India's Cops Meet Technology 393
TopherTG writes "Do cops told to seize computers to return only with monitors, stapling pirated floppies together or arresting CEOs for their customer's crimes sound familiar? It would in India. Wired is running a rather humorous article on the minglings between cops and techies."
Sounds like... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sounds like... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sounds like... (Score:3, Informative)
Taj simile = Good Thing!? (Score:4, Insightful)
The Taj Mahal is a TOMB!
Re:Taj simile = Good Thing!? (Score:4, Informative)
The Taj Mahal is a TOMB!
The Taj Mahal draws in a ton of foreign tourists. In that respect, their IT industry plays a similar role but with foreign businesses.
Re:Sounds like... (Score:3, Insightful)
Familiar? Yep! (Score:5, Insightful)
Do cops [...] arresting CEOs for their customer's crimes sound familiar?
Why yes. It sounds like torrent tracker sites, which host no files, being taken down for the crimes of their users.
Re:Familiar? Yep! (Score:2)
Some tracker sites had sections laid out specifically for copyrighted material (ie sections called "Games - Xbox"). This article mentions a child porn posting put up by a user who, by agreeing with the TOS, stated the item was legal. The eBay site did not have a section designed by the admins called "Child Porn".
Hate to play Devil's advocate here, but these are entirely different things.
Linking != Distributing (Score:2, Interesting)
The fact that, since the D
Different Kinds of Links (Score:2)
We're both kind of guilty of only targetting a particular part of each others' arguments. When you used "linking," I think you were referring exclusively to the direct linking to files, specifically torrent files whereas I initially responded thinking "link to a website" as in the DeCSS case and 2600 and probably didn't properly fix things up to show that I was thinkin
Re:Wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
Can I now be charged with distributing also? What amount do you charge me with selling? How ever much he has with him or how ever much he sold since I told you where he was? What if I use different wording to describe the exact same thing.
CAUTION, I saw the idiot with a red hat at the corner of 15th and K selling crack, he must be stopped, please avoid him at all costs and call the cops!!! Can I be charged for that also? I still told you where you could get it.
The law is not as cut and dry as you think it is.
Re:Wrong (Score:3, Funny)
Even more strangely, some of them asked me if I would sell my red hat!
Lots and Lots of wrong. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Lots and Lots of wrong. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Lots and Lots of wrong. (Score:2)
A possible, if not bulletproof defense... provided you remove the .torrent file when requested by the copyright holder. If you refuse, you'll need a skilled lawyer for any meaningful defense-- that old "aiding and abetting" issue again.
Advice to the Indian Authorities: (Score:5, Funny)
The best way to search for Hard Disks and other media is with a large and very powerful magnet.
Make sure you download an entire copy of the Internet so you can be sure that what you find is indeed illegal.
Oh, and bounce the computer case around a little bit on the way back to the station. It'll kill any computer bugs still in the system.
your welcome.
Re:Advice to the Indian Authorities: (Score:2)
No wonder they're confused. (Score:5, Funny)
You start mixing those up and no telling what might happen.
Garg
What did happen (Score:5, Funny)
You start mixing those up and no telling what might happen.
Add a construction worker and a sailor and you might end up ruining every school dance in the country.
Re:What did happen (Score:2)
God, I hope not. Traditional Indian dancing is very beautiful. I'd hate to see us start exporting the freakin' village people.
What next, Gonesh in a Nike ad?
From Simpsons (Score:2)
IN THE NAAAAAAAAVYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
and there was from what I recall an american indian , a cowboy and Smithers! That's close enough. I dare not to imagine what would happend if we added cops and robbers
Re:No wonder they're confused. (Score:2)
With a name like that, I can't tell if he's italian or japanese.
This reminds me of the Made in Japan (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, let's laugh at the silly Indians and their computer inexperience, while they start grabbing more and more outsourced IT jobs.
India today != Japan in the 1960s (Score:5, Insightful)
Japan has been, since the Shogunate, a pretty centralized operation and a land mass about equal to that of California. It has one ethnic group, Okinawans and other tiny minorities aside. Until the arrival of missionaries, the dominant religions (Shintoism and Buddhism) got along ok. By contrast, India is a large nation with many languages, violently opposing religions (Hinduism and Islam).
Americans see the (academically speaking) creme de la creme of India, and sometimes we forget that most of India, both in land mass and population, is third world. Look at a street in Tokyo, then look at one in Calcutta. If that isn't a big enough contrast, just look down. Better yet, just take a deep breath and smell. Japan was able to do what it did, IMHO, because it was able to educate and modernize itself quickly and pervasively. Whether India can do that, or even if it is willing to do that (They throw away their best engineers, who graduated from a massive, publicly-funded university system! Does this sound like a sane government to you?), remains to be seen.
Re:This reminds me of the Made in Japan (Score:3, Insightful)
Contrast this to the first-world countries where students have grow up with top of the line systems. Elementary students learn typing at the same time they learn how to write. And where high school students already kno
Re:This reminds me of the Made in Japan (Score:2)
Yeah, todays programmers grew up with computers in there schools. Right. Computers in my area weren't in schools until the mid 80s and they were Apple IIgs. I was never "formally" taught how to type until 7th grade (22 years old now).
This could pan out to be very interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This could pan out to be very interesting (Score:2)
Siezed Information (Score:3, Insightful)
2. Department computers siezed by Indian government containing US customer info.
3. Indian government now has full access to the detailed financial, demographic and medical information of US citizens.
4. Profit! (Score:4, Funny)
And tax returns (Score:2)
Re:And tax returns (Score:2)
All ten are in the US, last I checked.
Sounds Familiar. (Score:2)
See this article [www.cbc.ca], which says:
Shortly after his report, the povincia
Re:Siezed Information (Score:2)
Except that according to TFA, they'd just seize the monitors, anyhow. The data would still be safe.
Obligatory Zoolander Reference (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Zoolander Reference (Score:5, Funny)
Humorous? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't find an ignorant police force beating confessions out of people with a belt that humorous.
Michael. [michael-forman.com]
Re:Humorous? (Score:2, Interesting)
I think I could find examples of ignorant, brutal or corrupt police officers in any country you care to name in less than two minutes. What's your point here, apart from India-bashing?
Re:Humorous? (Score:2)
No? I didn't think so.
Re:Humorous? (Score:4, Interesting)
You are correct.
The slashdot tagline suggests a "humorous" story but if you read the article it talks about an ignorant police force (unable to use ATM machines or a computers) beating confessions out of people with a belt. I do not find this humorous. Also, my remarks have absolutely nothing to do with India.
Michael. [michael-forman.com]
Re:Humorous? (Score:2)
Re:Humorous - where? (Score:2)
Beating followed by Hiring (Score:2)
I agree that police brutality is not funny. But in the next paragraph, we learn that both people involved were subsequently hired. I know it's not ironic because nothing on Slashdot is allowed to be, but it is incongruous.
*WHAM* *THUD* *pained groan*
"So, we'd like to tender an offer for employment. The physical abuse was just some playful hazing and the people ordering it have been sacked, drawn and quartered."
Suggestion (Score:5, Funny)
seems like a weak argument (Score:3, Interesting)
that seems like a pretty weak argument. granted a non-computer user (read: cop) may not be able to tell a harddrive from a computer case (still synonymous to some people), that doesn't mean that he can't be given instructions on it. I doubt cops *always* know what they are dealing with but that's what makes their job interesting.
i don't know how a car works yet i still use it on a daily basis.
I can help you with the car thing... (Score:2, Funny)
Hope this helps!
Re:seems like a weak argument (Score:2)
Re:seems like a weak argument (Score:2)
Maybe, but could you identify if a part for your car was legit or from a chopshop? Being able to click an icon and check your email is "using" a computer, but it doesn't really qualify you for a position in computer forensics.
Re:seems like a weak argument (Score:5, Insightful)
Guess what? There's already such a unit in place (at least in Mumbai). Quoth the article:-
"It was a triumph for the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell after the public embarrassment of having its own website defaced."
Recent articles in Indian newspapers have also mentioned some very good successes by the Cyber Crime Cell.
Another thing: The belt-beating sadly is very commonplace and IMHO, is very mild compared to the other police brutality incidents. However, in all fairness, there is a bit of background behind this. Mumbai has always been know as the organized crime capital of India, and with very good reason. In a country where gun related violence is quite rare, Mumbai was going crazy with a spate of shootings.
In response to this, the mayor, police chief, and the top brass decided to wage war on organized crime. Their MO was simple: Catch the buggers, shoot them dead, and call it an "encounter" death. In fact, the "encounter" squad of the Mumbai police was so successful that they completely broke the back of most of the major crime syndicates. My point of this digression being that this official acceptance of police violence does have a trickle down effect.
Another aspect to the excessive violence is that in India, the majority of the crime commited is petty in nature and the thieves are often dirt poor compulsives. Very often, the police simply decide to give the common thief a "sound thrashing", lock them up for a couple of days, and then release them. They don't have much experience with white-collared criminals and don't have a clue of how they should behave with them.
It's easy to ridicule something that seems very quaint or barbaric. A lot of it is justified as well. However, please also realize that social systems in different countries often have a history of their own. Usually, these are borne out of good reasons, and they only seem barbaric today because the reasons have become outdated.
Having said this, i do shudder to get into the wrong side of the law in India, especially in the really backward states like Bihar or UP. Which reminds me, back when i was in high school, a couple of friends of mine were caught drunk driving by the Delhi police. They were made to squat frog-legged with 2 heavy bricks on their backs! All night. Now, that's a backache for you!
Re:seems like a weak argument (Score:2)
The cops then come in, walk right past the people smoking dope and drag the kid with the playboy out.
Re:seems like a weak argument (Score:2)
No, that's like saying if a cop doesn't know what kiddie porn is or about the kinds of illegal drugs that he can't stop them. This is a matter of the cop having familiarity with something, not knowing how it works.
~sarcasam~Those Poor backwareds people~sarcasam~ (Score:5, Insightful)
In other news:
Those goofy Westerns who cant even figure out how to use a non-western toilet in the rest of the world!
Video at 10:00
Re:~sarcasam~Those Poor backwareds people~sarcasam (Score:5, Insightful)
It isn't irrelevant to them. It is their job to know what they are doing, and they don't.
They are trying to enforce old school rules in a way that doesn't make sense in modern times.
Re:~sarcasam~Those Poor backwareds people~sarcasam (Score:2)
Video at 10:00
Ummm.. I would hate to be exposed to video of people failing at using a squat toilet.
Re: (Score:2)
I bet (Score:4, Funny)
Nothing wrong with Stapling Floppies (Score:2, Interesting)
...so long as you do it right. 5 1/4 " floppies are square, the media inside is circlular.
The surface area of the floppy is about 27.5 square inches. The circular media is inscribed within the square, and can be no bigger than 21.5 square inches.
That leaves about 6 square inches that is safe for stapling.
Hmmm... about 6 inches... where have I heard that before?
The issue is not stupidity (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally I think this is just a transient period while the country adjusts. What will happen down the road? Probably even wider economic disparity.
Re:The issue is not stupidity (Score:2, Interesting)
It's amazing how a society can have such stark contrasts.
Re:The issue is not stupidity (Score:2, Insightful)
You misspelled 'the United States'.
Re:The issue is not stupidity (Score:5, Insightful)
Just in case you werent and are a clueless fuck, then allow me to retort..
I dont think much of the nuclear weapons program but I agree its necessary evil. I am not for another arms race which India cannot afford, but anything to keep its neighbours in arms length aint bad.
As for the space program, you understand you are talking about a program which is homegrown and sustained wholly by solid state boosters which were built in India, using its own technology because US pressured Russia in to saying no when we needed it. So we built our own. So there..
Hitech voting equipment in India is a misnomer. What we have is quite low tech, heck, it doesnt even have a touch screen, but what it has is a low cost solution which more than meets the needs of our election. And you know what, it fucking works. And we have failsafes in place if something goes wrong. What about yours?
As far as the Tsunami is concerned, India was the first one to say no when aid was offered. India had around 500$ million in the Prime Minister's relief fund and told countries offering aid to instead give it to the nations who could cope with the disaster. Now thats what make me proud of who I am. We can take care of our own.
So please, I sincerely hope you were trolling on this fine Thursday afternoon. If you werent.. well ignorance is not curable.
Re:The issue is not stupidity (Score:2)
True. (Score:2)
The issue is ignorance. Ignorance is oft curable. Stupidity is for life. The permanance of poverty you may take on faith [bible.cc] or not.
Re:The issue is not stupidity (Score:2)
Surely what is important is a reduction in absolute poverty?
Re:The issue is not stupidity (Score:2)
That sounds like Bush wisdom.
Re:The issue is not stupidity (Score:2)
Although I was thinking of absolute poverty in a more Rawlsian sense - i.e. the position of the poorest in society.
On reflection, I disagree with the contention that India is becoming more unequal; it has always had the super-rich (the Tatas and the former maharajas). With the growth of the middle class, wealth is being spread from the 1% to the 10%. Of course it is also important to raise the standard o
Re: The issue is not stupidity (Score:2)
Remember, the two are different [plexoft.com], no matter how many people use the terms interchangeably; and the former is perfectly understandable and often excusable if you don't compound it with the latter.
Re:The issue is not stupidity (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in India. All Indians don't work for US outsourcing tech companies. In fact, a very small minority of us do. And we did have money before the 'west' started 'infusing money' into our 'economy'. And most people dont give a fuck about outsourcing. Most people aren't even aware of the outsourcing inudstry. And outsourcing hasn't made IT workers rich - it has just put them in the upper middle class. And the poor, lower class, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class and the rich existed in almost the same percentages as now, before IBM created the first PC. Outsourcing is a microscopic part of our economic history.
Or, if you just want to stay in your dream, before the outsourcing industry graced us, we were all snake-charmers riding elephants and we had never seen money or a calculator.
Re:The issue is not stupidity (Score:3, Interesting)
Granted some of the things mentioned in the article like politicians not knowing that the internet is a viable business opportunity are laughable, I still belie
stapled floppies? (Score:2)
Re:stapled floppies? (Score:2)
It's likely some bullshit anecdote. The rest of the article is filled with similar hyperbole.
Faked story. (Score:3, Insightful)
This is just a racist jab at "those comical brown fellows".
Re:Faked story. (Score:3, Funny)
While I was in the Midwest to attend a wedding this past August, I took an extra week to visit dear old mom and dad. The small midwestern town they live in still uses 8-inch, 5.25-inch, and 3.5-inch floppies, as well as zip disks and CDs for data, at least in city hall and the public library. I don't think it's ever occurred to anyone to media-shift, so they keep most if not all of their older machines around
Re:Faked story. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would you think that? We're talking about a country where the average citizen earns $450 a year. If the average person is able to afford a computer, then it's not going to be a top of the line system.
This is just a racist jab at "those comical brown fellows".
This was a jab not based on racism. Nothing was brought up on their skin color. There was no defamation of their nationality. The article talked about the courts, the police, and the law and nothing else.
If you want to find anything negative, it was a jab at the power structure of a poor country trying to regulate something they know nothing about because they can't afford the equipment. It was a jab at them being poor.
Re:Faked story. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Faked story. (Score:2)
Floppies and floppy drives were used for 25+ years. There are plenty of them still floating around out there in perfect working condition.
Also, what makes you think that a third-world person earning $450 a year would buy a computer brand new?
Not to mention that you can't fit a single application on a floppy that's in any way modern.
People work with what they have. Why would they want the newest version of Office when it'd take
Re:Faked story. (Score:2)
I've lived all over the US and I have to say it depends on where you live. When I lived in Texas, racism was so prevalent that white people often and openly referred to black people as niggers. However, in all the six years that I've lived in Seattle, I haven't heard the term once.
Overblown, but I doubt it's faked (Score:2)
On the one hand, it is possible to staple 3.5" floppies together, although a bit of a challenge. And on the other hand, I only dragged the last of my department's users off 5.25 floppies in summer of 2003... and this at a respectable US state school. (Of course, none of the school maintained labs have had a 5.25
Apple (Score:4, Funny)
Glass houses.. (Score:4, Insightful)
It would also be a wise idea to first check the tech horror stories of the 80s in the us and uk before making fun of indian cops..
if you are so much against india and the tech support that we provide then stop using these products and start using "prouly made / supported in the us" products.. don't whine.
- dhawal
Yet another wired story. (Score:2)
Wow. Only Jan 6th and we've had 4 wired articles posted to the frontpage this year already. Did they give the slashdot eds subscriptions for xmas or something?
The only story that hasn't been linked is the fake "Suck My Tiny Yellow Balls" story everyone else is running. See here [0daymeme.com], here [0daymeme.com], and here [0daymeme.com] for a moderatly funny nintendo/microsoft jape.
But seriously... enough wired articles!
Give that Government Official A Raise! (Score:3, Funny)
What's so strange about this? I hear the same thing from investers all the time!
I wish that official had been managing my stock portfolio in 2001....
It's funny, Laugh (Score:3, Insightful)
Really, did anyone read the whole article?
Hint: If this had happened in the US or Europe, slashbots would be up in arms. But it happened to "oh, those quaint indians" and suddenly it's funny.
Search Warrants (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't this true everywhere? (Score:4, Interesting)
'No where USA' has the same problems. I can remember back in the 80s when I had a user on my BBS that crashed the BBS on purpose. He was working on his PHD in Physics at RICE and was bored. I didn't know that at the time though. I tried to get Friendswood, TX Police involved. It took an eternity to get them to understand what the crime was and then they were so happy to have the first computer crime. Long story short the cops didn't know anything about computers and we ended up catching the guy by a plain old wire tapped phone call.
Not just India... (Score:5, Funny)
The story begins in punchcard days at one of the major mainframe companies (UNIVAC or IBM). A new release of software was shipped from the U.S. to France in the form of a large deck of punched cards. Upon arrival, the deck is loaded on the reader and the whole thing crashes. A second deck is shipped to the eagerly awaiting customer (remember, this was before overnight shipping) and the mainframe crashes again, but in an entirely different manner. The customer is frantic so it is decided (possibly after a few more iterations) to send an employee to babysit the delivery.
All goes well until the deck hits Customs. It turns out that Paris had recently declared punchcard decks to be a bulk commodity (until then, there'd been no category to descibe them). This category includes things like shipments of grain, goose down, or reams of blank paper. Standard procedure calls for taking a small sample from each shipment and filing it away just in case there's a later question about the quality or identity of the goods.
This means that the customs inspector would examine the card deck, verify it was what the manifest claimed it was, and then take two or three cards at random from the stack and carefully file them with the appropriate paperwork. Basically, they were removing 80 characters at a time from each release in random chunks.
In the end the procedure was fixed. Presumably, though, the missing cards are still sitting in an archive somewhere in Paris, stapled to yellowing customs forms.
Re:Not just India... (Score:3, Funny)
The software came on rolls of magnetic tape and the insurance and customs papers for the shipment said something like:
contents: 5 rolls of magnetic tape, value 10$
xyz software, value 10000$
Customs department of our country promptly returned the shipment back to the sender with an explanation: "Contents of the package not accord
Re:In Backwards India (Score:2)
Re:In Backwards India (Score:2)
Re:I think they do tech support on the side.... (Score:4, Funny)
Customer: "Which part is the hard drive?"
India Tech Support: "It's the screen part, where the flashy picture thing comes up"
Phlogiston (Gesundheit!) is not Magic Smoke (Score:2)
Anyhow, magic smoke is the air elemental let out of computer chips when they fry. See? Alchemy did prove something scientifical!
Whoever modded this flamebait... (Score:2)
Re:Dell Support (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, and we won't bother to tell you that what you're doing will in fact wipe your hard drive.
(not that I've had this problem, but I know people who have)
Re:Dell Support (Score:2, Funny)
They told me to reinstall Windows. I shit you not. I then googled the issue and found it how to make the security tab show up (XP was new then, not a lot of tips were out there). Thanks for the great support, Dell.
Re:Not everyone (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sure many people here don't know much about Fine Art or Knitting or something, and that doesn't make them stupid, either.
Their jobs aren't to work with computers, so whilst it is 'okay' to laugh at their mistakes, we mustn't mistake them for stupid.
Re:Not everyone (Score:2)
One minute... (Score:5, Funny)
Is this really redundant? (Score:2)
I tried this in Pittsburgh (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Some people (Score:2)