Taxpayer funded korporate kopyright kops
p2pnet news view | Movies:- The Big 6 Hollywood studios have FACT outfits scattered here and there to bolster their claims they’re being “devastated” by the activities of all those evil camcording movie pirates.
In 2007, the UK population numbered 60,776,238 [and counting], according to the CIA World Fact Book, and a third of all these men, women and children are file sharing criminals and thieves, said FACT employee Eddy Leviten in Stopping Digital piracy: Strategy and Tactics, a recent reality-challenged conference staged (word used advisedly) by FACT and Warner Brothers Entertainment, Europe.
Then, “Surfthechannel wins court case against FACT in UK,” said a p2pnet post quoting Mike Masnick in TechDirt.
It went on, “Nick Brett specialises in the defence of FACT prosecutions and copyright offences. It is a tribute to both his determination and ability that he and junior counsel (acting alone) pitted against an entire team from FACT, won this case on behalf of his delighted clients at first instance.
“Source: http://lewisnedas.co.uk/2009/05/high-court-judgement/
“Verdict: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2009/958.html ”
Now, “Last month, we wrote about the lawsuit brought by UK anti-piracy industry group FACT against the company Scopelight and its founders for running a video search engine called Surfthechannel.com,” says a new TechDirt story, continuing
Considering it was simply a video search engine and pointed to content that was both authorized and unauthorized, we wondered how FACT could tell a legit search engine from an illegal one. However, more details on the case are coming to light, and the whole thing seems questionable. Someone, who prefers to remain anonymous, sent along the news that the lawyers for Scopelight have now won the first battle against FACT, and the full decision reveals some rather troubling details about how closely FACT — a private industry group — collaborated with the police in the initial investigation, and then FACT’s own actions after the police investigation concluded.
It’s already troubling enough that a private industry group, involved solely in activities designed to protect a business model, was allowed to work so closely with police in a criminal investigation. FACT alerted the police to potential illegality at Scopelight, which is fine, but from then on FACT was intimately involved in the criminalinvestigation. When the owners of Scopelight, Anton Benjamin Vickerman and his wife Kelly-Anne Vickerman, had their home raided by the police… FACT came along for the investigation. Not only that, but they had their own private investigator copy information from the Vickerman’s computers (exactly what and how much was copied is apparently in dispute).
When the Vickerman’s were questioned by the police, FACT members took part in the questioning.
It seems troubling enough that private industry reps were allowed to be so closely involved in a criminal investigation where they have clear bias, but it gets worse.
The police seized various computers and equipment as part of arresting the Vickerman’s, and then allowed FACT employees to inspect the computers and the information found on them — which, again seems to be granting way too much access to a private group. Then things got even more bizarre: the police gave a bunch of the equipment to FACT to allow FACT to continue to examine the equipment.
A few months after the original raid, investigation and arrest, the police decided that there wasn’t enough for criminal charges, and decided not to prosecute the Vickerman’s. The police told the Vickerman’s their property could be returned, so the Vicerkman’s lawyers contacted FACT asking for the equipment back, at which point FACT refused, claiming it was holding onto the equipment because it was considering bringing a civil suit against the Vickermans — which it eventually did bring.
So beyond the rather stunning close working relationship between the police and a private industry group on a criminal investigation, including handing over evidence to a private party, once the police decided not to prosecute, that private party decided to keep the computer equipment and use it for a civil suit.
“Thankfully, the court has ruled that this latter decision was improper, and the moment the police decided not to prosecute, the equipment should have been returned,” says Mike, adding:
“So while this is a victory for Scopelight, it’s still a rather stunning revelation of how closely integrated a private industry organization is with criminal investigations, and certainly raises questions as to why such a group should get such access.”
Good question, and it’s one we’ve been asking since p2pnet started in 2002.
Because the corporate movie, music and software cartels routinely suborn national and international police and law enforcement agencies, using scarce resources to look after company bidnes — at the expense of local taxpayers, squandering countless hours and millions of dollars which should have been allocated to serving and protecting the people who pay their salaries and expenses.
And no one says a mumblin’ word, least of all the people running the agencies.
Meanwhile, every one of the many and various copyright enforcement units owned and operated by the cartels hire significant numbers of men and women who formerly worked for the police, and other, agencies.
(Cheers, Freda)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
file sharing criminals and thieves – FACT: a third of all Britons are online pirates, November 14, 2008
p2pnet – FACT: Farcical Approaches to CopyrighT, June 27, 2009
TechDirt – Can Someone Please Tell Us How You Determine What’s A ‘Legal’ Search Engine From An ‘Illegal’ One?, June 26, 2009
TechDirt – Why Did UK Anti-Piracy Group FACT Get Computers From A Criminal Investigation… And Keep Them?, July, 2009
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