MediaSentry & RIAA Expert Under Attack 273
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Jammie Thomas, the defendant in Duluth, Minnesota, RIAA case Capitol Records v. Thomas, has served her expert witness's report. The 30-page document (PDF), prepared by Prof. Yongdae Kim of the Computer Science Department of the University of Minnesota, attacks the reports and testimony of Prof. Doug Jacobson, the RIAA's expert, and the work of the RIAA's investigator, Safenet (formerly known as MediaSentry). Among other things, Dr. Kim termed MediaSentry's methods 'highly suspect,' debunked Dr. Jacobson's 'the internet is like a post office' analogy, explained in detail how FastTrack works, explored a sampling of the types of attacks to which the defendant's computer may have been subjected, accused Jacobson of making 'numerous misstatements,' and concluded that 'there is not one but numerous possible explanations for the evidence presented during this trial. Throughout the report I demonstrate possibilities not considered by the plaintiff's expert witness in his evaluation of the evidence...' Additionally, he concluded, 'MediaSentry has a strong record of mistakes when claiming that particular IP addresses were the origins of copyright infringement. Their lack of transparency, lack of external review, and evidence of inadequate error checking procedures [put] into question the authenticity and validity of the log files and screenshots they produced.'"
Re:RIAA will fall soon. (Score:3, Funny)
So the massive RIAA layoffs aren't happening?
Re:Red? (Score:5, Funny)
I understand that the RIAA is a popular target here, but why was this article shown in bright red when I came here a moment ago? I've read Slashdot for years and I've never seen that...
Either
(a)it was because it was one of the best written articles ever in the history or internet journalism, or
(b) all the articles start out red -- during which time they are visible only to people with paid up subscriptions.
I prefer to think it was the former, but am pretty sure it was the latter.
Re:Make NewYorkCountryLawyer an Editor (Score:1, Funny)
Unbiased editors? You must be new here!
Re:Make NewYorkCountryLawyer an Editor (Score:5, Funny)
If you'd like to have a great editor with a great conflict of interest, then yes, he should be an editor. Otherwise leave it to people who don't submit stories.
I wouldn't have to decide whether to accept or reject the stories I submit. I could just reject them mentally, before I write them, and save myself the work.
Re:Red? (Score:2, Funny)
green != blue
Re:Make NewYorkCountryLawyer an Editor (Score:3, Funny)
If you'd like to have a great editor with a great conflict of interest, then yes, he should be an editor.
Wasn't that Jon Katz?
Oh wait... you said "great".
Never mind.
Re:Why are they attacking him? (Score:4, Funny)
You're assuming that everyone pirating, or even just a significant percentage of them, would have purchased the music otherwise.
No, I'm not. The GP was.
He implied that the majority of pirates only pirated in order to obtain a DRM-free copy of the music. The iTunes example provides ample evidence that it just isn't the case.
I'm not against piracy. I'm only against the rationalizations of many who engage in it.
Re:Thank you, NYCL! (Score:4, Funny)
Damn suspicious, this bias towards reality.
Re:Red? (Score:2, Funny)
He's color blind, you insensitive clod!
Re:Make NewYorkCountryLawyer an Editor (Score:4, Funny)
If you'd like to have a great editor with a great conflict of interest, then yes, he should be an editor.
Otherwise leave it to people who don't submit stories.
I wouldn't have to decide whether to accept or reject the stories I submit. I could just reject them mentally, before I write them, and save myself the work.
You could write some crap submissions, auto-approve them, then sue us when fewer and fewer people read them!
Captn to gunnery officer: (Score:3, Funny)
Gunny: "Aye,aye cap'n!"
Capn: "And stand ready to reload. I think it's gonna take more than just a few rounds!"
Re:owned. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:owned. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Duh? (Score:4, Funny)
Darn you, HP Laser Jet! I told you not to do that!
Re:owned. (Score:3, Funny)
He surrenders.
Re:owned. (Score:4, Funny)
You can't cross-examine a computer.
This is not true. I do this regularly and with great success. Agreed, it takes a bit of physical contact, but they all respond.
After some screaming and raging, pointing a bright light in its direction, and finally some slapping around, the Vista desktop responds with a blue screen.
The Linux laptop is a bit tougher but in the end still either goes into a comatose retreat, freezing X Window System, or shows its black&white console and dumps kernel.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Make NewYorkCountryLawyer an Editor (Score:3, Funny)
You could write some crap submissions, auto-approve them, then sue us when fewer and fewer people read them!
Hey, that should have been a numbered list ending in "Profit!". You also left out the "???" step.
Re:owned. (Score:3, Funny)
The pretzel was taken out and shot by secret service officials.