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from the Have-you-ever-read-a-book,-magazine,-or-newspaper?-Which-ones? dept.
Music-industry lawyers plan to ask potential jurors in a piracy case whether they read Ars Technica.
"Have you ever read or visited Ars Technica or TorrentFreak?" is one of 40 voir dire questions that plaintiffs propose to ask prospective jurors in their case against Grande Communications, an Internet service provider accused of aiding its customers' piracy, according to a court filing on Friday.
[...] Record-label attorneys also want to ask potential jurors if they "know what a peer-to-peer network is," have "ever downloaded content from any BitTorrent website" such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents, obtained music or video from "any stream-ripping service," been "accused of infringing a copyright," or "ever been a member, contributor or supporter of the Electronic Frontier Foundation."
The full list of questions by each party were made available by TorrentFreak as pdfs:
Have you now, or ever been, a member of the Pirate Party?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 04 2020, @04:49PM
TorrentFreak is a fantastic site that doesn't just cover BitTorrent:
https://torrentfreak.com/ [torrentfreak.com]
Going strong since February 2007.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday February 04 2020, @07:31PM (2 children)
A couple of years ago I was called to jury duty. During the lawyer's Q&A the defense attorney asked me what I did for a living (IT guy: PCs, printers, networks, servers, etc).
Well I got picked along with 5 other guys. Trial was for a DWI. The defense attorney (slick talking dude from St. Paul) planned to try and get us to doubt the breathalyzer test.
Now the breathalyzer was one they had at the cop shop, not a portable unit in the car. Earlier the prosecutor had gone into great and meticulous detail on how the breathalyzer worked. They first test with known 0% alcohol air from a tank, then with a .07% alcohol air tank, another test with 0%, then a sample from the arrestee. Then they repeat that sequence. If at any time during testing that it gives a bad result the machine is invalidated until it can be recalibrated. They even drop the thousandths digit from the test to give the benefit of the doubt.
Two hours after the guy was stopped he blew .087 and .089. Legal limit in MN is .08.
I did need to explain to one of the other jurors that the breathalyzer was indeed quite accurate based on the testing of the unit. Needless to say we sent out a guilty verdict.
Not sure if things would have been different had I not been on the jury, but picking a troubleshooter was a bad idea. :)
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday February 05 2020, @07:39AM (1 child)
On the other hand, breathalyzers are known to respond to ketones as if they were alcohol. No idea if that might have been relevant to the case you sat on.
There are also questions around how constant is the relationship between alcohol concentration in blood vs. exhaled air.
Of course, the guy might also have staggered around and thrown up on the cop's shoes...
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday February 05 2020, @05:40PM
Wasn't relevant as it was never brought up. He did fail the field sobriety test. He wasn't falling down puking drunk, but was definitely impaired, and blew over the limit 2 hours after being stopped.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 04 2020, @08:03PM (2 children)
Have you ever murdered a music industry lawyer while on holiday?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 04 2020, @10:02PM
No.
Where can I book one of these?
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday February 04 2020, @10:14PM
The lawyer or me on holiday? And I prefer the term "inhumed".
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 04 2020, @10:04PM (2 children)
I was part of a pirate party. They leaned to the Left, stepped to the Left and finally jumped right over. So much PC and BS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 04 2020, @10:07PM
It ended up being like an episode of NCIS. Shoving islam in people's faces. Disturbing and sicking to watch considering their stated ethical and moral stance.
(Score: 3, Funny) by sjames on Wednesday February 05 2020, @07:41AM
Did they then do the pelvic thrust?