Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!limbo!taylor
From: bp@pixar.com (Bruce Perens)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Manipulation of Courtroom Evidence
Message-ID: <446@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 22 Feb 90 19:22:05 GMT
Sender: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com
Organization: Pixar -- Marin County, California
Lines: 21
Approved: taylor@Limbo.Intuitive.Com

Walter Nirenberg writes:

> .. investigating the impact of recent computer graphics technology 
> advances on the use of video and photographs as courtroom evidence.

There was an apocryphal story going around the NYIT Computer Graphics
Laboratory when I started working there in 1982. At that time we had a
24-bit paint system with NTSC scanners and high-resolution photo
output, similar to what you can do on a PC today.

It was said that a manager who wanted to void a traffic ticket had one
of our painters alter a photograph to put a tree in front of a stop sign.  
The forgery wasn't good enough to fool the judge, who told the manager 
to pay up or go to jail.

Now this could just be an entertaining story that someone there cooked
up, especially since this particular manager was sort of unpopular with the
research staff. I have no evidence that it ever happened.

					Bruce Perens
					ucbvax!pixar!bp