Australian Police Caught Pirating Movies
A recent audit of computer systems belonging to the South Australia Police has found that hundreds are being used to “share” films. In a move smacking of hypocrisy though, officers involved will not be charged.
According to The Australian, during an audit of computer systems by the South Australian police force’s IT branch, police computers belonging to hundreds of police officers were found to contain movies.
The origin of these movies is not clear, but it is probable that they’ve been downloaded via p2p at some point, either on these systems, or on the personal systems of officers and transferred over.
Senior officials of the SA police force have been made aware of the findings, including its commissioner Mel Hyde. However, police sources have told press that there will not be any investigation into this, citing the large numbers of police officers involved.
The Australian Federation against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has said it will write to the commissioner to seek an explanation, presumably as to why the police officers are being let off with what it considers a heinous crime. Quite ironically, AFACT boasts of “working closely with police” - perhaps this closeness has shown the police officers involved just how unimportant and meaningless this so-called ‘crime’ is in the grand scheme of things.
If the officers do go unpunished, it could create a favorable precedent for filesharers in South Australia. If police officers, who are expected to be held to a greater level of accountability regarding the law, show this level of contempt for the current copyright laws, are unpunished, it will make it harder to convince a court that regular citizen should be punished for similar acts.
On the other hand, if the officers are punished under the law, which allows for upto AUS$60,500 (About US$55,700 or 35,500Euro) per infringement and up to 5 years imprisonment, the ability to effectively police the state will be severely diminished.
Either way, this case will bring to a head the vastly disproportionate penalties for an act that, as yet, has never been proven to be even financially damaging. One thing is certain, when even the police officers join large numbers of citizens in flouting such laws, the law’s place in society should be called into serious question.
The South Australian police force had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
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Lulz
lol
Fuck AFACT (& alla it’s derivatives) &, as NWA so succinctly put it, fuck the police…
;D
Crap, only live in WesternAus.. hope word doesnt spread overseas …. last thing we need is amerikanised companys dictating us.
Lol… owned
As one of my friends so eloquently stated: “I’m moving to Australia.”
‘Nuff said.
Whoops.. our bad!
lol yeah right
GO AUSSIES! :D
Why is this suprising? Most police do illegal activities , worldwide.
LOL
Now i know why unwired sucks
cheers.
Shows how many people arn’t using Peerguardian then. They wouldn’t have been able to connect being donut munchers and all.
Hahaha
I work for the Northern Territory police in Australia and know of guys doing this even as far as the computer crime guys doing it.
Mostly its TV eps we get them 2-4 years later if at all. They wonder why we would download them?!?
[quote comment="333922"]Shows how many people arn’t using Peerguardian then. They wouldn’t have been able to connect being donut munchers and all.[/quote]
As I said, in the entire 3rd paragraph, it’s unclear if they downloaded the films throught he police network, or at home. If the latter, than Peerguardian wouldn’t have worked at all. This is the main reason why it doesn’t work.
There is only one way to have peerguardian actually work, and thats to have it block the range 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255 - anything else just doesn’t stop people, because you never know who’s behind a home IP address. Thats the fatal flaw bluetack’s supporters keep conveniently forgetting. More on this topic through soon.
I have a friend who works at an german police station. He said that the filesharing with external drives etc is even worse than in schools etc.
this just shows how pathetic and unwanted the anti piracy people are
Mostly movies and TV eps…There is a good reason why. Unless it’s a blockbuster movie or TV show/series, Australia won’t get it for anywhere up to 1 month - 5 yrs later. Even if it’s a blockbuster it can on occassion take up to a few months for it to be shown in Australia.
The most popular afternoon soap opera drama in Aus is some american thing, and what’s shown in Aus is 4 yrs behind what is in america.
A number of hollywood movies i’ve been waiting to see in Aus in the last year have been shown in Aus up to 6 months later than not just america, but most of the world. Had to wait 6 months longer than most of the world for a big budget hollywood Jet Li movie to show in Aus. After a few months I just went and downloaded the damn thing in DVD quality before it even reached cinemas in Aus.
Even when we do get them in a reasonable time and can even get the DVDs, who is going to pay upwards of AU$100+ for a boxed set of 3-4 eps of a popular tv series? If you wait a year then maybe you’ll be able to get a whole season of said tv series for the same price…if they still sell the thing
So what? They’re all corrupt anyway. Nothing will be done, they’re police. They get away with anything, including murder. I don’t hold movie sharing against them though. They know that if the law was strictly adhered to, people couldn’t do anything, and so they bend the trivial and push boundaries.
One good thing is when they choose not to prosecute those who they feel acted fairly or appropriately even if against some minor law. This is humaneness and how they live their own lives anyway. For example if some guy raped their daughter they would be shot undoubtedly, but also we may even get away with it, or especially if we only went and punched him out.
AFACT and NZFACT (the new zealand version) do just about as much as the cops if anyone here was to get a letter most would probly laugh it off then when the cops came round they would be chased off with a crate beer in hand no one cares about copyright here as we only have maybe 5 movies that are worth pirating (3 lord of the rings king kong and good bye pork pie) its treated as a joke
Lmao, instant classic.
Hope them filesharing pigs get away with it ;)
Everyone in SA does it anyway as this shows. It keeps the ISPs in business and DVD hirers don’t care, as they get more business from hiring out. So it’s good for all concerned. It’s good advertising too and all those who can’t download or copy a DVD or can’t be bothered, or who can afford it, will see it at a theatre or buy the DVD if it’s good enough, but that’s limited to the wealthy, as they’re like $AU40 or so ($US36) or 30 euros, and piratted ones are near impossible to find for the average person.
I’ve been to South Australia and Im not surprised…you can even smoke weed there…
[quote comment="334003"]I’ve been to South Australia and Im not surprised…you can even smoke weed there…[/quote]
ahahahaa NO!!
marijuana is illegal throughout Australia in any shape or form. You are not allowed to have any part of the plant at all and you can be issued on the spot fines for the tiniest substance. It’s not even legal for medicinal use
I already hear the AFUCK spin doctors going like “Hey let’s promote the idea that file sharing is endangering national security! Imagine, we take out the police force, who actually deserved it. Who’s gonna protect us from the really evil people?”
Just curious as to how many movies were being shared. And when it comes down to any illegal activity that was done the So. Aussie police were sharing. Bottom line: They’re all guilty of sharing. If they can get off so should all p2p users. Freedom and justice for all. Nuff said.
[quote comment="334034"][quote comment="334003"]I’ve been to South Australia and Im not surprised…you can even smoke weed there…[/quote]
ahahahaa NO!!
marijuana is illegal throughout Australia in any shape or form. You are not allowed to have any part of the plant at all and you can be issued on the spot fines for the tiniest substance. It’s not even legal for medicinal use[/quote]
You obviously have no idea what the law is :)
http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/NDARCWeb.nsf/resources/NDARCFact_Drugs4/file/CANNABIS+AND+THE+LAW+FACT+SHEET.pdf
or if you can’t be bothered clicking on he link:
SA (1987) 100gram plant / 20 grams resin / 1 plant allowed.
ACT (1992) 25 gram plant / 2 plants allowed.
NT (1996) 50 grams plant / 10 grams resin / 1 gram oil / 2 plants allowed.
WA (2004) 30 grams plant / 2 plants.
Hey! The link doesn’t work! This one does:
http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/NDARCWeb.nsf/resources/NDARCFact_Drugs4/file/CANNABIS+AND+THE+LAW+FACT+SHEET.pdf
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