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typodupeerror

Comment Spy sappin' my MediaSentry (Score 1) 51

You have a point; records can be falsified. But you always have to have some faith in the evidence. If the DNA lab says that the victim's blood was found on your clothing, you can't just cry out "the records were falsified" without good reason to believe so.

In this case, there's no reason a company like MediaSentry (even being the dicks that they are) would bully a poor woman arbitrarily. The focus of the lawyer was (rightly) to show that the MediaSentry records were not tampered with in bad faith, but were grossly inaccurate.

If you don't trust any evidence, there can be no justice.
The Courts

Analysis of MediaSentry Wins Music-Download Suit 51

An anonymous reader writes "A Dartmouth professor's analysis of MediaSentry problems helped win a New Hampshire woman's RIAA music-download lawsuit. 'Since all of Plaintiffs' claims are based on the assumption that MediaSentry's software and computer configuration are trustworthy and free of errors, and this log clearly represents a failure of the MediaSentry software to perform the operation it claims to describe, the reliability and validity of the MediaSentry method should be questioned,' wrote professor Sergey Bratus in his report, dated May 30. 'In my opinion, these materials leave critical aspects of MediaSentry's evidence collection process undocumented. In my opinion, they express unwarranted assumptions regarding both software and network technologies involved, and attempt to create an illusion of evidence-supported certainty where it does not exist.'" The full report (PDF) is available online. It's worth noting that this victory was not the outcome of a court ruling; rather, a settlement was reached that did not require the defendant, Mavis Roy, to pay anything to the RIAA.
Microsoft

Submission + - WARNING: driver updates causing Vista deactivation (apcmag.com)

KrispySausage writes: "After weeks of gruelling troubleshooting, I've finally had it confirmed by Microsoft Australia and USA — something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation.

Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little notice (three days) and your PC will go into "reduced functionality" mode, where you can't do anything but use the web browser for half an hour.

How can this ridiculous situation occur, and what is Microsoft's response... read on."

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