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Anti-Piracy PI Talks About Building Cases Against File-Sharers
An anonymous reader writes "Torrent Freak has an interesting interview with a former private investigator who was hired to track people who pirated software and movies. He relates some of the tactics used to make evidence more appealing to police, the media and lawmakers. He said, 'We discussed the formula for extrapolating the potential street value earnings of "laboratories" and we were instructed to count all blank discs in our seizure figures as if they were potential product. Mr. Gane also explained that the increased loss approximation figures were derived from all forms of impacts on decreasing cinema patronage right through to the farmer who grows the corn for popping.' Regarding the head of AFACT, the article notes, 'Gane understood that the media was an essential tool towards AFACT's goal of getting tougher copyright legislation in place. And for this purpose, it was a good idea to bend the truth a bit.'"
Has this guy considered a career with the DEA?
I knew there was something odd about the fact that Limewire was claimed to have caused damage in excess of global GDP. Now we have a name for it ;)
"The most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an existing codebase that is just good enough." -- Eric S. Raymond
When you exaggerate and lie it comes back to bite you in the ass when the truth comes out. Does anyone sympathize with the record companies anymore?
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
This is why I don't care what happens to the record companies.
These companies needs to provide what the customer wants to buy, it is as simple as that.
And yes, I do not pirate copy music or movies. I buy mine.
Note that these are the allegations of an angry fired employee, and while I could easily believe everything what he said it's in no way proof.
Years ago, I decided to get rid of my car and go by bicycle for personal transportation. For fun, I tried to evaluate the impact of my choice on the economy as a whole, taking into account, amongst other things:
- On the pro side: lesser oil consumption on my part, lesser burden on the national insurance system because I'm healthier, supporting the bicycle industry by purchasing bike parts, etc...
- On the con side: hurting automobile sales, which in turn contributes to layoffs, unemployment, hurting indirect jobs, etc...
I found that I had to make wild assumptions to come up with figures, and the further I went from the immediate impact of my decision, the dicier it was to come up with believable figures. But what I also found is that I could come up with an impressive and very serious-looking spreadsheet sheet that either proved that I had caused millions in damage to the economy, or vice-versa, depending on the premises I had chosen.
In short, you can make figures say anything, and even if they're BS, if they're presented in a synthetic, professional way, they still look credible.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The title is misleading, just by looking at the summary you can see this is about actual copyright infringement, not 'file sharers'. Guess this was submitted by a **aa shill.
If someone contributes to the economy by buying counterfeit DVDs, wouldn't they also contribute to the economy by buying counterfeit popcorn?
Seriously though, the honour of lying is right up their with piracy in my books. And embellishment is a form of lying. Any serious analysis of piracy would take into consideration that the habits of people who buy are different from the habits of people who take. Even marketers know that: they will gladly give away goodies to grab people's attention, get people to try their products, or lock them into contracts because people will hesitate if they have to pay for something and grab up almost anything that is free. The same goes for piracy. It's not hard to come across stories of people who pirate more than they could ever consume, and even taking that into consideration is still leaving you with the assumption that they would pay for what they do consume.
And the popcorn thing is just silly. I realize that a lot of people are stupid enough with money to go to the theatre's vending stand, but a lot of people don't. Heck, you could go out for a decent dinner before or after the movie and still pay less than you would for a bunch of junk food at the theatre.
Am I alone in always having assumed that this would be the case? In any litigation that I've ever been involved in everyone assumes that a compromise will need to be reached and so piles in every cost they can justify in any way at all, no matter how flimsy. The main aim of any initial filing is to raise the litigation risk for the other party, ie the amount that they would maybe have to pay if they lost. It forms a starting point for the negotiation over the course of the action.
A single CD-R could feasibly contain a thousand copies of some expensive custom embedded control code. That's easily a million dollars per CD.
Or, what is the value of some of the better HFT algorithms? They're basically propping up the big investment banks, so like 10 billion dollars? That could probably fit on a single CD-R.
You've got to think bigger than farmers growing popcorn. Sheesh, amateurs...
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
What a low-life pond scum, willing participating in such a corrupt scheme/racket. Some people will do anything for money.
May the worms eat his dead body from its casket and vomit his remains.
Does anyone sympathize with the record companies anymore?
Well, yes.
The recording industry "invested" over $16 million in Washington, D.C. last year, and naturally expects a return from everyone who accepted the 30 silver shekels.
And everyone here who buys from the record companies or their subsidiaries like Blizzard.
IT wouldn't be the first law, totally based on a lie, for the self enrichmen tof big c...
to get their way.
Look at the methodology of the Murdoch Press (News International) . Sleazebags use sleazy methods.
Anybody genuinely shocked by this?
And if you extrapolate enough, you can take anything to extreme and prove just about anything. That's why statisticians and experts are supposed to come up with what's reasonable, not something that exceeds global GDP because of someone copying a single CD.
There was a British comedy called Only Fools and Horses which contains the following exchange, which I consider no different to these methods:
Rodney: It doesn't matter what they use it for, Trig, it's still knocked off - and it's still illegal.
Del: Yeah, but it's good for the country though Rodney, innit?
Rodney: Come on Del, how can nicking off British Rail be good for Britain?
Del: (To Trig) He amazes me you know Trig, he's got a GCE in Maths, and he still acts like a total wally-brain.
(To Rodney) I'll tell you why this is good for the country, shall I Rodney? 'Cos British Rail have to hire more security guards to protect this paint thus lowering the unemployment figures - plus, their insurance company will need more people to handle British Rail claims that means redundant insurance clerks will be snatched from the dole queues and handed back their dignity. Right?
Now these people may very well celebrate their good fortune by buying a car and taking their wife and kids on a touring holiday round Britain. This will result in a much needed boost to our ailing car industry, higher revenue for North Sea Oil and a vital cash injection into seaside resorts and depressed areas.
On the other hand, they may decide to take a holiday abroad, right, thus forcing foreign hoteliers, restaurateurs and bar owners to buy more British beer, food and goods. This will result in higher export drive which, in turn, will be very good for our balance of payments surplus! Soon this country will be rich and famous again - the starving shall be fed - the homeless will be homed. Right?
When you're taking your court case straight from the mouth of Del Trotter, you *KNOW* you have a serious credibility problem.
No dice.
I don't even care anymore about music & movies coming out anymore, purely because of all this crap that's in association with and being supported by my potential purchases.
is that different from the normal PI (3.14156265...
stale $5/tub popcorn does nothing for me. But I'll go through a couple bags of microwave stuff during a movie at home. Maybe I'm not the norm, or maybe they need to redo their figures, or maybe they don't care.
was hired to track people who pirated software
Should read: Was hired to track people that sold content that had been cracked.
Good for him. He was getting rid of a menace to society, pirates. People that crack then post the content to the web in retaliation to DRM or just to show the public the content was all hype are not pirates. Lumping the two together is the reason they are having so much resistance. The fact that they are using the same funny math calculations to show damages in cases against people trading/sharing music is the real crime.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Out of curiosity, do you own a pot, and a range?
I used to eat microwave popcorn but my lady won't let me own one. Whatever I think about that, it's not worth having a war over the microwave. As a side benefit, I started making all my own popcorn, bought bulk at the health food store for practically nothing. It's cheaper than all but the crappiest microwave popcorn on sale, even when cooked in EVOO. I am a butter addict and cook with it, slather it on pancakes or waffles, and so on, but I actually prefer my popcorn with nothing but the EVOO it's cooked in (if you use enough... heh heh) and I cook it in the salt as well. It's a quick job, cleanup is quick since it's oily, you can flavor it a zillion different ways right in the pot...
I love being lazy too, but you can do better for less money and it is honestly not that arduous.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That sounds like a pretty fun job. You just get to make wild guesses and accusations about what something is worth based off of completely arbitrary guesses on what effects what.
subject says it all
One day a high level judge is going to realize its just a 99 cent download each.
If I steal a car and get caught I might have to pay for the car not the steel mill and the union wages.
I used to eat microwave popcorn but my lady won't let me own one.
Since we're asking "Out of curiosity" questions, why exactly is she opposed to microwave ovens?
This PI should be in jail for what he's done.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I was about to ask the same question.
They're not supposed to be misrepresenting facts. That's the lawyers' jobs.
Now even from the point of a car driver, the optimal number is not zero. If everyone used a car you couldn't move from the traffic jams. But if everyone used a bike you would have to drive 1m to the left then you would normally do . I think there exists a balance wich is the best, like Amsterdam.
Am I a criminal, considering how much "potential crack" is in my refrigerator under the name "baking soda" and how much "potential methamphetamine" is under my bathroom sink under the names "bleach" and "drano"......