Details In Mulve Arrest Highlight How Weak The Case Is

from the so-why-so-quick-on-the-arrest? dept

Wed, Oct 13th 2010 6:19pm — Mike Masnick

Last week, in talking about how one of the guys behind Mulve was arrested by UK police, we noted the similarities to the arrest a few years ago of OiNK administrator Alan Ellis on "conspiracy to defraud" charges that were eventually thrown out as Ellis didn't actually break the law.

TorrentFreak now has the details of the Mulve arrest, where police are using the exact same charges, even with a failure to get those charges to stick against Ellis. And, the article details why such charges are even weaker against the Mulve guy they arrested. First of all, he had nothing to do with the software itself, but merely registered the domain and created the video highlighting how to use the software. But, much more interesting are the details behind Mulve. It's not even a search engine by itself. It's simply an interface for an existing search engine on a Russian social network, which anyone could sign up for and get access to already. In other words, going after Mulve totally misses the point, and it's difficult to see how Mulve itself actually violates UK law.

Of course, in pushing authorities to arrest the Mulve guy, it appears that all that's really happened is the recording industry has drawn a lot more attention to how Mulve works, leading to multiple clones of the software quickly popping up. You would think the industry would know by now how this whole hydra process works, but apparently they still haven't gotten the message.

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Filed Under: arrest, conspiracy to defraud, interface, mulve, search engines, uk
Companies: ifpi, mulve

12 Comments

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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 13 Oct 2010 @ 6:35pm

Meh.
"It's simply an interface for an existing search engine on a Russian social network, which anyone could sign up for and get access to already."

Yeah, the Brits are just kicking the ball out of their court. Sure it doesn't tackle anything resembling a real problem, but if the dead tree reporters are unable to follow the rabbit hole, then they don't get the bad publicity. C.f., Craigslist.
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Mike C. (profile), 13 Oct 2010 @ 7:13pm

Beware...
For those that are curious, beware of the "clones" and information about Mulve. I started looking into a couple of them in a virtual environment and had those sessions quickly infected despite having up to date anti-virus (Avast). Fortunately, TrendMicro's RUBotted caught it.

Simply put - don't try anything on machines that you can't wipe clean.
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- Transbot9, 13 Oct 2010 @ 7:24pm
  
  Re: Beware...
  That's the biggest reason I recommend that people don't "pirate" - it's too easy to get some malicious software, even with a good anti-virus.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 4:42am
    
    Re: Re: Beware...
    That's the biggest reason I recommend that people don't "pirate" - it's too easy to get some malicious software, even with a good anti-virus.
    
    That's the biggest reason I recommend that people don't use Windows. Microsoft itself has sent out infected software. Seriously.
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  - Hephaestus (profile), 14 Oct 2010 @ 7:03am
    
    Re: Re: Beware...
    Both of you @MikeC @Transbot9 ... Troll much??
    
    The solution download a copy from google code and build it your self.
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- Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 13 Oct 2010 @ 7:29pm
  
  Re: Beware...
  That’s why you should get source code and build from that.
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  - MadderMak (profile), 13 Oct 2010 @ 7:53pm
    
    Re: Re: Beware...
    That assumes one has the requisit knowledge to completely parse and verify the source code. For the common user... not so much help.
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    - Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 14 Oct 2010 @ 2:52am
      
      Re: Beware...
      No need to. Just observe the reputation of the site among other users.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 1:51am

Hydra process?
Cut off a head, cash it in at the local courthouse, let the hydra grow a couple others to go after later?

Sounds lucrative.
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- Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 4:43am
  
  Re:
  Hydra process?
  Cut off a head, cash it in at the local courthouse, let the hydra grow a couple others to go after later?
  Sounds lucrative.
  
  Won't someone think of the poor lawyers?!
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- Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 6:34am
  
  Re:
  except.. they aren't actually making money.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2010 @ 4:45am

Laws
There are 2 kinds of laws. Laws for people who can afford expensive lawyers and laws for people who can't.
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