TorrentFreak

The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide

6th EliteTorrents Star-Wars Pre-Release Guilty Plea

Another uploader to the EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement of a pre-commercial release work. Getting involved in the pre-release of Star-Wars Ep III could land him 5 years in jail and a $250,000 fine.

FBI

Defendant number six in the ongoing EliteTorrents prosecution drama has pleaded guilty according to an announcement made by Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Gregory A. White for the Northern District of Ohio.

Scott D. Harvanek, aged 22 of Tucson, Arizona, has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and actual criminal copyright infringement. The charges relate to the seeding or to the conspiracy to seed ‘a pre-commercial release work’, likely to be Star Wars: Episode III, in violation of the Family Entertainment Copyright Act.

Harvanek’s guilty plea is the 6th arising from Operation D-Elite, which shut down the EliteTorrents network in May 2005. Previous convictions including those of Scott McCausland, Grant Stanley and Sam Kuonen.

Harvanek, who faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, is due to be sentenced July 23rd 2007.

Related Posts

Previous Post | Next Post

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

NewsBits

Even more news...

  • The Pirate Bay Isn’t Down Completely, Just Having a Few Issues

    Twitter and Facebook, not to mention the TorrentFreak inbox, are currently alive with complaints that The...

  • Pirate Bay Founder Gottfrid Svartholm on Freedom of Speech

    Freedom of speech is a highly valued commodity, but should people be allowed to say whatever...

  • Blu-ray Anti-Piracy Tech Stops Discs and Promotes Purchases

    An anti-piracy system present in all official Blu-ray players since 2012 has received a fresh update...

  • Foxtel Breeds Pirates by Locking Up Game of Thrones

    One of the main reasons why people turn to piracy is the lack of legal alternatives....

  • UK Student Admits Breaching Sony Copyrights With Leak of PS3 SDK

    Last year an Internet user known as El Nomeo leaked version 3.70 of Sony’s Playstation3 SDK...

MostDiscussed

Below are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.

CopyQuote

Left Quote

“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.

Peter Sunde Left Quote

PopularArticles

A selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.