Tag Archive for 'justice system'

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05
Jun
2008

MPAA demands printers to stop downloading pirated movies

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , .
original article

A study by a group of University of Washington staffers reveal how flimsy the process of identifying copyright offenders used by RIAA/MPAA really is.

During their investigation on who is using and how are BitTorrent trackers used the research team’s automated bots received 400 MPAA DMCA takedown notices without having actually downloaded or uploaded a single pirated movie. Moreover MPAA also sent DMCA takedown notices about files being shared by IP addresses belonging to printers the researchers “framed” to have shared pirated content.

The research team’s findings should ring alarm bells within the justice system. It is clear the methodology used by RIAA/MPAA to identify copyright infringers is completely inadequate and does in no way meet even the lowest standards of burden of proof.

-TPP


04
Jun
2008

Jack Thompson had his day in court and he lost

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .
original article

Mr. Jack Thompson’s been in a wee bit of trouble with the Florida Bar Association lately. They want him disbarred (or sanctioned in some other way). A judge hearing the case against him recently recommended he found guilty for 27 of the 31 bar rules violations he was facing.

Today the same judge held a hearing for recommending penalties for the violations.

The judge’s recommendation is “enhanced disbarment” for 10 years. If the recommendation is upheld in the September 2nd hearing of the Florida Supreme Court, Mr. Jack Thompson’s law “career” is over. Not that he’s done any actual legal work for quite some time being so busy fighting the evils of video games, but it’s still good news. At least after September 2nd it’s unlikely that he can be presented to the general public by the likes of Fox News as anyone even close to reputable. “Disbarred Attorney” sounds so much worse than “First Amendment Attorney”.

Mr. Thompson didn’t take all this beating unopposed, of course. He objected to the entire proceeding with a 14-page, 4,500 word objection that was just as rambling as any of his “legal” “arguments” of late. Suffice to say the objection didn’t have any impact whatsoever to the hearing. And so Mr. Thompson decided to make his point even more pointedly and marched out of the court room like a little child marches off the sandbox when the other kids don’t let him play with their toys. You sure told them Jackhole!

I don’t think there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind that the recommendations will be followed in the September 2nd hearing. My only wish is for that day to be sooner.

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

-TPP


20
Mar
2008

Jack Thompson aka Massacre Chaser sanctioned by the Florida Supreme Court

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , .
original article

Jack Thompson, the Massacre Chaser extraordinaire, moronic vigilante of morality and a delusional narcissistic egomaniac has been sanctioned by the Florida Supreme Court. FINALLY!

The Florida Bar Association has been on his case for quite some time already having forced him to go through a psychological evaluation twice in the past. The Florida Bar Association is also currently in disciplinary proceedings against Jack Thompson. Jack Thompson is facing disbarment should the Florida Bar Association find that his actions in recent years has broken the rules of the Florida Bar Association.

Today, however, another matter was decided on. Jack Thompson thought it would be a great idea to send legal picture books disguised as legal filings to the Florida Supreme Court. He was warned that if he continues doing that, he will face sanctions. Today the hammer struck down.

The Florida Supreme Court has issued an order instructing the court clerks to reject any filings by Jack Thompson that are not co-signed by another attorney in good standing with the Florida Bar Association. It was also ordered if Jack Thompson violates the court order he will face further sanctions.

As Jack Thompson is one regular Xerox machine sometimes filing several filings a day, this is going to seriously limit his ability to fight windmills down there in Miami. Since he’s essentially only working for himself, the only real costs to him with his frequent and abusive filings has been time. This time, however, he has to pay some other lawyer to read and sign his filings before he can file them with the Florida Supreme Court.

Score one for the establishment! Let’s get this idiot disbarred!

-TPP


12
Oct
2007

Torture on US soil

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , .
original article

CNN.com reports that two immigrants, who were deported from the United States, are suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with the help of ACLU.

It appears that ICE decided it’d be a good idea to forcefully inject the detainees with powerful anti-psychotic drugs to make the detainees easier to handle. The detainees medical condition was not assessed before the injections, so the drugs could’ve had severe side effects with other medication the detainees might have taken.

I know ICE really doesn’t think immigrants, especially the illegal ones, have any rights and that they can do whatever they please to these people, but this is going way over the line. It is, according to all international (and likely domestic) laws, torture, plain and simple.

Let’s see what becomes of this. Will some higher ups get a slap on the wrist, or is there going to be an appropriate punishment for all involved for torturing another human being?

-TPP


06
Oct
2007

War on Piracy is effective?

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , .
original article

Chris Israel, the Copyright Czar of the Bush Administration is hailing the guilty verdict of a music pirate as a major victory in the fight against piracy.

Surely he’s referring to a conviction of a ringleader of a major international piracy ring that prints CDs in China and hauls them over the Pacific to the United States to make millions of dollars in profit? Naah, Mr. Israel is referring to a guilty verdict and $222K fine of Jammie Thomas, a single mom with two kids. She was convicted of sharing 24 songs on p2p network Kazaa.

That’s kinda like celebrating busting a teenager with one roll of pot in his mouth as a major victory in the war on drugs, and then fining him $100K for it.

-TPP


04
Oct
2007

Congratulations RIAA

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .
original article

RIAA has won its lawsuit against Jammie Thomas, a single-mom of two kids. RIAA accused Ms. Thomas of sharing music on p2p networks. RIAA could only claim copyright ownership of 24 songs.

The jury awarded RIAA $222,000 in damages. That’s $9,250 per song. That sure sounds fair to me.

You could buy over 8,000 CDs with $222K.

I’m sure the RIAA is busy celebrating its victory over this single-mom. I hope bankrupting her was worth it.

-TPP


06
Aug
2007

Yet another anti-video game law ruled unconstitutional, this time in California

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , .
original article

GamePolitics.com reports that a federal district court judge in California has ruled a 2005 anti-video game law unconstitutional.

The bill, which was signed as law by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, was championed by a long-time video gaming critic Leland Yee, currently a California State Senator.

Let’s see who’s paying the legal fees, a millionaire Governor or the California State tax payers.

-TPP


28
Mar
2007

Smack that RIAA up

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , .
original article

Merl Ledford III, a California lawyer representing a family sued by RIAA in their war on P2P, has put forth a formidable smackdown on RIAA.

His letter to RIAA lawyers caused RIAA to dismiss the case. It’s unclear at this point, though, whether the Merchant family will be able to get legal fees from RIAA.

The letter has some very interesting sections in it, in particular the section labeled “Independent Factual Investigation and Probable Cause to Sue: Lack of Probable Cause”. That section applies to all lawsuits RIAA has filed. It’ll be interesting to see how future lawsuits will evolve after this.

-TPP


20
Mar
2007

Spammer e360 sues a spam fighting newsgroup

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , .
original article

Spammer e360, who previously sued Spamhaus for listing e360 as a spammer, is now suing members of a spam fighting Usenet newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.email.

Apparently the spammer is not too happy about being called a spammer. I can’t imagine why.

The news was broken by the most excellent publication for the email marketing industry called DM News. The brilliantly penned article had this marvelous passage in it:

Nanae, a Usenet newsgroup whose Web site claims to be “dedicated to discussing e-mail spamming,” did not immediately return e-mails for comment.

That’s pretty good. I am wondering about a few things. A Usenet newsgroup has a web site (no, Google Groups is not it)? How does one go about contacting a newsgroup for comment? And if by some magic, one manages to contact “the newsgroup” for comment, who exactly did they contact? A random poster? All the posters? What about lurkers? It’s all a big mystery.

-TPP


28
Feb
2007

Detective Lounsbury of Norwich, CT still clueless

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , .
original article

The “expert” witness of the Norwich Police Department whose testimony basically convicted Julie Amero of exposing kids in her classroom to porn has responded to one of his critics with more cluelessness.

He wrote:

I can provide you w/ the source code showing all the .htm and javascripting for each web page, images from those pages, date/time of creation, MD5 hashes, etc.

Imagine that…a browser downloaded the porn popup contents and stored them on the computer.

Read the rest of his emails to PC World in the original article. Ignorance is bliss, indeed.

Update: USA Today has an article about the same issue.

-TPP