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MPAA Executive Tampers With Evidence In Piracy Case
An anonymous reader writes "TorrentFreak reports on an internet piracy case from Finland, which saw four men found guilty and fined €45,000. During the trial, the defense attorney took note of inconsistencies in log files used as evidence against the men. An investigator for international recording industry organization IFPI revealed after questioning that the files had been tampered with. He said an MPAA executive was present when the evidence gathering took place, and altered the files to hide the identity of 'one of their spies.' 'No one from the MPAA informed the defense that the edits had been made and the tampering was revealed at the worst possible time – during the trial. This resulted in the prosecutor ordering a police investigation into the changes that had been made. "Police then proceeded by comparing the 'work copy' that the IFPI investigator produced with the material that police and the defending counsels had received. Police found out that the material had differences in over 10 files," Hietanen reveals.'"
... this surprises anyone how, exactly?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Somehow, this doesn't surprise me in the slightest
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
Usually I don't support "send a message" type of prosecutions (Aaron Swartz, as just one example) but these guys need to be smacked down, hard. Fines are insufficient; anything short of significant jail time won't do a damn thing to the MAFIAA sociopathic execs who honestly believe they are above the law.
A message needs to be sent, and this looks to be an open and shut case. I sure hope to see handcuffs.
I predict that unless it is proven that they fabricated evidence, the person on trial will still get convicted, and the MPAA will get nothing more than a verbal slap on the wrist.
Deletion of exculpatory evidence is one thing, but deletion to hide a source is simply redaction, which governments do daily. They will laugh it off as a minor oversight.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
No! It can't be so!
"MPAA evidence" because it's all made up and fact/reality light
The MPAA executive involved in this should be prosecuted and receive the exact sentence of the accused individuals. Anything short of this warrants some vigilante justice against the organized crime syndicate that the MPAA has become.
that it hasn't been swept under the rug
OJ got off when the cops messed with the evidence
for some time now. It's about time they got caught.
There is a very easy solution to this kind of nonsense. I know that European courts operate quite differently from US ones, but in US terms here is what should happen.
Order a mistrial. Declare all tainted evidence inadmissible (even if the "original" is presented). Fine the IFPA a significant sum for deliberately attempting to mislead the court. Investigate if criminal charges against individuals in the IFPA are warranted. Order an arrest/extradition warrant against the MPAA agent responsible so he could explain to the court why he should not be imprisoned for evidence tampering. Begin an investigation on whether or not to permanently disbar the plaintiffs attorney (depending on if he had prior knowledge on the evidence being tainted or not).
This is something I am troubled by on a regular basis. It is increasingly clear that our government and legal system are stacked against common citizens.
At some point, it will occur to those being prosecuted for sharing some songs on the internet and being fined for more than they'll ever make in their lifetime, that the U.S. is a dictionary definition of a fascist state where government is intertwined with corporations and industry. The real problems are the corporate executives that can do this crap with no repercussions. There needs to be repercussions. If the legal system doesn't provide a way to bring the fight to the door of the powerful, then I fear that the our society will break down to the point where citizens must be vigilantes to get any sort of justice over the prosecutors, politicians, and the people who run the corporations.
Point I've made in the computerized voting systems ongoing fiasco: if you are "in" the system, you control the output. This is counter intuitive for geeks and ATM users everywhere. Automated systems aren't automated if the owners of the system output have control at any point. You, as the accused or someone looking at a computerized vote counting system, cannot tell if some man in the middle changed the output.
Sometimes, tho, that isn't true, as in this case. Altering text logs. But after this, be assured that in the future the owners of systems will make sure the carpet matches the drapes.
How many times has this happened? That's the point: if the logs lie, *you can't ever know*. The truth is whatever the system owner, of a logfile or the source code itself, tells you is true.
Altering logs and calculations used to be part of my job. I was that man in the middle.
Is "evidence tampering" OK when it's the US government hiding the identity of one of their own spies?
Obligatory South Park reference accomplished.
If this were in the U.S., I'd say dust off the RICO act, because someone's transgressed. Anything similar in Finland? It would be fun to see organized copyright lobbyists put on the same page of the law books as Al Capone.
Pretty much. Whether or not he was guilty, the blood soaked socks that were soaked through from one side rather than from both probably did a huge favor to the defense in establishing a reasonable doubt.
Who knows what would have happened without the doctored evidence. He might still have been found not guilty, but we could have had a less ambiguous result.
There is a large difference between the malum prohibitum of copyright, and the malum in se of evidence tampering.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
oops.
... always a MAFIAA
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
The police didn't present the evidence in court the MPAA lawyer did. So the end point of the chain is broken. In effect MPAA are an extra link added on the end between the police and the court.
It happens that the defense spotted the MPAA game, but that was luck.
Also the *CLAIM* that they did it to hide their spy is just a CLAIM. It could have been he was the seed of a torrent!
Funny that judge didint throw the case out, considering the "evidence" was tampered before handing it over to police. So how can judge be sure evidence is not totally fabricated?
Was the trial held in Tampere?
ba-dum-cha
Sorry, couldn't resist...
I'm lost, so they had the logs copied. But then what happened to the original file. Copying is stealing.
The police weren't there, the IFPI investigator was, took the logs, gave it to the MPAA exec who tampered with it and gave the tampered logs to the police.
You need to read the story.
Then re-read it.
So the big point about this article is tainted evidence. If the MPAA/RIAA alters/fabricates evidence, then its being done 'professionally' by a large corporation with very deep pockets. They know where the judge lives, and likewise the judges' political master/mistress. So in light of that, evidence tampering is ok. This is like the rides you see where there is a sign: you have to be this tall to ride. Only with the courts, you have to be this rich to get a fair hearing. Corporations usually make the cut, private individuals not so much. If the reverse were true, the private individual modified evidence, there would be a mistrial at least, and jail for perjury and other fines more likely. See how money doesn't just skew the legislative and executive branches, it skews the judicial branch as well.
I'm still trying to figure out how a trivially editable text file can be used as "evidence". It's basically just their word against yours, does it really make a difference if they write their word down on a piece of paper? What's to stop them from just creating "log files" that say anything they want?
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
Aaron Swartz thought he was above the law as well. Repeatedly.
No, he just believed in the Bill of Rights, which the government is required by law and oath to uphold, and which gets violated every single day.
Never forget that James Madison put the 9th Amendment in the Bill of Rights to make it an open-ended document, and to provide a legal basis for opposing ANY law, order, or precedent that interferes with reasonable conduct. Any law that interferes with reasonable conduct is an illegal law, which by oath our prosecutors are prohibited from enforcing.
Unfortunately, an oath of office always loses to ethical conflict of interest.