Your tax dollars at work: local cops now paid with federal money to troll IRC

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/10/your-tax-dollars-at-work-local-cops-now-paid-with-federal-money-to-troll-irc

by mtgx • 14 years ago

56 41 14 years ago

Evbn• 14 years ago

Searching/trawling, not trolling.

Still corrupt, as success is measured by "increased prosecution", not "decreased piracy", which means they have just incentivized an entrapment+framing program. SL PD could make a fortune by pirating IP and arresting some of their customers.

mikeash3• 14 years ago

The meaning of "to fish by trailing a lure or baited hook from a moving boat" far predates the internet version of the word "troll". This is correct, metaphorical usage.

nightpool• 14 years ago

You are definitely confusing the word troll, "A mythical, cave-dwelling being depicted in folklore as either a giant or a dwarf, typically having a very ugly appearance." (OED), with the word trawl: "1 an act of fishing with a trawl net or seine or 2. a thorough search". The parent comment actually mentioned trawling in his post, too, as a alternative Ars could've used.

Symmetry• 14 years ago

When one is creating a headline and one can choose between two words, using the one that isn't confusingly ambiguous is usually the better choice.

waterlesscloud• 14 years ago

My assumption, which dates back to the first time I encountered the word "troll" in its usenet sense, was that it derived from exactly that metaphor.

Trolling for a reaction. Spreading out some chum, setting the line, seeing who bites.

nanodeath• 14 years ago

"Trolling" actually is mostly valid here, by definition (can mean "to search for something"), but I agree this was really confusing at first.

lifeisstillgood• 14 years ago

Many years ago, I earnt a little extra cash as security at large rock concerts. It was not my scene, and I was frankly just standing around. I clearly remember stopping a suspicious clean cut man in his mid forties, wearing ironed jeans and matching denim jacket... In a stadium of 20,000 long haired students in dirty black t-shirts.

He flipped a warrent card at me an angrily said "drugs squad" I hoped our boys in blue also had people who could pass for real - and I suspect the same for any local cops hanging around on IRC. They will stand out like 40 year olds in pressed denim.

jiggy2011• 14 years ago

It's probably difficult to recruit teenage goths and turn them into good narcs.

I imagine he was just there to go for low hanging fruit and was not worried about being a bit conspicuous, probably just nab people who can be seen passing little bags full of white powder between people , in a big enough crowd people aren't going to be able to notice everyone around them anyway.

antidoh2• 14 years ago

> It's probably difficult to recruit teenage goths and turn them into good narcs.

"I Was A Teenage Narc" https://rottenindenmark.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/i-was-a-tee...

aes256• 14 years ago

> It's probably difficult to recruit teenage goths and turn them into good narcs.

It's easy. Bust a teenager for possession of narcotics, then offer them a choice between years behind bars, and acting as an informant busting drug dealers.

See: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/03/120903fa_fact_...

sharkweek• 14 years ago

One of my friends is a 30something county prosecutor, pretty professional in most cases.

He took on the role of interim county drug czar for a few months, which sent him to raves/concerts/etc. We've got a picture of him wearing a "porn star" hat with neon jewelry and a pookah shell necklace; pretty fun to see one of our most professional friends acting out this role.

_red• 14 years ago

In college in the early 90's, suddenly a 40 year old mustached guy started showing up to dorm keg parties.

He wore leather jackets, was overly eager to ask for everyone's phone number, and said things like "lets put on some twisted sister and smoke dope".

This continued for a few weeks, then suddenly he disappeared never to be seen again. Coincidentally, at the same time, one of the local dorm weedheads was busted for intent to distribute (even though in his defense he only liked smoking and only sold to this guy because he begged so much).

So, yes. These guys are so easy to spot its incredible. They are meatheads in most cases.

zacharycohn• 14 years ago

"We have seen—far too often—that IP crimes are not victimless. Not only can they devastate individual lives and legitimate businesses, they also undermine our nation’s financial stability, can jeopardize the health of our citizens, and even threaten our national security."

Really? I'd love to see them name three examples - bonus points if the company was trying to adapt and evolve and innovate instead of clinging to a pre-internet business model.

atacrawl• 14 years ago

bonus points if the company was trying to adapt and evolve and innovate instead of clinging to a pre-internet business model.

I agree with your basic point, but I really hate this argument -- it's a "blame the victim" justification. Companies deserve to have their IP stolen because they aren't adapting to technology that makes it easier for IP to be stolen?

luriel• 14 years ago

When your whole business model is based on government granted and government enforced monopolies, you have very little right to complain IMHO.

legutierr• 14 years ago

IP is a legal fiction created and enforced to further explicit public policy objectives--specifically, to incentivize creativity and to create a safe protected space for innovation. If those public policy objectives are not being met, then continuing to implement IP in its original form is harmful to society as a whole.

In other words, a company that is relying on policies implemented to stimulate economic growth and development a century ago--and is using the power of its protected market position to interfere in the democratic process that might align policy with the economic realities of today--is certainly not any kind of "victim". If there are any victims, they are the people whose true economic potential is being suppressed by the continuing existence of outdated laws.

I'm not advocating for an elimination of IP, but I am saying that IP needs to be reformed in a way that will reduce the wealth of companies and individuals who do cling to a pre-internet business model, and it is right to attack them to the extent that a defense of their interests is preventing a modernization of the laws.

AnthonyMouse2• 14 years ago

> it's a "blame the victim" justification.

I've always been a strong supporter of blaming the victim, precisely because "blaming the victim" is such a popular code phrase which acts to short circuit the process of logical reasoning and leads to a systemic under-blaming of alleged victims even where their alleged victimization is attributable primarily to their own actions.

If there are known strategies to avoid being victimized and particular victims consciously or incompetently forgo them, and the predictable consequence follows, are we really supposed to feel sympathy for those whose own decisions put them where they are?

This goes triple when the alleged "victims" are multibillion dollar international corporations. No industry with enough money and power to buy their own laws can legitimately feel victimized when non-Congressperson-owning individuals violate the laws that they bought.

pyre2• 14 years ago

How much of a 'victim' is Disney if I was to violate the copyright on Steamboat Willy? Is Warner Chappell a 'victim' if I do a public (or private) performance of the "Happy Birthday Song" without paying royalties? How much of a 'victim' is a group of lawyers that bought up a couple of overly-broad patents in a fire sale, if I infringe on their patent for 'A method of displaying pictures of food on a webpage using a computer' without paying any royalties?

antidoh2• 14 years ago

I think this is the recorded media industry using the scourge of fake drugs to rally the roused rabble behind the American occupation of New Zealand and New York.

DanBC• 14 years ago

"Let content producers pay for their own enforcement" - this might be a good method to get companies paying a sensible rate of tax in each country where they operate rather than allowing companies to use semi-legal tax avoidance loopholes.

biff• 14 years ago

Might also be a good way to restock the public domain in the face of virtually unlimited copyright terms, if the holder of those rights became responsible to determine whether the cost of continued protection is worth it for a given work.

ben1040• 14 years ago

Due to an uptick in violent crime, the St Louis police department last month enacted a policy of not sending anyone out to investigate crimes like stolen cars or auto break-ins (and taking reports over the phone instead), because they needed more cops on the street dealing with crimes against people.

That was after one weekend where a 22 year old woman was shot and killed over an iPhone, in addition to several other armed robberies.

You'd think whoever was in charge of awarding this grant would look critically at the situation here in STL and think "gee, this money would be better spent putting cops on the streets fighting crime, rather than behind desks looking for intellectual property infringements."

excid3• 14 years ago

I live in one of the better parts of STL and a woman was killed only 4 blocks from my apartment a few weeks ago. It's definitely becoming more and more of a problem here.

rhizome2• 14 years ago

I live in one of the better parts of San Francisco and a man was killed by an ex-coworker about two blocks from my apartment about 15 years ago. At the time there was a lot of hysteria, but as it turns out it hasn't happened since and so was a freak occurrence rather than an indicator of a trend.

astrodust• 14 years ago

If you're a victim of a crime and want to have it investigated, make sure to mention the assailant tried to kill you with bootleg DVDs or perhaps counterfeit gun.

pyre2• 14 years ago

  > Not only can they devastate individual lives and
  > legitimate businesses, they also undermine our 
  > nation’s financial stability, can jeopardize the
  > health of our citizens, and even threaten our
  > national security.

[citation needed]

Your tax dollars at work: local cops now paid with federal money to troll IRC

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