"Judicial Scandal" In Pirate Bay Case

dr_d_19 writes "Swedish media are reporting that Jim Keyzer, one of the police officers involved in investigating the Pirate Bay case, began working for Warner Bros. a few months after the investigation was finished. Peter Sunde, one of the men behind TPB, calls this a 'Judicial Scandal.' Quoting from TheLocal article: 'If the police officer is found to have entered into discussions with Warner Brothers before the end of the investigation, which took a year and a half to complete, it is possible that the prosecution will have to scrap its findings and start again.'"

Comments

Two suspicious stories about Warner in one day?

[morgan_greywolf]

Two different stories, with possible scandalous implications, both involving Time-Warner companies in one day? Where are the FBI RICO investigators when you need them?

Makes sense

[notext]

If he did a good job finding or uncovering stuff, why wouldn't they want to hire him after its over?

Re:Makes sense

[geminidomino]

as it happens the police provide the evidence the courts make the decisions... i can see no way in which this officer's choice can effect the trial outcome. You stated the way in which it can affect the outcome right before you said there was no way.

Said conflict of interest opens the witness to accusations of evidence corruption/planting, witness tampering, etc... If he's supposed to supply the evidence, and he has a vested interest in WB winning, then he can easily subvert the due process of law for his own gain by helping them.

Any defense attorney with an IQ above 20 would tear a case built on that evidence to shreds, assuming the judge is a moron and allows it in the first place.

Re:Makes sense

[erroneus]

I have to differ with you on one point.

"There's nothing wrong with the cop taking the new job..."

At least here in the U.S., the "revolving door" of government workers moving into industries they've had contact with previously is more than just common. It is corruptively common.

A huge portion of the higher-ups in the airport screening TSA was former air lines management and as a screener, I had witnessed lots of incidents where the requests and even demands of the airlines resulted in relaxing security of the airport, the flights and all the innocent uninvolved people were put into potential security compromise at the behest of the airlines.

The TSA and the FAA should be regulating the airlines, not the other way around. The same goes for anything the government is charged with regulating. When those connections exist, it should ALWAYS be considered improper.

Re:Makes sense

[Sique]

It is exactly vice versa: It might be morally ok, because the cop in question may be really very integer and able to make a difference between the case in question and the futural job. But in every case it is technically not ok, because we never know if the cop has this personal integrity.

And that's the whole crux behind the affair: It might taint the investigation, because the investigator has a personal interest in a certain outcome of the case. It doesn't necessarily have to bias the investigation, but just because it could do so, it is technically wrong.

Hmmm...

[Myrcutio]

Ironic that it takes a pirate to spot corruption in the legal system. Perhaps if we hired some fellows in fluffy shirts and a bottle of grog we could get something done about the RIAA.

So..

[Mister Whirly]

Does that mean he could bring information gained during the investigation to Time-Warner?? Is that legal even if he didn't start talking to them until after the investigation concluded??

Re:scandal, in my judicial system?

[Corpuscavernosa]

Honestly it is more likely than you think. In northern Colorado, there was a guy who spent 10 years in the pokey after being convicted of murder. Long story short, he was recently acquitted after it was discovered that police and DAs actively burned/destroyed exculpatory evidence. The great twist is that the DAs who prosecuted the case are now judges in the same county. The cops are cheifs of police in neighboring counties. All this was brought to light and NOTHING happened to them. There was public outcry for disbarment and removal. Nothing happened. Everything was swept under the rug.

There is an immigration judge out here who has all but said that he became a judge so he could help keep immigrants out of this country. Judges shouldn't have an agenda.

Slightly off topic I realize, but my main point is that little things like this happen all the time, all around the country and world. They will continue to happen as well and honestly, there doesn't seem to be a hell of a lot that can be done about it.

The US Federal judges seem to be the best and most impartial. They are paid well and have liftime appointments, thus they don't have to make decisions in order to appease a public and keep their office. They can decide what is right.

The drawback is that it takes (usually) huge amounts of resources to select these people. Local governments don't have that kind of time/money.

I'd be curious to know what the judicial appointment/election status is in this case.

Oh it gets better

[BlueParrot]

Apparently the big media's puppet organisation, "Antipiratbyrån", in Sweden has done the same.

For those who understand Swedish:
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_1149973.svd

In all this mess lets have a look at the scores:

RIAA and the prosecution:
"Ministerstyre" (roughly speaking illegal manipulation of MPs )
Denial of service attacks
Illegal search and confiscation of private property
Bribing police investigators

TPB:
Assistance to commit copyright infringement ( which probably isn't even illegal in Sweden ).

Nice one.

Re:Conflicts of interests

[SkOink]

Except not really - all the RIAA and MPAA really do is supply entertainment. Movies, music, these things are just luxuries. If the entire recording industry and every since CD in the world disappeared tomorrow, my life wouldn't really be very different. This is also true for movies and TV (although TV stations aren't really getting into this whole anti-piracy thing). Heck, my life might even be better! I'd have less reason to put off doing the things I need to do and more reason to do the things I want to do.

You don't like the RIAA? Just stop listening to music! It's not a very big deal really. I can't figure out where or why we as a society decided that we had to be surrounded by constant entertainment 24/7.

Re:Corruption?

[ill stew dottied ewe]

Crayola (and other companies that I am familiar with) generally use powers of two, but also multiply by three in some cases (24, 36, 48, etc) They have deviated in several cases, producing packs of 1-10, as well as 40 (mainly in Europe) Bulk packaging also deviates, by having a small number of colors repeated, usually in a multiple of 5. There is a list here: http://www.crayoncollecting.com/Binney.htm Also, 8 is not octal. 8(decimal)== 0o10

Pirate Bay press release

[Jens Egon]

http://static.thepiratebay.org/pm/20080418_eng.txt/

Note that he was in charge of the preliminary investigation.

And that he is accused of droping investigations against Time/Warner et al.

If this is true, he should be looking forward to some time behind bars.

Whether Swedish police can lift the burden of proof against Time/Warner is more questionable. I wouldn't accept a claim of "good faith", but an actual judge might, I suppose.