Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I really don't want to go into details for obvious reasons, but I was close with someone who was called frequently for cases regarding sampled music with some pretty big stakes and could speak with a lot of perceived (and honestly, well earned) authority. He would show an FFT analysis and time waveform and say "See? they look nothing alike". I pointed out that it's pretty easy for things to look completely different on FFT and waveforms but be the same sound. I got the sense it was a pretty lucrative side hustle. This was many years ago and I don't think the problem has gotten any better.



unfortunately, this sort of garbage is really common in court. the FBI crime lab is kind of notorious for this kind of nonsense comparison --- see https://www.propublica.org/article/with-photo-analysis-fbi-l...

Every few years I teach a kind of super-basic stats (plus some python) class to law students mostly for the purpose of equipping them with the tools to notice that expert witnesses are lying to them.


That was a great read.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: