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MediaSentry Defied Michigan Investigation For Months
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "You may recall that MediaSentry, the RIAA's unlicensed investigator, has been the subject of an investigation by Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Growth for its conduct of investigations without an investigator's license, an investigation in which it has made contradictory and false statements to the government's investigators. Well apparently this didn't deter MediaSentry from simply continuing its practice of conducting 'investigations' without a license. In Michigan, no less. We have learned from court papers (PDF) filed in Michigan that the practice continued for months after the DLEG had begun questioning the practice."
Little things like questionable legality and ethics aside...
The prosecutor can prosecute these cases as felonies, with a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine and/or up to four years in prison.
Nothing too stiff compared to what you can get for pirating a movie... :/
Slashdot is too nerdy for me.
Far less then the lives they are trying to ruin with non existent evidence.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
This is the same company that admits to using illegal denial-of-service attacks. They have no regard for the law, and if they get busted, they'll close shop and reopen under another name.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I'd totally trust Silent Bob. The man's a visionary.
Court isn't supposed to rely on trust or any other sort of bias. It's up to the Judge to establish that evidence is relevant and authentic. The character or track-record of the submittor is by necessity irrelevant. Though these can make it unlikely that the evidence will be relevant or authentic, the evidence has to be decided as such on provable grounds.
All a track-record of the RIAA being fuckups means is the court system should get good at figuring out what they should be asking about the authenticity of evidence in these cases.
A Judge can dismiss evidence that fails relevance or authenticity, but there is no penalty for submitting it. Fabricating evidence is another issue entirely and has penalties, and a good chance that perjury has also occured, which has penalties as well.
I think it is more likely than one might think, but it won't help.
How many people do you think are actually on MediaSentry's payroll? How much actual cash do they need on hand to troll P2P sites and the like?
More to the point, how long do you think it will take after MediaDefender *ahem* I mean MediaSentry is completely dissolved before MediaProtector springs up?
The problem is that the **AA hired these folks to do a job and can't be held accountable if MediaWhatever broke the law unless they explicitly instructed them to do so.
Karma: Incomprehensible (Mostly affected by posting at +5, reading at -1, and metamoderating everything unfair.)
they'll get away with it because they're fighting piracy and by extension something "for the children".
"If for any reason you're not satisfied with our service, I hate you."
What?? They sure do go dump Toxic Waste because there aren't specific injunctions and court orders not telling them to...
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/11165
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/5/27/93622.shtml?s=ic
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Toxic_waste_dump_killing_children_in_Kenya_UN_report_999.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/06/MN2510MASF.DTL&type=printable
You think these companies waited until they were in trouble to start dumping their crap?
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." -D. Adams
Corporations exist to shield people from liability, not to allow people to indirectly commit crimes.
When you have an amoral guiding principle such as "maximize profit" as the primary goal of your corporation, then there is little to no difference between a "shield from liability" and a carte blanc for white collar crime. I think that is the line that divides good corporations from evil corporations; the primacy of profit. A good corp might have profit as second in it's list of priorities after something like "make the best product we can" or "provide a low cost service" but a soon as profit overrules all other aspects of the company they crossover to the Dark Side. While a protection from liablity is a societially good thing when a good corporation has it, it is a societally bad thing when a evil corp has it. MediaDefender/Sentry/Thug is a tool of the RIAA which is purely based on profit maximization.
We are all just people.
Would be to abolish copyright altogether and get rid of this and the whole basket of related problems in one fell stroke.
It's more likely than you might think.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Michigan *law* prohibited unlicensed investigations without the need for a court order to explicitly stop each occurrence, which should have been as much legal proscription as these bozos needed. Similarly, burglars generally aren't sent subpoenas or C&Ds in connection with breaking into people's houses.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
An investigation doesn't mean anything. Hypothetically, they could decide "MediaSentry did everything right" still. It's not likely and almost certainly won't be the case, but until they've issued findings the fact that you're being investigated means little. It definitely shouldn't invalidate their evidence; innocent until proven guilty and all that. I wouldn't have an issue with judges postponing all related cases until a decision is rendered though.