Pirated movies/series in laptop

[Unregistered]

So in a few weeks i ll be going in my first sea phase and i have a question about pirated products.
I have a few pirated movies and tv series media files in my computer and external hard drive which i intend to take with me on board the ship.

Will there be any issue with them? I hear that authorities at some places search laptops for porn as well, but i am not sure about pirated videos.
Is there a risk having those files in my computer?
Should i delete them or is it safe to keep them?

[size4riggerboots]

You'll be fine I'm sure, though make sure you have everything backed up at home. Just in case.

[EH75]

Should not be problem. Personally have never had any issues or spoken to anyone who has. When we were in Saudi Arabia you could put your laptop in the bond to be on the safe side but that was more for porn than pirated stuff. They didn't come on to check anyway.

The vast majority of cadets and officers I know have pirated stuff on their laptops and I don't know of anyone who has had any problems.

[Hatchorder]

The one thing I would warn you about is being careful about infections - and I don't mean after a run ashore.

My son has gone away with over 700 films, which are all genuine rips of our own films by the way! He has 3 external drives and within a week crew were turning up at his door asking for copies of films. The problem is they were giving him memory sticks to copy them on and if you have autostart enabled under your OS the first sector of the memory stick gets read so he knows not to plug them in as they were all infected - even though we have disabled the autostart and set up other security. Another cadet with him did not do the same thing, plugged in a memory stick from someone else, infected his laptop 2 weeks into a 3 month voyage and has no ability to repair it at sea. No email, no college work no browser. All screwed up for the next 10 weeks.

So:

If you have a film collection, don't shout about it.

If you want to share films copy them onto memory sticks you took with you and don't plug them back into your laptop until you know you have enough security in place to prevent infections.

Make a system restore disk and carry it in your laptop bag with you or alternatively do a disk image the day before you go away so that you can get back to the same point without too much pain.

As said before piracy is not the issue, porn will be if found in certain countries.

Ian

[glider23]

Can anyone explain to my how do they check whats in your laptop? As one who's know how technology work, only they can access your file system if its not encrypted or password protected (also bios). Other way around is to remove the hard drive bypass the win protection if its only not encrypted. This could cause damage to your hardware or expose your sensitive data like password if you save them. After that they have to install/run special software (if on local machine) to search for possibly for specific files types (only talking about the video files) nevertheless verify them. And i think they are not stupid they know if someone wants to hide something its extremely easy to do changingfile types, hide drive blocks, change file hex values, encrypt, or even comprese and split the file to random destinations ... on and on To search for all this would be extremely hard and massively time (day, weeks?) and resource consuming. In conclusion I dont imagine how this thing could be efficient for some authorities to do on majority of foreigners.

[Lewis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9FtG1cebAw

[Hatchorder]

I have seen it where someone had an encrypted drive, he was asked to open it up, said he could not remember the password or how to get into it, so the officials offered him the choice of overwriting the disk themselves or shipping it back to his home at his cost. He could not then suddenly say "I remember the password now" so he opted to have it shipped home. They charged him about ?90 for the privilege!

If they believe you have something to hide they will take their own steps to "safeguard" their borders and then you can shout all you like - you will get nowhere.

This is the same with the VAT and Tax man. If he tells you that you owe ?40,000 in tax then they can do what they like to recover it, including seizing your company. The onus is not on them to prove you owe it, the onus is on you to prove you don't owe it. I have seen someone lose control of their company because of this. Whether I feel that he was in the wrong or not does not come into it! They took control of his company for 18 months until they had extracted what they said he owed!

As someone who has run an IT Security Company I know all the things that you can do to obfuscate data, but if other people say you are not allowed to have it they will take it off you by whatever means. If that means they trash your hard drive so you cannot use it they will not care.

However.....

The chances of it happening are rare. You just need to be aware that it can or may happen.

Hope this helps.

Ian

[EH75]

I would echo the above point about viruses actually. You do not want to end up with a broken computer on ship where you won't have the facility to get it fixed. Especially as a cadet with all the reports etc you will have to write. And some of the crew members, especially the older ones, are perhaps not as computer literate as us youngsters.

Back to the topic in hand, if you want to be extra safe there is an encryption program called TrueCrypt which will partition your hard drive into an encryted volume which you can then store whatever you like on and there is no way anyone can get into it without a password. I think this would be a bit extreme myself like but maybe for the hypochondriacs out there...

[Ducki52]

This is the same with the VAT and Tax man. If he tells you that you owe ?40,000 in tax then they can do what they like to recover it, including seizing your company. The onus is not on them to prove you owe it, the onus is on you to prove you don't owe it. I have seen someone lose control of their company because of this. Whether I feel that he was in the wrong or not does not come into it! They took control of his company for 18 months until they had extracted what they said he

Ian

Really? I always thought the onus was on the prosecution to prove stuff, and the defendant
does not have to prove anything? Although tax law is a totally different kettle of fish...

[Hatchorder]

Although tax law is a totally different kettle of fish...

That is why accountants sell insurance to protect you against vat and tax investigations because once they get their teeth into you they are a law unto themselves.

[glider23]

I have seen it where someone had an encrypted drive, he was asked to open it up, said he could not remember the password or how to get into it, so the officials offered him the choice of overwriting the disk themselves or shipping it back to his home at his cost. He could not then suddenly say "I remember the password now" so he opted to have it shipped home. They charged him about ?90 for the privilege!

If they believe you have something to hide they will take their own steps to "safeguard" their borders and then you can shout all you like - you will get nowhere.

As someone who has run an IT Security Company I know all the things that you can do to obfuscate data, but if other people say you are not allowed to have it they will take it off you by whatever means. If that means they trash your hard drive so you cannot use it they will not care.

However.....

The chances of it happening are rare. You just need to be aware that it can or may happen.

Hope this helps.

Ian

Ok, learned something new. So the tip would be to hide files but not encrypt the drive cause annoyed official can smash your dard drive with the hammer Probably he would also smash your mobile phone(most highend phones have high capacity on chip "hard drives"), camera, memory cards, all electronic cause you could store allot of data on 5mm^2 chip

http://www.youtub....FtG1cebAw

Not efficient for large files

[chrisclapperford]

so when the debate on cannabis came up a lot of you numpties said its wrong as it shows a willingness to break the law.

If you have pirated movies in your possession whether you downloaded them or not then it is against the law. Therefore according to the same logic you shouldn't be on ship with illegal material or in the merchant navy.

Hypocrites!

[chrisclapperford]

Just for laughs:

Regardless of the debate on how hamful drugs are or aren't, the merchant navy is a disciplined profession which requires someone who is able to follow the law

The role of an Officer at sea is one of responsibility and discipline, and you have to decide whether that fits with your lifestyle.

Chris for me it's not about the drug itself, it's about the willingness to break the law, which isn't in line with the profession.
youngmariner

What I do know is it's illegal, and for me that is all that matters. You can't just pick and choose the laws you want to follow, because in your own personal mindset, you think it's OK. If you're so carefree towards one law, why not another law? Maybe OP also thinks it's ok to dump a barrel of used oil overboard in the middle of the ocean. After all, middle of the ocean, no damage done right? Breaking the law about cannabis had no consequences thus far, this will be fine too surely?
tlloyd1983

[tlloyd1983]

When did I say I have pirated movies?

[Squareleg28]

so when the debate on cannabis came up a lot of you numpties said its wrong as it shows a willingness to break the law.

If you have pirated movies in your possession whether you downloaded them or not then it is against the law. Therefore according to the same logic you shouldn't be on ship with illegal material or in the merchant navy.

Hypocrites!

Leaving out any moral arguments, you are highly unlikely to be sacked immediately from your job for having a bootleg of finding nemo in your cabin, unlike having a restricted substance on your person or in your system.