BitTorrent User Pleads Guilty
Written by Ernesto on September 12, 2006Scott McCausland pleaded guilty today to “conspiracy to commit copyright infringement” and “criminal copyright infringement”. McCausland was a avid member of the “private” BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents, that was taken down by the FBI, May 2005.
This case is the first BitTorrent related criminal enforcement in the US. 24 year old McCAusland could be sent to prison for a maximum of five years.
The plea was announced by Attorney General Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Buchanan of the Western District of Pennsylvania earlier today. In a response to this case U.S. Attorney Buchanan stated:
“This groundbreaking case demonstrates the commitment of the Department of Justice to prosecute individuals who use new technologies to undermine the copyright laws. It also serves as an example to those who believe that there is anonymity in cyberspace.”
When Elitetorrents was taken down May last year, the frontpage was replaced by this FBI takehome message.
FBI’s Operation D-Elite resulted in the permanent shutdown of the Elitetorrents community. The irony of this case is that it concerns a so called “private tracker” that is believed to be “more anonymous” than public trackers. Strange enough, there is no “we told you so” press release from the MPAA yet, but I bet it wont take long.
McCausland is scheduled to be sentenced on December 12, 2006.
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Actually, what he was was “an avid user”, not “a vivid user”. Other than that, good post.
5 years for a first time offense? You would have to maim and kill to get that kind of sentence in the UK - and even then you would probably only serve half! Seems totally excessive for a little file sharing…
That sucks, he is going to be sentenced on my birthday :[
The guy had a total fool for a lawyer. Oh he’ll get whatever the maximum is they give out, so he’ll be spending 5 years in total hell in a prison. By the time he comes out, everything he had will be gone, he will hate all of humanity, and his mind will be rot from spending 5 years in a noisy, sensory deprivation box that makes people go stupid and crazy. All for moving bits across a wire. Its obsene and absurd. He should of posted bond and left the country, which is what I recommend now to anyone who tangles with the corrupt legal system in America.
What his lawyer should of said was this: you people are such criminals yourself, how can you call a pot grey, when your own kettle is black as coal. I would of gone hardcore on the offensive, and threw in solid evidence of mass atrocities done by the US governement in Vietnam raping children and then shooting them in the head; pictures of DEPLETED URANIUM BABIES in Iraq from shooting nuclear waste all over the desert; CIA torture manuals from the SCHOOL OF AMERICAS assasination training camp; evidence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and the use of chemical weapons, NAPALM, PHOSPORUS, and AGENT ORANGE during war; videos of gun camera helicoper pilots shooting unarmed people on the ground. The list goes on on an on and on…
You don’t have to look very far for this… just go to http://thirdworldtraveler.com/ and start reading. What the US government and miltary do and have done is appauling and atrocious and there’s plenty evidence of it.
If you’re going to fight their SLANDER GAME and crank up a jury, you fight dirty as hell back. Because these people have had decades honing their criminal ability to criminalize people and paint them how they want them. The first thing I’d say to the jury was a short lesson on JURY NULLIFICATION, and then I would proceed to tear the state apart.
Yeah, Einstein, a court would allow you to run the proceedings off-course by bringing up dead Vietnamese children…and THAT is how you’d avoid prosecution.
In the end, you might even make the jury forget why they’re even there….
I’d have told them that I had a virus infested computer on a wide-open wifi network, and who has any idea who was actually downloading files from my PC, probably the NSA.
Way to Go F.B.I.!!
No money trail, child molester, or Botnet operator. Just someone downloading “illegal” content. This is getting so damn stupid!
The F.B.I. is so ghey! They kill me when they pat themselves on the backs for stopping so many wonderfully evil people, GOOD JOB!
was he uploading or just downloading?
[quote comment="12285"]was he uploading or just downloading?[/quote]
He was using BitTorrent, so probably uploading and downloading…
I highly doubt they give him the maximum or any jail time for that matter. I’m sure thats why he pleaded guilty because the prosecutor came up with some sort of deal for x number of years probation and a hefty fine.
I’m so glad that I live in American the land of the free where everyday citizens go to jail for 5 years for ripping off of a couple copywright lays oh yeah those rappers and movie stars do need the money to spend on their nice vacation homes so they can complain about people taking their picture or give money to the scientologists to get to level 29 or whatever it is. thank you again American laws
Einstein,
People will take your ranting slightly more seriously if you stop using the nonsensical phrase “should of”. It is “should have” or “should’ve”. “Of” has nothing to do with it.
What I do not understand, and maybe you guys know. Why on earth do these tracker sites keep logs? I understand wanting to do the ratio thing, but isn’t there a way to keep the amount downloaded and shared and dump what was actually being downloaded and uploaded. Seems like ABC to me.
To play the devil’s advocate here… He did break the law. I do, however, feel that a five year incarceration is probably beyond overkill. Imagine 3 individuals who raped a 12 year old girl getting a 6 1/2 year sentences… Something doesn’t add up here.
Well, you see, in this scenario the MPAA is the 12 year old girl, and file sharers are the 3 individuals… but since it is just a metaphor they knock a year and a half off.
The point that the MPAA/RIAA don’t want to admit is:
They aren’t losing money from every download.
Most people who download content either don’t have or wouldn’t spend the money on it in the first place. Therefore, it’s not a lost sale.
To comment on Nate and Ernesto:
He was actually a supplier of pirated movies and such. If you had read the original press release you would have seen that.
http://www.sk0t.com/press.php
BitTorrent is not the problem it is what he was using it for. he would have upload and download legal open source torrents then he would not be in trouble. It’s like saying guns kill people this is not true people kill people guns just make it easer.
Its easy to see why 9-11 happened FBI was too busy tracking down one of the millions of file sharers,” good job” I for one feel much safer
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