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December 2021
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CBP Proudly Announces Its Facial Recognition Program Has Successfully Nailed A COVID Scofflaw

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Customs and Border Protection continues to protect our borders against… stuff. Much like the TSA struggles to catch any terrorists (or, indeed, any items actual terrorists might use) but still issues press releases crowing about the agency's ability to identify and seize novelty items and the occasional gun someone decided not to check, the CBP is more than happy to point out how a system that relies on millions of facial images collected at ports of entry every so often stops someone from entering the country.As of the end of 2020, CBP's biometric systems installed all over the country had gathered 50 million facial images. This was all done in service of identifying fewer than 300 "imposters." CBP claimed this ratio was a sign of its effectiveness -- that being able to identify 292 imposters who were previously denied entry to the United States was acceptable ROI for millions of dollars of biometric collection/comparison equipment and new impositions on people who cross the borders hundreds of times a year for legitimate reasons.2021 is wrapping up and we haven't heard much about the CBP's imposter identification program. Until now. If the goal is national security, this release by the CBP isn't any more reassuring than the previous report of ~300 imposters caught at borders -- none of which appear to have been terrorists or members of dangerous criminal cartels. The former group appears to have been mostly composed of people who've already been rejected once at the border for whatever reason.This latter group of one was rejected for a more timely(?) reason: a lack of proper antibodies.

U.S. border officials are crediting facial-recognition technology with stopping an impostor from entering their country through the Pacific Highway border in South Surrey.According to a news release issued Friday (Dec. 3), officers using ‘Simplified Arrival’ – a touchless arrival process which compares facial biometrics on documents required for entry into the U.S. – identified a “facial mismatch” while processing a female bus passenger on Nov. 26.The woman admitted to using her sister’s U.S. passport and COVID-19 vaccination card, “because she had not been vaccinated,” the release states.
Truly amazing stuff. No doubt this will whip up the anti-vax crowd and cause them to decry this as fascism. This will happen while they ignore the years of fascist-adjacent border activity, including the wholesale disappearance of everyone's rights within 100 miles of the border and inland "border" checkpoints that subject people who aren't even crossing borders to the unfriendly advances of Customs officials.This underwhelming win for an expensive and intrusive biometric system is, of course, being touted as a justification for said system.
“The addition of facial biometric technology and the vigilance of our CBP officers prevented the entry of someone suspected of fraudulently using another individual’s passport and COVID-19 vaccination card to cross international borders,” Brian J. Humphrey, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Seattle director of field operations, said in the release.
Wow. I hope there's still some room on the chests of these fine heroes, given all they do for this nation. Who knows what sort of havoc an unvaccinated Canadian could have wreaked in the Seattle metro area? It's not that COVID isn't contagious or deadly, it's that this isn't how we expect systems that diminish our rights to be used. This isn't the tradeoff we never even had the chance to agree on.The most generous reading of the American public's acceptance of post-9/11 processes and procedures is that ever-expanding surveillance efforts and impositions on travelers would be focused on national security threats. But not much of it is. Lots of activity at ports of entry is focused on finding cash the government can seize. The rest of it appears to be petty harassment in search of a justification. Even if this "catch" is incidental to the CBP's more important work, the last thing the agency should do is announce it like it some sort of vindication of the federal government's unquenchable thirst for biometric data.

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posted at: 12:01am on 17-Dec-2021
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Malibu Media Ordered To Pay Wrongfully Accused 'Pirate' Even More Money After Failing To Abide By Court's Decision

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Regular readers here need only hear the name Malibu Media to get their eyes rolling. This copyright troll that emerged from pornography producer X-Art has made quite a name for itself by attempting to shake down hundreds of accused copyright infringers, often using all kinds of shady tactics. Expert witnesses that nobody is quite sure even exist, failing to serve defendants, attempts to quickly dismiss cases against those who are willing to fight back: it all paints the picture of a shady operation looking to use shady tactics in order to collect shady infringement settlements. All, mind you, in the name of law and order in the realm of copyright law.Except, as with most shady operations predicated on the law like this, the hypocrisy from Malibu Media is quite stunning. For example, Malibu Media accused defendant "W.M." of infringement in court, only to have the defendant file a counterclaim demanding any actual evidence the company had of their infringement. No evidence was produced, leading the court to decide in favor of "W.M." and to issue an order for Malibu Media to pay him/her nearly $50,000. In the least surprising news ever, Malibu Media didn't pay that amount as ordered.

In most cases an order like this would end things but, in this instance, things went from bad to worse. Malibu Media failed to pay up and on top of that, the company actively diverted funds that should have been used to pay these fees.To recoup the money, Mr. W.M. hired Joseph Stewart, an experienced collection attorney. They went as far as obtaining a order that required Malibu Media and its payment processor Epoch.com to restrain the subscription revenue from “X-Art.com” members.
You would think that would have been the end of it. But, no, Malibu Media continued its bad actions, this time trying to play a shell game with where its revenue was coming into and going out. Colette Pelissier, top executive at Malibu, failed to show up for court hearings without an excuse. As a result, Judge Thomas Durkin signed an order that would see Pelissier arrested if she failed to show up to the next hearing. While that forced her to show up, it was fairly clear she wasn't prepared for that hearing.
We haven’t witnessed the hearing ourselves but copyright attorney and YouTuber Leonard J. French, who is not involved in this case, told us that the proceeding was quite messy.Pelissier reportedly had a complete breakdown. She spoke quickly and panicky, while repeatedly interrupting the Judge, referencing issues that appeared to bear no relation to the case at hand.
The court was decidedly displeased with this performance.
“I deal with prisoners who are more appropriate, I have people who are mentally ill who can conduct themselves with more decency,” Judge Durkin said, before cutting off the call.
The result? Well, Judge Durkin basically doubled the amount of money Malibu Media owes "W.M.", increasing it to just over $100,000. Now, such a six-figure sum is certainly warranted for a wrongfully accused defendant such as "W.M.", but it remains to be seen if anyone can manage to actually collect this money. The payment processor has reportedly collected about half that much as restrained revenue from Malibu Media, leaving roughly half to go.As with all of these stories, you would think this really should be the bottom of the hole that Malibu has dug for itself, but the shady copyright troll always seems to want to keep digging.

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posted at: 12:01am on 17-Dec-2021
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