Anti-Piracy PI Talks About Building Cases Against File-Sharers 109
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.'"
Creative accounting (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Creative accounting (Score:0, Interesting)
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:
...
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.
But it works because you were starting from a BS premise, that you have to justify your individual actions to society as a whole. You don't: if you want to ride a bike, that's your right, end of story.