Another Elitetorrents Admin Jailed for Five Months
Written by Ernesto on December 20, 2006Scott McCausland, one of the admins of the private BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents was sentenced to five months in prison. He was convicted of “conspiracy to commit copyright infringement” and “criminal copyright infringement”.
McCausland was not only an admin at Elitetorrents, but also uploaded copyrighted material himself. He told the judge that he uploaded copyrighted content more than once, including a copy of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith”, several hours before it was officially released.
Federal Court Judge McLaughlin said in a statement, prior to imposing sentence “those engaged in online piracy of copyrighted material are not modern day Robin Hood’s, but rather common thieves motivated solely by the desire to get something for nothing.”
McCausland is the second Elitetorrents admin who is sent to prison. Last month The 23 year old Grant Stanley received the exact same sentence, five months in prison, followed by five months of home detention.
Elitetorrents was taken down in May 2005 by the FBI. FBI’s Operation D-Elite resulted in the permanent shutdown of the Elitetorrents, and the end of one of the most active “private” BitTorrent communities.
Previously: Suprnova.org: Two Years Since the Shutdown
Next: Swedish Government Funds New ‘Young Pirates’ Organisation
11 Responses
Now, he’ll know that you have to send copies after releasing, not before. Even if it’s less cool.
“those engaged in online piracy of copyrighted material are not modern day Robin Hood’s, but rather common thieves motivated solely by the desire to get something for nothing.”
Bullsh*t. It’s not about theft, although it is theft. It’s about the challenge and the respect the scene provides.
the kid was from my area, and it made the papers here a few days ago. Curious enough, no one knew what the heck was going on.
that sucks…
I would punch the judge in his old head..
to bad the mother of this judge decided to give his son milk for free without making him pay first for it.
It would have saved the world one moron if she also would have ruled; “this crying shitting baby want something (my milk)for nothing in return, nah, thats a shit deal”
and if his mother is still alive, she with million others in the society must now pay with their taxes for feeding this copyrightinfringer 3 meals a day in a prison for the next few month! Thank you judge, your mother must be proud of you that you are unable to understand that electrons are not the same as physical property and giving non physical information away is not theft!
Above poster has never heard of intellectual property. Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t belong to someone else, nor does it mean you have not stolen it. Using torrents is theft. Is that going to stop us? No! We want something for nothing, right? Just don’t delude yourself into thinking you’re not a thief.
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