CHARLESTON, W.Va. (Jan. 18) - Tucked away in the basement of West Virginia's gold-domed Capitol, state officials say, an office was secretly transformed into a taxpayer-funded studio that may have been used to pirate DVD videos and music CDs. Administration Secretary Robert Ferguson said his staff stumbled across the office after finding evidence that government purchase cards were used to buy $88,000 worth of computers and related equipment over three years. The office contained hundreds of blank DVDs, CDs and jacket covers as well as numerous recorders for both mediums and more than one computer, according to a Jan. 5 memo written by state Chief Technology Officer Kyle Schafer. The memo was obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act. "Specifically, one hard drive contained approximately 40 full-length motion videos," Schafer wrote. "Two other hard drives contained over 3,500 MP3 music files." One computer had hacking software commonly used to crack header codes on copyrighted materials, Schafer said. Ferguson said the FBI is investigating and has seized some of the hardware. He cited personnel regulations in declining to identify who made the purchases or whose office contained the makeshift audio-video studio, located off a corridor near a boiler room. "We will hold accountable those people who have abused the letter and the spirit of the law," Ferguson said. http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles?id=n20060118115009990005&cid=431
What? Our government workers would never do such a thing, they're completely competent. We have nothing to fear from them! Heh, this reminds me of Pen and Teller's BULLSHIT episode about the Patriot Act where they supposedly got some government workers and told em they had to do some Patriot Act surveillence work. They had em spy on some terrorist house and to keep an eye on it. Well Penn and Teller set em up where they had this hot girl walk by the house and into the next door house. Yep, the camera focuses on the girl as she walks into the next door neighbors house and starts having sex with a guy. The wife walks in and a huge fight ensues. Later on, the head guy in charge comes back to the stake out van and asks if the government worker caught the car that just drove up to the terrorist house, and of course, they didn't, lol. I just found it hilarious because people need to realize that those with the unchecked powers are human. They will abuse it any time they can. Unfortunately, people think our government is ran by a bunch of Jesus clones or something. Sad. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." - N
West Virginia? Where are you guys from that this impresses you? The state of West Virginia probably has a budget about the size of Minneapolis. Would you think it remarkable if somebody was caught running this racket in the Minneapolis city hall? This will all change soon. The Washington metropolitan area is growing so fast that it recently crossed the Viriginia state line into WV. Yankees with high-paying jobs, Escalades, McMansions, soccer, sushi, ethnic diversity. Those mountain folks won't know what hit 'em.
Did, you read where they found this at? Why would the government do this? Thats whats suprising about it.
