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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!voder!pyramid!wniren
From: wniren@pyrtech (Walter Nirenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.atari.st,ba.general
Subject: Manipulation of Courtroom Evidence
Keywords: video graphics computer alter evidence
Message-ID: <102034@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Date: 14 Feb 90 16:40:38 GMT
Sender: daemon@pyramid.pyramid.com
Lines: 42

Hi.  My friend is a 2nd year law student and she is working on a
fascinating project with which she needs a little help.

Basically, she is investigating the impact of recent computer
graphics technology advances on the use of video and photographs as
courtroom evidence.  As many of you may know, it has been possible
over the past few years to manipulate photographs and videos at
a bit-level using new generations of graphics computers.  The results
are that you can completely alter what these media display.

A somewhat recent example is a past National Geographic
magazine where the editors actually moved some scenery closer together
on the cover photo to make everything fit in the small space available.
This was done using some expensive computer equipment which digitized
the picture enabling them to manipulate the photo so well that the
modifications were completely undetectable.

To take this further, the equipment to do this type of work has been
very expensive in the past.  Now, with machines like the Amiga and the
Atari ST, anyone with a few thousand dollars can do this kind of work.

Photos and videos are still admissable as courtroom evidence in most
situations.  However, with these new "advances", can we trust these
forms any more?  Think of the impact..a criminal could possibly be
let loose based on a photo showing someone else perpetrating the crime.
Newspapers and TV networks could change what the public sees.  We're
talking about a tremendous potential for "disinformation" to quote
our wonderful government (by the way, isn't that a fancy word to mean
"to lie"?).

So.  What we need is information of a technical and intellectual 
nature pertaining to this topic.  Is there software available for
these inexpensive machines to enable average people to do this?
Has anyone seen examples of this kind of manipulation?  etc.

Thanks in advance and please cc replies to my mail address:

wniren@pyrtech.pyramid.com

Walter Nirenberg,
Pyramid Technology,
(415)335-8730