contrived reason that sounds remotely plausible.

Re:21st Century underground

[Elvis Parsley]

I'm just wondering where they're finding onions with corners.

The Hand in the Face

[Jim in Buffalo]

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.

The RIAA Could Sue

[Saint37]

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/

Piracy in the workplace is common

[Anonymous Coward]

Ask anyone in tech support who has had to work in a bloated bureaucratic building overpopulated with secretaries. My favorite encounter was cleaning a couple thousand pieces of spyware off some secretary's computer. While I was doing that, she and another secretary were copying DVD movies on their computers, as well as their boss's computer. Apparently the boss was gone for the day. So basically, I was helping her burn DVDs faster.

Thank you Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Overstated?

[rnelsonee]

The review found that someone in General Services sidestepped state purchasing rules to buy more than $88,000 worth of computers and related equipment over the last three years, including the items discovered in the basement office. Not all the purchased computers and gear can be located, Ferguson said.

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.

Misleading headlines...

[happyfish]

The real issue here is not that someone had 14GB of mp3s or 40 movies; that simply makes for a better headline. The real issue is that someone in the capital was abusing the purchasing system and bilking the state for all they could. Buying barebones PCs on one purchase and then purchasing the remaining components on a separate order is a big no-no. It means that the PCs appear to be far less expensive, and exempts them from inventory control systems. The purchases basically fly under the radar, and the goods could be anywhere now; some other office, somebody's house, or sold on eBay.

Go for a drive sometime.

[ScentCone]

a tower with dvd decryptor and a couple hundred gigs of avis and mp3's is now a vast piracy setup. that's funny.

You've never actually been on a drive through West Virginia, have you? Mind you, it's beautiful (the part that isn't up on blocks). For a state that's got a lot of territory just a short drive from the nation's capital, it's a funny mix of demographics. But yes, a rig set up (however modestly) to crank out physical copies of pirated media probably is a big deal to a lot of the locals.

Re:The $25,000 question

[mopslik]

There are two capitals in West Virginia: "W" and "V".

Ask Slashdot

[mjpaci]

{jesting}"I have access to almost unlimited funds through a closed-source purchasing system. I have identified a number of holes in the system that would allow me to syphon off funds to purchase a "pirate studio" and install it in the basement of the capitol building. Since I'd rather not pay the Microsoft tax, could you recommend a "free" (as in beer) solution for my embezzlement?"

Reminds me of a call to Infocus

[QuantumRiff]

I am a government employee. (work at a small college). Had a broken Digital Projector. Called them up, described the problem, was told that $PART was broken, and it would be $2400 to fix. I kind of went silent for a few minutes, and pointed out that their new projectors of the same Lumens cost $1500. Do customers really do this? His response was that sometimes, especially with government accounts, there is no budget for new equipment, but money in the repair budget. I remember saying, "So instead of spending $1500 on a new projector with a warranty, they spend $2400 on repairing a 3 year old projector? Don't you feel good about where your tax dollars are going?" I have seen this far too many times in government. Rules are so strict and rigid (often because of abuses) that it is easier to spend twice as much money than to get approval to move the amount from one budget account to another..

Re:I seriously doubt it

[SatanicPuppy]

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"