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Crime DRM Government Music

$11M Worth of Legally-Purchased Music Will Be Confiscated From Florida's Prisoners (tampabay.com) 309

An anonymous reader quotes the Tampa Bay Times: In April last year, the Florida Department of Corrections struck a deal with JPay. The private company, spearheading a push to sell profit-driven multimedia tablets to incarcerated people across the country, would be allowed to bring the technology to every facility in the nation's third-largest prison system. But there was a catch. Inmates had already been purchasing electronic entertainment for the last seven years -- an MP3 player program run by a different company: Access Corrections. For around $100, Access sold various models of MP3 players that inmates could then use to download songs for $1.70 each, and keep them in their dorms.... More than 30,299 players were sold, and 6.7 million songs were downloaded over the life of the Access contract, according to the Department of Corrections. That's about $11.3 million worth of music.

Because of the tablets, inmates will have to return the players, and they can't transfer the music they already purchased onto their new devices... The Department of Corrections, meanwhile, has collected $1.4 million in commissions on each song downloaded and other related sales since July 2011... JPay already operates banking accounts and facilitates phone calls at the state-run prisons, charging inmates and their loved ones steep fees for the services. With the introduction of tablets, JPay will add a wide swath of new spending incentives for its incarcerated customers, offering purchases of music, emailing and other virtual fare.

As a compromise, prison officials offered to download the already-purchased music to a CD, and then mail that CD to someone outside the prison. For a $25 fee.
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$11M Worth of Legally-Purchased Music Will Be Confiscated From Florida's Prisoners

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  • Sounds like (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08, 2018 @01:37PM (#57276302)

    the wrong people are in prison.

  • Nice scam, again (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08, 2018 @01:40PM (#57276306)

    How is it that being incarcerated time and again turns out to make you a legal target for scamming?

    This is stupid on so many levels. The simplest of which is that if you want to correct inmates' behaviour, it does make a difference what sort of example you're setting. Or hire others to set.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08, 2018 @01:50PM (#57276360)

      People want revenge. They want to see the inmates suffer. It is petty and wrong, and speaks worlds about the kind of people we are.

      But that inclination is what allows this sort of thing to happen.

      • And how many say and believe that they are "good Christians" who never seem to have gottn the whole point of what Christ taught. Among other things you will find Romans 12:19 "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." (It's also in Deuteronomy for the Old testament followers. I suspect Paul found it there and repeated it.)
        • by dryeo ( 100693 )

          Wasn't it Gandhi who said something like "I like your Christ but not his followers"

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday September 08, 2018 @01:46PM (#57276338)
    it's that nobody cares. For one thing politicians are terrified being soft on them will backfire ever since Willie Horton [google.com]. And to be blunt "tough on crime" plays very well with the dog whistle crowd while disproportionately impacting the poor. As an added bonus incarcerating all those people takes them out of the voter poll (usually permanently, since most states make it really hard to get your rights back). That puts a lot of political pressure on politicians to come down like a ton of bricks.

    Me? It's 2018 for God's sake. There is no excuse for punishment anymore. We're adults. Either rehabilitate the person or keep them locked up and in reasonable comfort until they die. Vengeance has no place in a modern society, if for no other reason than it will eventually be turned on us all.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Well said. Unfortunately a lot of people are not even a bit enlightened and are deeply stuck in the dark ages of violence.

    • by Falos ( 2905315 )

      We pretend to be a modern society, but we hardly have an enlightened population. Most of us are still shallow puppets easily manipulated by our primal urges.

      Ask any marketing group. Ask the music industry about their focus on "image". Consider the other fears/desires exploited in political campaigns. Consider the long-standing patterns (and the narrower short-term trends) you can observe in our countless hookup apps, without even being on the other side of the server. Consider that, not long ago, capital pu

    • by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 ) on Saturday September 08, 2018 @02:27PM (#57276498)

      > There is no excuse for punishment anymore.

      I'm afraid there is an enormous number of excuses for punishment. There are also some psychologically and legally supported reasons for it. The fear of consequences is a very real deterrent to many types of crime and abuse, even though it is not completely effective.

      • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday September 08, 2018 @02:48PM (#57276616)
        we make the laws. We decide what is legal. When you say that you're just leaning on the authority granted by the word "legal".

        As for psychology, in children yes. Because their ability to reason isn't fully developed. But if you're dealing with an entity who's reasoning ability isn't developed then punishing them is obviously morally wrong because they're not in full control of their actions. OTOH if you're dealing with a being who's reasoning ability _is_ fully developed (or very nearly, since the brain develops into you're mid 20s) then there are much, much more effective ways to prevent that entity from doing "bad things". That is what is meant by rehabilitation. And that's before we start talking about prevention. Remember, it's always cheaper to drop food than bombs.

        Punishment has two reasons to exist. First, some folks just like people to suffer. And not for the reasons you're thinking. Animals have an innate understanding of 'fairness'. Most people suffer some for their mistakes. When people give into their animal brain and stop reasoning they want others to suffer for their mistakes. I saw this first hand with a buddy of mine who's LGBTQ. She was upset that the young'uns didn't have to suffer like she did (she was bullied by her teachers in addition to students. Pretty f'd up actually).

        As for the second reason, well, punishment is _cheap_. In a society with limited resources we can't afford to lock up the crazies and give them decent food and Playstations. Instead you make chain gains and forced labor camps and feed them the worst food possible. Well, economically we're past that. We could solve these problems anytime we want. Right now we don't.

        Oh, and at least for murder fear of consequences doesn't factor into that. It's been shown repeatedly that the death penalty is worse than a non-deterrent. It actively encourages people to kill as they've got nothing left to lose and you might as well get rid of the witnesses. Where I am there was a pizza joint robbed a few decades ago where the employees were shot execution style because the crooks were repeat offenders and they knew if they got caught they'd die in prison. That's what your deterrent gets you..
      • by Ichijo ( 607641 )

        Isn't being locked up until you're cured deterrent enough?

        In fact, isn't it more of a deterrent than being released when your time is up even if you haven't reformed?

        • by grif_91 ( 1674902 ) on Saturday September 08, 2018 @09:16PM (#57278046)
          Like several people posting in this thread, I have served time in prison (four years). I can tell you that in a perfect world, where people who are rehabilitated and ready for society are released promptly, that makes some amount of sense. But you may or may not be aware, we do not live in a perfect world. A good anecdotal response is this. During my tenure as a guest of the state, I met a man in his mid to late 50s or so, who I have no doubt was rehabilitated and not a danger to society. He was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for first degree murder. He had been in prison since he was 20 years old. During his time in prison, he had gotten his GED, volunteered extensively with the prisonâ(TM)s chapel, learned Spanish for the sole purpose of teaching English to Spanish speakers in the prisonâ(TM)s education program, tutored GED students (as did I), written a series of childrenâ(TM)s books (being sold on Amazon now), and has taken every possible college course offered through the prisonâ(TM)s partnership with a local community college. Iâ(TM)ve never heard him utter a cross word to anyone, and he has never had any disciplinary actions against him since his incarceration. The parole board has denied him parole 3 times, stating he is not yet rehabilitated. The way the board works, they donâ(TM)t have to provide justification, they just deny. And do you know what he murdered another man for? That man raped his little sister. The American populous needs to realize that the justice system in this country often does not provide justice, and in a country that has 4% of the worlds population, and 25% of its incarcerated population, everyone is affected in some way, or they soon will be.
          • by Ichijo ( 607641 )

            Prisons have no incentive to rehabilitate and release, only to keep people locked up and collect the rent.

            • Certainly, rehabilitation is not their _only_ mandate. But they are certainly judged and fiscally rewarded for it. And prison staff often, even normally, develop some emotional relationships with their inmates. It can be abusive, but these relationships can also be therapeutic, even becoming a sense of community or a sense of family.

      • by epine ( 68316 )

        The fear of consequences is a very real deterrent to many types of crime and abuse, ...

        How do you prove that?

        Do we still have one foot firmly planted in the (inaptly named) wives' tale era? Or is this merely a handy tautology from the "starvation leads to reliable weight loss" school of inapplicable insight?

        I agree that most people don't wish to have an orange jumpsuit in their employment history. Beyond that, the dose-response relationship to incarceration is anyone's guess. Sure, you can produce a short-t

        • > argues layer after layer after layer that humanity has systematically overvalued the punitive signal for behaviour modification

          There is a significant behavior between this and idea that punishment does not work. That punishment can be, and has been, overused in some circumstances is not in question. There are numerous papers, such as this one from the American Psychiatric Association, http://www.apa.org/news/press/... [apa.org]. There is also this publication from the National Institute of Justice on the effecti

    • by Raenex ( 947668 )

      And to be blunt "tough on crime" plays very well with the dog whistle crowd while disproportionately impacting the poor.

      If you've ever been mugged or had your residence broken into you might feel differently, regardless of your income.

      • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

        If you've ever been mugged or had your residence broken into you might feel differently, regardless of your income.

        You mean you're willing to judge a whole race by the actions of a single person committing a B&E? How very non-tiki-torch burning of you.

        • by Raenex ( 947668 )

          You mean you're willing to judge a whole race by the actions of a single person committing a B&E? How very non-tiki-torch burning of you.

          You mean you're willing to make everything about race, when I was talking about criminals? Do you think only blacks are criminals? Why are you so racist? I guess that explains why you see racism everywhere.

    • by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Saturday September 08, 2018 @04:21PM (#57277078) Journal

      Me? It's 2018 for God's sake. There is no excuse for punishment anymore. We're adults.

      It's the new/old plan. Some people want to take the USA back to the days before 1863, but with some improvements. Here is the gameplan:
      1. Pass laws to make several harmless activities illegal.
      2. Incarcerate people under the above laws (bonus if the implementation of those laws tends to disproportionately incarcerate darker-skinned people)
      3. Obtain the benefits of slavery of the incarcerated people.
      4. Get the middle class to pay for the housing costs that in pre-1863 days the slave owner would have to pay.

    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      It's not clear that "rehabilitation" is possible. I don't think it's ever really been studied.

      OTOH, it's also not clear that if people have a chance, rehabilitation is necessary. Most people really don't want to be outcasts. Some people just don't see that they have any choice in the matter. Often their perceptions seem to be correct.

      OTOH, when hiring someone for a position of trust, I'd almost always prefer people who didn't have a valid reason to not trust them.

  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday September 08, 2018 @02:03PM (#57276406)

    It's theft too. I hope the bastards get sued.

  • by GerryGilmore ( 663905 ) on Saturday September 08, 2018 @02:23PM (#57276486)
    ...it does not even come close to the organized scam that is prison phone calls. It's nothing more than legalized theft and - NO! - just because you are incarcerated does not mean that you should be subjected to this kind of crap.
  • And the law won.

  • I hope someone files a lawsuit and wins. Florida state government is a continual disgrace under Rick Scott.

    • I hope someone files a lawsuit and wins. Florida state government is a continual disgrace under Rick Scott.

      I don't know anything about Florida's government, but this sounds like a case tailor-made for a class action lawsuit. The fact that the Dept. of Corrections made money off of the song sales makes it a slam dunk, regardless of what unenforceable language was in the original user/inmate agreement. I don't think they can arbitrarily cancel previously purchased licenses like this, in favor of some new for-profit scheme. I hope someone pursues this, and I hope they win, because the concept and existence of incar

  • Your prison system is fucked. If anyone reads TFS and does not see how broken and inhuman this is, then you are as well. Bye

  • ... like all the other state prison systems, is responsible for the fucked up legal mess that provides corporate slaves.

  • There can be no public taking without compensation. The prisoners paid for the players, and paid for .the digital rights. They can perhaps confiscate and store them, but not steal them from the prisoners. And the value, well the prison contracts set that. $100 for the player and $1.70 for each song purchased. The songs don’t depreciate. Bits are bits. The state legislature should get involved, as should the prisoner advocate organization. This is purely profit motivated move on the prisons part.
  • Timothy Hoey, the assistant warden, did not deny the financial incentives at play in his response to Freeman, saying that it was "not feasible to download content from one vendor’s device to another, not only due to incompatibility reasons, but the download of content purchased from one vendor to another vendor’s device would negate the new vendor’s ability to be compensated for their services."

  • Seriously, Florida is the shithole of the world. A bunch of cracker ass morons voting for cracker ass morons to treat black people and other minorities like shit. Hey kids, wanna go to Disney World? Then I'm disowning your stupid asses. Go get eating by a fucking alligator. No wonder Trump loves that place so much. It must feel like how his brain works, like a steaming pile of shit mixed in with grinding gears and Yoko Ono music.

  • There is no excuse for this because there is a way to do it right. The state is not properly representing the prisoners in this negotiation and really has nothing to lose in doing so unless they are getting a kickback.

    If jpay wants the contract, they should be agreeable to a limited period of exchange of existing licenses for new licenses on their system. It's a reasonable cost of doing business. The state should just write that into the contract, along with making the contract long to help make the cost wo

  • This represents a more fundamental problem with society. We're getting used to the idea that intellectual property is licensed and sold as a service, and that license can be revoked at any time without legal consequence. Almost all digital products are "sold" under the EULA terms that you have a right to use it until you don't, and the license is perpetual until it's not. It's madness.

    The real issue here is not that prisoners are being treated unfairly. It's that, in most cases of licensed properly, it'

  • It's important to teach prisoners that property rights are bullshit and that fraud is perfectly acceptable. Glad they're on top of that. There's nothing like making people work for something then taking it away to ensure they don't bother trying to do things right in the future.

    If our corrections/rehabilitation system can't follow the basic rules of ethics, why would they expect anyone else to?

  • The 13th Amendment to the constitution states:

    Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

    Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

    As one can see the the exact same sentence which outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude, which are held to be interchangeable terms, legalizes slavery and involuntary servitude for those parties duly convicted- ie. prisoners of the state.

    The primary economic justification for slavery in modern times boils down to this: where labor is free, ie. unpaid for due to being forced involuntary servitude, the only capital cost involved in production cost is w

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