Why journalists should write on several sources (for example, Group-IB)

The British newspaper The Guardian has a very good movie that explains the importance of different points of view on what is happening. Look, please (this can be done without sound):



Of course, this very beautiful work only conveys the idea. In practice, especially if you are doing a small thematic blog, the need for several sources may be absent: if you write some industry news about a new product like Windows 10, no one except you yourself will act as a second source. Your own adequacy and the ability to give a reasoned assessment, becomes a virtual "second side" in the article.
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Everything changes when you consider some kind of conflict situation. For example, on Roem.ru we published a story about how Group-IB was able to rid the world of unprecedented piracy solely by force of conviction .

During the excavation, the story was much more interesting.

First, we managed, with the help of Roem.ru readers, to find the owner of the 2kinopoisk.ru closed site, Maxim Rusak. It could be limited to the fact that we would know his opinion and everything: this is a classic requirement of journalism - to know the opinion of all parties, to add the opinion of experts.

However, the main value was that we got into the hands of the real correspondence of Group-IB employees with the administrator of 2kinopoisk.ru

As the documents looked like the actions of Group-IB employees:

1. The domain owner was explained what this activity is fraught with.

A certain girl via VKontakte explained what the domain administrator’s activities are fraught with (real quotes):

On your resource 2kinopoisk.ru without the appropriate permission placed audio-visual works according to the attached list.

The absence of duly executed relations between you and the copyright holder or other legal grounds for the use of audiovisual works indicates that these works are used illegally.

Group-IB is an authorized representative of rights holders. In connection with the foregoing, we notify you of the need within a period not exceeding 24 hours from the date of receipt of this notice, remove audiovisual works from the 2kinopoisk.ru resource in accordance with the attached list (including the specified files / file links), and prevent their appearance in the future.

Otherwise, the right holder reserves the right to defend their legitimate interests by all means provided for by current legislation.

Below, the girl provided an impressive list of scans of powers of attorney from the right holders drawn to Group-IB. Amediateka, Sony and so on. The answer to the questions “why me?” And “what are these measures?” Was:

Many copyright holders are currently interested in your resource. Measures can be taken a lot. From the appeal under the Anti-piracy Law to the Moscow City Court and the blocking of the resource by Roskomnadzor, to the criminal case on economic crimes (taxes on income received from the site are not paid) or intellectual property (huge multi-million losses of rights holders from the activities of pirates). When a criminal case is initiated, a person is immediately dismissed from a higher educational institution, especially from such as the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, especially from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. Therefore, I would like to peacefully resolve this issue. You responded to our first complaint.

We note right away : the girl was lying, she was lying very stupid and ugly . From universities can not deduct on the basis of the criminal case: for this there is simply no reason. The grounds for expulsion appear when a court convicts a student and establishes a criminal sentence . Prior to a conviction, any person is not guilty of anything from a legal point of view. Here, of course, indicative of the accusatory orientation of Group-IB employees, right up to the CEO, with whom we discussed this event on Facebook a bit

2. Group-IB employees “explained” how to close the site.

Alexander Tushkanov, the head of the anti-piracy department of Group-IB, answers the question of which stub can be left to project visitors, gives the following answer:

If you want to leave a page with a letter, be sure to include the following phrase in it:

The site was suspended after receiving a notification from Group-IB, in connection with violation of copyright and exclusive rights to audio-visual content that was present on the site (Art. 1270 and 1229 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

This is certainly a business-friendly action . Then you can show a screenshot of the closed site to potential customers and convince them of the effectiveness of their activities.

3. Then Group-IB tried to get a domain at its disposal, ostensibly “for Yandex”.

Alexander Tushkanov, the head of the anti-piracy department of Group-IB, issued instructions for closing and possibly transferring the source codes of the project to third parties in the following form:

Maxim, regarding the issue of transfer of codes - we have already explained to you what laws violate such activities. Either you do it or not. We do not order you to do something with the site or source codes, we simply explain what the consequences will be. If someone continues this case, then the responsibility will then fall on him, as well as on the accomplices.

and a little earlier:

In order to transfer the domain through Yandex as quickly as possible, you need to transfer it to the following data:

- text identifier of the contract: xxxxx-MNT-R01
- text identifier of the new Administrator: xxxxx / R01-REG

This is our account on R01, from which you can quickly transfer control of the domain.

Let's sort it out. These are very clever phrases. Employees of Group-IB directly say “we do not order”, which covers their rear when trying to legal proceedings, since the second party acts as if voluntarily. This is a very good manipulative technique, allowing to achieve from the interlocutor what she should not do and, according to common sense, and will not, practically does not create legal risks.

It turned out that Yandex is not aware of the fact that Group-IB is taking for it the domain 2kinopoisk.ru. According to employees of the Yandex press service, Group-IB does not represent Yandex’s interests with respect to the 2kinopoisk.ru domain and does not protect Yandex’s rights to the Kinopoisk brand.

Group-IB employees completely ignored my questions about why they mention Yandex as the final recipient of the domain, but Alexander Tushkanov told the following (the letter is very long, my remarks go in italics):

Group-IB has been working in the field of copyright protection on the Internet for several years. Among our clients are well-known international film companies. Some of these clients have repeatedly appealed to us, pointing to the problem of violation of their rights on the 2kinopoisk.ru resource, the administrator of which is Mr. Rusak.

Our studies confirmed the fact that content (movies) were distributed on the indicated resource without the respective permission of the copyright holders - that is, the fact of “digital” piracy. Recall that the responsibility for such actions is provided for by the legislation of Russia, both civil and criminal.

The fact of piracy is established by the court. Russian courts are extremely reluctant to write convictions for showing embedded video and for links to torrents that were posted on 2kinopoisk.ru

Unfortunately, neither we nor the rights holders have managed to convince the owner of the 2kinopoisk.ru resource to completely stop all violations. Therefore, we had to study the situation in more detail. It turned out that with high probability the owner of the 2kinopoisk.ru resource was involved not only in digital piracy. The fact is that the profit-making activity, and he receives income from advertising on this site, must also be carried out in compliance with the law. He, at a minimum, must pay taxes on this profit. Let me remind you that tax evasion is a crime (Art. 198-199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Rusak is a citizen of Belarus, therefore the applicability of the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the payment of taxes to him is very, very debatable. It is also worth considering that the Criminal Code applies only from a certain amount of tax evasion.

In addition, if the income received from the resource is regular, then these actions are business activities for which it must have a certain status. And the absence of this status is also punishable, according to Art. 171 of the Criminal Code.

This is also at the discretion of the court. And again, do not forget about the Belarusian citizenship of Maxim

As a result, having collected a similar amount of information, we decided to try again to discuss the situation with Mr. Rusak. He was once again informed that his actions were not a simple prank, but a violation of the law, i.e. the crime. And we are ready to hand over the collected materials to law enforcement agencies so that they take the measures specified in the law.

And here follows the recommendation to Maxim to transfer to the Group-IB domain it is not clear in whose interests

Also, Mr. Rusak was informed that such unlawful behavior may not correspond to the status of a student of such a famous university, as MIPT. As you know, leading universities are quite sensitive about their reputation and the reputation of their students.

They told him a few more. With lies

Thus, Group-IB, struggling with pirates, still tries to give them a chance to resolve the conflict with the right holders in the framework of negotiations, in the pretrial order.

Understanding the fact that piracy is not only a violation of the rights of individual film companies, but also a serious economic crime can improve, as we see it, the situation with the spread of this evil. And in order to combat piracy more effectively, we will continue to show what economic crimes are committed by owners of sites with illegal content and will help law enforcement agencies to take action against these violators.

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It seems to me that everything is quite sad. I personally would like the fighters to break the law with slightly more white raincoats. And a little more understandable motivation: when the thoughts are pure, and the ideas are righteous, the customers are not hidden and they are not lying about them.

I count on the following: Maxim, who is successfully studying in a not-so-simple university, will draw conclusions and stop experiencing a fate that can happen for everyone.

and Group-IB and its employees will conduct business more correctly, without giving grounds for reproaches.

Thank you for your attention, read Roem.ru !