Slashdot Mirror
What Happens When Telecom Companies Search Your Home For Piracy (vice.com)
ted_pikul writes:
Adam Lackman ran TVAddons, a site hosting unofficial addons for Kodi media center. Last year, a legal team representing some of Canada's most powerful telecom and media companies raided his home with a court order -- they searched his apartment, copying hard drives and devices, took his laptop, and shut down his website and Twitter account [which had 100,000 followers]. Now, he's being sued for piracy and sinking deep into debt as he fights to make it to trial.
From Motherboard: Lackman did not have to let anybody into his home that morning. But it presented a legal catch-22: if he hadn't, he would be in breach of a court order and could have been subjected to fines or imprisonment. "In high school you learn that if someone doesn't have a warrant, you don't let them into your house," Lackman told me. "I didn't know there was this whole other law where big companies can spend money [on lawyers] and do whatever they want".... Shortly after the search, a federal judge ruled the search unlawful in a procedural hearing. The questioning was an "interrogation," the judge said, without the safeguards normally afforded to defendants, and presenting Lackman with a list of names to snitch on was "egregious." The plaintiffs also did not make a strong enough case that TVAddons was solely intended to enable piracy, the judge decided... The plaintiffs appealed this decision, and in February a panel of three judges -- this time in the federal court of appeals -- overturned the previous decision in its entirety. The search was lawful and conducted within legal parameters, the judges agreed. The list of names was only presented to Lackman to "expedite the questioning process," and "despite a few objectionable questions" the nine-hour question period was not an interrogation, the panel ruled....
Everything that's happened to him so far has occured before a trial where he can argue the facts of how TVAddons operated, and yet the judge who approved the search order and the judge who upheld it on appeal have already effectively ruled that his website was designed to facilitate piracy....
Lackman has already been ordered to pay $55,000 for the legal fees of the companies suing him, according to the article, and he's "already hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to his own legal team...
"[I]n the new Canadian anti-piracy regime led by powerful companies, just being accused of enabling piracy can come with immense personal consequences even before your day in court."
From Motherboard: Lackman did not have to let anybody into his home that morning. But it presented a legal catch-22: if he hadn't, he would be in breach of a court order and could have been subjected to fines or imprisonment. "In high school you learn that if someone doesn't have a warrant, you don't let them into your house," Lackman told me. "I didn't know there was this whole other law where big companies can spend money [on lawyers] and do whatever they want".... Shortly after the search, a federal judge ruled the search unlawful in a procedural hearing. The questioning was an "interrogation," the judge said, without the safeguards normally afforded to defendants, and presenting Lackman with a list of names to snitch on was "egregious." The plaintiffs also did not make a strong enough case that TVAddons was solely intended to enable piracy, the judge decided... The plaintiffs appealed this decision, and in February a panel of three judges -- this time in the federal court of appeals -- overturned the previous decision in its entirety. The search was lawful and conducted within legal parameters, the judges agreed. The list of names was only presented to Lackman to "expedite the questioning process," and "despite a few objectionable questions" the nine-hour question period was not an interrogation, the panel ruled....
Everything that's happened to him so far has occured before a trial where he can argue the facts of how TVAddons operated, and yet the judge who approved the search order and the judge who upheld it on appeal have already effectively ruled that his website was designed to facilitate piracy....
Lackman has already been ordered to pay $55,000 for the legal fees of the companies suing him, according to the article, and he's "already hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to his own legal team...
"[I]n the new Canadian anti-piracy regime led by powerful companies, just being accused of enabling piracy can come with immense personal consequences even before your day in court."
While this might have been his home, it was also his place of business. His site clearly is intended to aid piracy (it clearly states "don't get in trouble for streaming, get a VPN" which would not be necc for a legit operation). If he is going to fight the law, he should be aware of the likely outcome. Not saying that piracy is immoral (not walking into that trap;) but it is clearly illegal and if your business is to buck the law, at the minimum you should have a lawyer on tap.
...When a Canadian is accused of "aiding piracy" as this fellow was, is to go on a killing spree at those corporate HQs/boardrooms because your entire life is well and truly fucked no matter what.
Got it.
Should SWAT some media company executives, see how they like it.
Hire a group of really smart lawyers
- to convince a lower court to grant an "Anton Piller" order to allow one party to a suit to search the premises and seize evidence from the other party without prior warning.
- to go over a credible judgement by the lower court and make it sound like something a superior court will see as bad. That requires a lot of legal research, and also a very good PR plan to chose the arguments that will appeal to a superior court.
- to find a way to levy "costs against" before the case is even heard, effectively keeping the defendant from being able to afford high-priced help, and
To do so before the case is actually heard.
The legal team here is quite magical. I suspect they're also rather expensive.
--dave
See Bell Canada v. Lackman, 2018 FCA 42 (CanLII), , as retrieved on 2018-10-27
davecb@spamcop.net
This has been going on for 10-15 years now. DMCA and such. This is standard fare.
We're all just secretly hoping it won't happen to us. But if they want to get you, they will.
They just need to make something up and take all your shit and fuck up your life big time.
See this guy for details. And wether he's done something wrong or not doesn't matter.
His life right now is fucked up bit time. True thing.
To me the solution is obvious:
Have a backup plan. Like a *real* backup plan.
Something like this:
- Mirroring of your critical data to a remote unknown location.
- Fallback computers hidden away.
- All critical documents copied and stored in an unknown location.
- Emergency cash.
- Crypto key USB sticks hidden away.
- Tried and tested disaster recovery scripts and procedures.
- Fallback spoof Google/Apple/Whatnot accounts that also have access to your main stuff - to salvage what you can when they've already come for you.
- Know where to go when they are after you. Where and how would you hide out / away?
Hardcore prepper style stuff (this is higher lever "society collapses" fallback):
- Functioning pocket water filter.
- Working digital radio with means to cheaply transfer digital data via SSB or something (PSK 31 handled with a Rasberry Pi or something)
As for the scenario this guy is in - a good way to prepare for this is to ask yourself: What would be my fallbacks if *right* *now* the police came, raided me and took all my stuff? And what can I do to prevent the worst from happening out of that? We've had this sort of thing in Germany on and off for a few decades, ever since the 80ies. The famous Chaos Computer Club and its members know these scenarios. There are some been-there-done-this talks on youtube on how they dealt with stuff like this. Enlightening - also the emotional aspect. (some are German, but probably subtitled so you'll get some info).
Bottom line: Be prepared. It's that simple and makes a huuuuge difference when the brown stuff hits the fan.
My 2 eurocents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Good luck finding a politician in Canada who might actually be able to get elected and who is actually going to (not just promise to) make it harder for the big media companies to take anti-piracy actions like this.
Don't run questionable servers in a way that it can be traced back to your physical self.
It really sucks that the law is failing the common citizen, but at the same time, he did create this entire situation all on his lonesome. My sympathy is limited.
15 years ago Bell got pissed off at Canadians paying for US satellite TV so through their corruption of the CRTC managed to make it illegal. They used Anton Piller orders to bust people for piracy back then. The "piracy" of PAYING for satellite TV the Canadian Government disapproved of (ie: Any satellite TV that isn't Canadian).
Same results, regular hardworking Canadians who just wanted to enjoy HBO movies on the weekend ended up having to choose between massive default fines payable to Bell, or paying Bell's lawyers. Either way, goodbye house, goodbye retirement.
Fuck Copyright.
How can a search by the plaintiff itself be ruled legal? This should be the police's job. Or at least a third party that would have no interest into planting fake evidence during the search.
Lackman did not have to let anybody into his home that morning. But it presented a legal catch-22: if he hadn't, he would be in breach of a court order and could have been subjected to fines or imprisonment.
Uh, this statement makes no sense. Of course he didn't 'have to' let anybody into his home, but the threat of legal action compelled him to.
I don't 'have to' let cops into my home, even with a search warrant... but they'll just bust down my door and arrest me for not letting them in. How is this situation different?
I'm also curious how a court order gets imposed on somebody that isn't even given a chance to argue against it in court. His first chance to contest it is when they show up to his door and threaten him? Seems really strange to me.
US government (and apparently Canada too) have no problem pursuing someone for pirating a $20-30 movie, but the US wonâ(TM)t even lift a finger for people getting scammed out of thousands with telephone scams via spoofed numbers. âoeWeâ(TM)ll never catch them anyway,â they say. I bet if they stopped chasing pirates and made telemarket scams a priority they might make a dent in it.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
You might have a moral case there, but unfortunately, you don't have a legal one.
Actually he does. The courts have been pretty consistent that in return for the media levy, we're allowed to copy music for non-profit reasons. Unluckily that doesn't cover video, though if they get their 15GB tax (only reason anyone uses over 15GB a month is to stream shit and since the streaming companies pay shit, us consumers can pay a tax which in theory will go to the artists who are getting ripped off by the capitalists) perhaps that'll change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Sure wish that you guys would do something about your corrupt system, didn't see the party that brought free trade to you getting wiped out
The Democrats ? NAFTA came in 1994 Clinton was president and he had a Democratic controlled congress. Now they are reduced to having people scream at congress while covering themselves in menstrual blood and other crazy people to try and achieve their goals. https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/05...