Performance Rights Society Calls Small Businesses & Threatens Them Over Music Heard In The Background

Redlight Camera Operator Arrested For Scam Involving Shortening Yellow Light Timing

from the it's-about-money,-not-safety dept

Mon, Feb 2nd 2009 10:06am — Mike Masnick

We already know that at least six US cities have been found to have illegally reduced the timing on yellow lights at intersections where red light cameras were installed. However, over in Italy things have gone even further, with the guy behind one red light camera system now getting arrested for being a part of a scam involving decreasing the time on yellow lights from the required 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Apparently a bunch of police officers and municipal government employees are under investigation as well -- though it was a suspicious police chief questioning why they were seeing so many red light offenders, that resulted in the scam unraveling.

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Filed Under: italy, red light cameras, scams

22 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2009 @ 10:44am

Copyrighted?
Did the operator copyrighted the way he changed timing?

lol. Good to see non-copyright related stuff on this site:)
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ehrichweiss, 2 Feb 2009 @ 10:47am

Re: Copyrighted?
One might ask why you're even here if you're looking for something that doesn't have to do with copyrights, trademarks or patents. There's some of that but not a lot.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2009 @ 10:53am

It is always about the money.

BTW, there is a new Blackberry firmware coming out and early reports show that it significantly speeds things up.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2009 @ 10:59am

Re: Re: Copyrighted?
You are right. I should remove techdirt from my google homepage.

Any of you know other good tech related discussion forums that can be added to google homepage?
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2009 @ 11:11am

Re: Re: Re: Copyrighted?
"You are right. I should remove techdirt from my google homepage."

I bet you'll still come here, just to have something to complain about.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2009 @ 11:26am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Copyrighted?
Joys of anonymous bitching:)

I do like most of the things about this site. Interface, commenting system, so on..... It is just that there is too much discussion about copyright (I know I shouldnt be complaining and I should move on to some other forum. I will.)

What I have understood from the discussions about copyright:
1. Yes, business can profit without copyright (everyday mike provides new examples)
2. RIAA/MPAA etc go overboard protecting copyright, results= mostly counter-productive

What more?
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maniac in a speedo, 2 Feb 2009 @ 11:31am

Red light. Red light. Green light! Red light!

Saw you! You're out.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2009 @ 11:44am

sure this may work for red light operators in Italy, but it would never work for indie musicians in North America
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Bamber, 2 Feb 2009 @ 11:53am

Seems easy enough to prove.
You'd think it would be straightforward enough to go stand out by the monitored intersection with a stopwatch... if the yellow duration is too short, time for class action lawsuit.

I like traffic lights,
I like traffic lights,
I like traffic lights,
Although my name's not Bamber.
I like traffic lights,
I like traffic lights,
I like traffic lights,
I...Oh God!
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NullOp, 2 Feb 2009 @ 12:06pm

Red Light Scam
Well I hope those guys in Italy patented the idea of decreasing yellow light time to increase revenue! If they didn't someone will steal it....
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Robert, 2 Feb 2009 @ 12:15pm

Traffic lights && copyright law = no difference
Why did everyone overlook the fact that no traffic lights are best, just like Tecghdirt's view of copyright laws?

Such as depicted in numerous articles such as: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0127/p01s03-woeu.html

:-)
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TheTall, 2 Feb 2009 @ 12:19pm

Re: Re: Re: Copyrighted?
Add a tab to your Google page, name it "Tech News" and leave the "I'm feeling lucky. Automatically add stuff based on the tab name." checkbox checked.
You'll have a lot of new tech news
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Grrrrr, 2 Feb 2009 @ 12:23pm

Re:
Knock it off with the astroturfing, dickball.
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jon, 2 Feb 2009 @ 12:49pm

driving in Italy
Now I am confused. I admit it has been 15 years since I drove in Italy, and even then it was southern Italy, but the one thing I remember about it was that obeying traffic lights was totally optional. A red light simply meant that you should be a little more careful crossing the intersection because oncoming traffic has the green light and may not stop for you. Has driving in Italy changed that much?
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You Clever Dog, 2 Feb 2009 @ 12:52pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Copyrighted?
I bet you'll still come here, just to have something to complain about.

I see what you did thar.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2009 @ 12:52pm

Re: Re: Copyrighted?
No joke. Given the focus of the site (tech and economics) its on natural for it to be all about copyright and patents these days. Though I too admit its a change of pace that this story isn't about one of those.
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Mike (profile), 2 Feb 2009 @ 12:55pm

Re: Traffic lights && copyright law = no difference
Why did everyone overlook the fact that no traffic lights are best, just like Tecghdirt's view of copyright laws?

Such as depicted in numerous articles such as: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0127/p01s03-woeu.html

:-)

Why not as depicted on numerous articles on Techdirt? :)

We've covered that as well:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040520/0110225.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2 0061110/011804.shtml
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Valkor, 2 Feb 2009 @ 12:59pm

Re: Traffic lights && copyright law = no difference
Yeah, but then we'd have to worry about getting killed while sitting in front of our computers by being sideswiped by an errant packet of data from someone's torrent of "Tropic Thunder".

Wait, that's not what you meant?
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tude, 2 Feb 2009 @ 1:14pm

Re: Re: Traffic lights && copyright law = no difference
lol
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Ryan, 2 Feb 2009 @ 4:10pm

I just found www.shortyellowlights.com and thought I'd share.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2009 @ 6:19pm

Just raise the taxes
Wouldn't it be more efficient to just raise taxes instead of all the jumping thru hoops and subterfudge ?
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2009 @ 10:54pm

Re: Just raise the taxes
Wouldn't it be more efficient to just raise taxes instead of all the jumping thru hoops and subterfudge ?

But wouldn't the voters know what you were up to then?
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