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.
