Another EliteTorrents Uploader Facing 10 Years in Prison
Written by enigmax on November 17, 2007The fallout from the FBI raid on EliteTorrents in 2005 continues, with a seventh defendant associated with the uploading of Star Wars Episode III facing the prospect of 10 years in prison coupled with a $500,000 fine.
Every few months it seems the FBI manages to come up with yet more people to charge in connection with Operation D-Elite - the joint ICE and FBI raids against the US-based BitTorrent tracker, EliteTorrents, in 2005.
Everyone charged so far has been accused of being involved in the uploading of Star Wars Episode III which, at the time, was a pre-release movie, carrying criminal implications for the uploaders under the Family Entertainment Copyright Act.
According to an announcement by Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a seventh defendant has pleaded guilty.
An Duc Do, aged 25, of Orlando, Florida, has pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Legrome D. Davis of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on a two-count felony. He’s charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement.
Do is the latest in a line of people pleading guilty in this operation against EliteTorrents. Previous guilty pleas and convictions include those of Scott McCausland, Grant Stanley, Sam Kuonen and Scott D. Harvanek.
In this copyright case tried in the criminal (rather than civil) legal domain, potential punishments are harsh. Do is facing up to 10 years in prison coupled with a fine of $500,000.
He will be sentenced on February 27th, 2008.
Previously: The Pirate Bay Laser Graffiti Tribute
Next: Mininova Hits The Million Torrent Uploads Mark
256 Responses
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The business of video rentals is in its death throws. As a society that is a fact that we would be wise to accept.
Many profitable industries have had to adapt as technology has progressed. Hunting whales used to be a good buck before oil came on stream. Global Warming and Free Trade Agreements are also examples of technology forcing people to adapt to a new way of life.
Why does it matter that a particular business is no longer profitable? That’s the price of progress.
The crime of copying movies is different to the crime of rape: there are no victims, just people who have to find a different way to make money. A corporation is not human and does not feel pain and the people making money off video rentals are lucky they have time to adapt to the transition we are now in. They are also lucky their skills are transferable.
Unfortunately our system of governance has created an industry where it is profitable for people to ruin the lives of those who follow natural human drives and copy movies. This might be legal, but it is not victimless.
But ruining somebody’s life for a living is definitely immoral. It is also wrong to create widespread emotions of fear and guilt. Prosecuting people for copying movies is an excellent investment-return. Causing fear increases video rentals, generates money. That is the only reason it is done.
What we have here is a trade-off. What is the bigger evil, denying people an income source or the restriction of information and joy through ruining people’s lives? There are benefits to freedom of information. Many films and documentaries are now being watched world-wide that would otherwise not be. This is an enormous force changing our world for the better.
And despite the gloom over the decline in video rentals, the box office is not dead. In fact I keep hearing that so-an-so film is breaking new records. When I look around me here in South Korea, land of file-sharing ( http://www.stuff.co.nz/4275531a28.html )
two new movie theaters have sprung up this year in the town where I live. People love going to the movies. I went to see Beowolf last night, even though I have a projector, and might have been able to download a cam.
It is interesting that the transition to digital cinemas is going to save the movie industry a lot of money through digital copying. Making film reels for the entire world must be quite expensive. The movie industry is not going to die. The invention of VCRs made a nice side business in home-videos profitable in the first place. Now technology is marching on. There will be other ways these people can make money – maybe multi-player online games will merge with movies to create a new revenue stream. CD Keys that allow access to game servers have been successful in requiring people to happily pay for content.
If you can see it, you can copy it. If you can hear it you can copy it. That is the digital age we live in, and if filesharing gets driven offline, people will form groups of friends and share like they used to before the internet. It doesn’t take long for data to flood out on 500GB portable hard drives like this: six degrees of separation. The video industry as we know it is doomed. It can not win.
I don’t pity him.
He knew what he was doing was wrong.
Sure, you have people who pirate music and video games, then you have people who upload big time movies before they even come out.
Yeah.. one is bad.. the other is just plain stupid.
lol man that’s so true!
[quote comment="216315"]
We’re not taking away anything. Were copying and sharing.[/quote]
Believe me if this was affecting your income you would look at it differently
lol yeah, get a homeless guy to up your warez, what are they gonna do, put him in jail… lol, free accomodation and meals.
Seriously. This crap doesn’t make any f***ing sense. Like how Markus explained it, they are applying a real world economic model where resources are limited, on a virtual economic model where resources are practically infinite.
Sharing/copying != stealing. Sure, you get freeloaders, BUT you also get free advertising. Shit, I myself write code, and nowadays I get more in the way of donations compared to back in the day when I charged — p2p and sharing simply gets my stuff circulated far more widely than I could do myself.
Tux, comment 59: BitTrucker is a person, just like you. He has to eat breakfast this morning, he has to eat lunch this afternoon, and he has to eat dinner tonight. No one gives him this food for free, he has to get a job to get the money to feed himself (and family/whatever).
He goes to work in the morning, and from 9 to 5 he creates; he creates new tools, things that have never existed before; he gives many of these creations away, he sells the rest for a reasonable price, and in return for his contribution to society all he asks is money to live. Is that too much to ask?
BitTrucker: You have been very calm in the midst of infantile criticism. I will not trivially congratulate your maturity, but rather state: you show yourself to be an intelligent and civilized person.
Other: Also, a more complete link to criminal sentencing stats is
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/html/scscf04/tables/scs04103tab.htm
So then can anyone tell me how much money the world as lost due to libraries?
Damn pesky librarians giving out stuff for free :(
Is this you, bittrucker?
http://thepiratebay.org/user/bittrucker/
[quote comment="216394"]So then can anyone tell me how much money the world as lost due to libraries?
Damn pesky librarians giving out stuff for free :([/quote]
Excellent point.
I dont give a shit about these guys. The law might be harsh, but whos the dumbass who pushed the law? Its always been there, 10 years and prison and 500,000 in fines but he did it anyway and got busted. I knew the star waers release would be big trouble
[quote comment="215979"][quote comment="215957"]Wow, so many of you etc, etc…[/quote]
Indeed, comparing copying to stealing is incredibly ignorant.[/quote]
[quote comment="215988"]@ colossal
Do you happen to think before jotting down your thoughts? Don’t call people ignorant since you don’t know ‘em in the first place. So you’re advocating the laws eh? Who are those making the laws? What are those laws made for? Do you REALLY think it’s for the common people? What if you stood for the RIGHT to share instead of running and hiding like a rabbit? You’re so vain ‘cos you haven’t been busted yet, big mouth behind anonymity eh? Piss off …..[/quote]
I’m not vain, I’m just not fucking dumb about it. Comparing copying to stealing is ignorant? Who are making the laws? Who are laws made for? Well, dipshit, some laws are made for common people, and some laws are made to protect things works of art that other people create, if they want them protected. The right to share? What really makes you so high and mighty to think that you have a ‘right’ to share shit that you didn’t fucking create? Much more so if you didn’t even buy it in the first place? People spend their time and money to make products to sell to people, to play, as a means to make income, to have a house, to have food, to put clothes on their children’s backs. There are copyright laws enabled to protect this fact. I’ll agree, $50 for a brand new fucking video game is mega retarded, and I won’t buy any game for that much ever again. I won’t buy a CD for $15. I won’t buy a DVD for $20. Media itself is not that expensive to produce. It sucks, and that’s why I will still pirate until it’s just not possible, or I get busted, or I’m dead. I don’t like big business, and am very much an advocate of fucking those pigs as much as the next guy, they’ve raped us long enough, and it’s time to fuck them to. But the laws are what they are, the laws are set to protect the product, not the price. The thing is, however, you and I both know the law, we know what we are doing is wrong, and we know why it’s wrong. You can try to soften the shit up with “copying isn’t stealing”. So, let’s say I found a home porn tape of you and your mom fucking, and I took it, put it on my computer, and started making it available for anyone to download, and just put the tape back right where I found it… I mean, I didn’t steal it from you, I just ‘borrowed’ it, ‘copied’ it, and ’shared’ it with others, and gave it right back. Oh, here’s where the problem comes in; I didn’t have your permission to do so. You’d be pissed, you didn’t authorize me to do so, and because it’s your property, your rights were invaded. That is where these guys stand. I’m not saying I honestly give a fuck one way or the other where these guys stand, because I’ll still do what I do, I’ll keep seeding to peers, and do my part in keeping the ball rolling. What I won’t do is make shit out for anything but what it is. If I ever get busted, it’s no ones fault but mine. I’m not going to cower behind shitty false premises of ‘copying isn’t stealing’.
Comparing piracy to stealing is absolutely not ignorant, it is the same thing. If you go into a store and steal A (one) DVD of some stupid movie, you’ll probably get a fine, some small jail time. If you download that same movie online, and only that movie, you’ll probably never get caught at all. If you get in the back of the truck, and steal 3 cases of a specific movie, and start giving them away to people, and you get caught, how harsh of a punishment do you think you’ll get? Probably pretty fucking harsh. If you find a preview DVD of a movie that’s not even released yet, and make copies and give them away at the mall or out of the back of your car, and you get caught - do you think you’ll just get a small fine and a couple months in jail? Or do you think you’ll get 10 years and $500,000 fine? Probably the latter. Don’t pretend like “pirates get way harsher sentences than shoplifters”, because you do the time for what you did. Stealing a movie from a store is the equivalent of pirating one movie you didn’t buy from someone on BT, Soulseek, LimeWire or IRC. Stealing a case of DVDs and giving them to people for free is the equivalent to seeding a single movie to a ratio of 50.0. Pirating 40GB of PC or next gen games currently on the market, 20GB worth of XViD encoded feature full length movies, and 60GB worth of 320kbps full mp3 albums - none of which you actually ever paid for - is about the equivalent of going to a number of different stores and stealing 20 games, about 30 movies, and 200-300+ CDs. What do you think the revenue is on all that merch? High enough to spend some big jail time?
Again, I don’t give a shit about corporations, high pricing software companies, and big businesses trying to squeeze your wallet dry, fuck them and keep fucking with them. Show the fucks like the RIAA that they can spend as much money and man hours trying to find ways to protect their overly rich clients, but that it will continue to be futile. But for God’s sake, don’t pretend like you don’t know what you’re doing, and don’t pretend like it’s not wrong when you know for a fact it is.
/end novel
SHARING DATA WHATEVER TYPE IT MAY BE SHOULD ALWAYS BE LEGAL!…I MEAN THEY ARE USING CPU’S THAT THEY PURCHASED, INTERNET THAT THEY ARE PAYING AND ARE SUBSCRIBED TO AND POSSIBLY MOVIES FROM THE ORIGINAL DVD OR CD THAT IM SURE “SOMEONE” HAD PAID FOR.. SHRUNK IT AND UPLOADED IT!..DONT THESE TERMS GIVE ENOUGH RIGHT TO THE PEOPLE TO SAY THAT “HEY THESE ARE OURS TO DO WHAT WE WANT TO IT OUTSIDE OF CORPORATE AND FEDERAL JURISDICTION!”..THEY OWN THE PHYSICAL PROPERTY..WHY NOT OWN THE INTELLECTUAL PART AS WELL?..DOES THIS MEAN THAT IF I BUY A DVD…I DONT OWN IT?…DONT THE HUGE PRODUCTION COMPANIES MAKE ENOUGH MONEY OFF OF THE MOVIES OR MUSIC CD’S AT THE BOX OFFICE AND LIVE CONCERTS?….WHY DO THEY NEED MORE BY PUTTING PEOPLE IN JAIL FOR SHARING?..THIS IS FUCKED UP!
BUSH AND THE AMERICAN MILITARY IS KILLING THOUSANDS OF MIDDLE EASTERN PEOPLE AS WELL AS THERE OWN AMERICAN SOLDIERS…AMERICA IS SPENDING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON THE WAR ON DRUGS AND MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE DYING OF THOSE CAUSES EVERY YEAR!….AMERICA NEEDS TO BE PAYING ATTENTION TO ITS PRIORITIES!…PROTECTING OUR HOMELAND AND STAYING OUT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS!…JAILING THE REAL CROOKS THAT PUT ICE AND CRACK ON THE STREETS AND IMPEACHING BUSH!..NOT ARRESTING NERDS FOR SHARING DATA!
im not sure how long ago it was but some tracker website was trying to get some island so uploaders and stuff could live their. any body got any idea on how that went? also
people whats happening is that laws are starting to become universal, so as treaties and other agreements are signed, certain international laws (such as copy right infringement) are becoming more universal, this means that within a period of time laws in america will affect your way of life in your country…this is really bad as other countries are influenced by external laws…which means no where is going to be safe any more (except for canada(well..apparently)).
also if a product is pirated and sold…thats a bit unfair and low blowing..personal use is different
The more money they make the bigger budget oieces of work they can put out. If everyone paid for example: games, we would have some kickass shit right now. Of course its risky and not so profitable with this downloading. Same goes for software, a lot is wasted. I mean theres some corps who pocket the money rather than invest it into greater products, but not most. I used to pirate, but i pay for my shit now cause i can afford it
[quote comment="216415"]The more money they make the bigger budget oieces of work they can put out.[/quote]
I’d be tempted to agree with you, but to make those things do they really need to get payed 20m+ per actor?
[quote comment="215877"]Could have raped a woman and got less jailtime.[/quote]
that’s true and incredibly pathetic. our legal system is seriously fucked.
[quote comment="216415"]The more money they make the bigger budget oieces of work they can put out. If everyone paid for example: games, we would have some kickass shit right now. Of course its risky and not so profitable with this downloading. Same goes for software, a lot is wasted. I mean theres some corps who pocket the money rather than invest it into greater products, but not most. I used to pirate, but i pay for my shit now cause i can afford it[/quote]
Not sure for movies, at the end of the day nothing beats the experience on the large screen.
However for games I definitely have to agree. Some of the games coming out these days a sub par, with many companies just not making single player games anymore because of piracy.
[quote comment="215874"]
As a software developer, I am personally “hurt” by people pirating my software. Point in fact; 3 months ago I released my last commercial project to the public - retailing at $9.99 per license.
Now, in this piece of software I had included computer-fingerprinting (basically it takes your CPU ID and a few other IDs, mangles them together and sends it back to a central database of mine) specifically for the purpose of seeing what the percentage of fully paid for, legal licenses were in relation to copies. I’ll tell you what it was - 20%. Twenty friggin percent are paid for copies, with the remaining 80% being ‘pirated’ copies. Now, I have a fairly small userbase (just over 700 registered users), but it has still cost me $28491.48 in lost business. Ok, so perhaps not everyone now running a pirated copy would have paid for it, so let’s say a third would have, that’s still a net loss of just below $10000 for me personally - or, spread out over the lifetime of the project, $3165 per month.
Just to be clear, those 80% of unlicensed copies only included people running the software regularly (which in this context means at least once a week since installation). Also, the fact I did collect this information was made perfectly clear in the legalese provided with the product.[/quote]
hmm, I wonder if you’ve taken into account the possibility of customers using your software on multiple computers of theirs or changing hardware (or other things that you check), unless the EULA limits customers to a single install (if so, ick)?
btw, what software are you talking about? if it’s something I’m interested in I might make an opensource equiv and give you some competition :)
[quote comment="216100"]
Anyway, please name one such company and I’ll bet you I can find at least one product they are NOT giving away for free.[/quote]
TFKyle Inc. :P
but more seriously, there’s Wikimedia, gnome, KDE, GNU, CC (if they’ve done any software, they’ve done a reasonable amount of media anyway - well their members have), probably gentoo, ‘course there’s always certain parts of the US government (required to release a lot of software under the public domain afaik). though most of the above are nonprofits I think they still apply atleast because their members have to make a living as well. might be possible to even argue that Red Hat and similar companies also apply as I’ve heard that they “work” by selling support for the software (which you pay for at the time of getting the OS) instead of the software itself, on the other hand it’s hard to know for sure because the GPL and similar licenses do allow you to sell distributions of the software for a price (distribution price iirc, could be wrong though).
[quote comment="215877"]Could have raped a woman and got less jailtime.[/quote]
jesus christ, 10 years is insane. i guess they are trying to make him an example. still thats F**king crazy…
Property is theft.
Getting 10 years for helping freedom of expression is a crime.
Next time he should an Anonymous BT type client to upload like dargens.
see http://www.dargens.com
Fact 1: By copying and distributing without paying you are naturally decreasing profit of those that produce whatever material you are copying. At a large scale that equal job losses.
Fact 2: Uploading and sharing unreleased movies is illegal.
Fact 3: Distributing copyrighted content without consent is illegal.
Fact 4: MPAA and RIAA is fighting a war that they will lose
Fact 5: Many of those that share are not financially able to buy CDs, Movies and Software either because 1. they are kids and have no spending power 2. are students paying 50,000 usd educations and have huge student loans and would in real life not contribute to the sales in the first place. Ex: look at the price of Adobe CS3, who in their right mind would expect the average student be able to pay for that?
Fact 6: Suing kids and 20 year olds is only going to give further bad publicity and will have direct effect on sales
Fact 7: A kid steals 3 lollipops from a candy store and later gives them to his friends - you cannot hold the friends liable for his actions.
Fact 8: RIAA and MPAA need to realize its a cat and mouse game and the mice keep growing at an exponential rate, while they shrink in size and power.
Solution: RIAA and MPAA and software companies! - use the technology to your advantage.. learn how to distribute goods at free prices or at close-to-free prices and find alternative revenue sources.. its not that hard to be innovative if you actually try! That way you can tap market segments that have not been properly explored. Such as getting revenue from individuals that would not have the spending power to buy your product in the first place.
[quote comment="216387"]Tux, comment 59: BitTrucker is a person, just like you. He has to eat breakfast this morning, he has to eat lunch this afternoon, and he has to eat dinner tonight. No one gives him this food for free, he has to get a job to get the money to feed himself (and family/whatever).
He goes to work in the morning, and from 9 to 5 he creates; he creates new tools, things that have never existed before; he gives many of these creations away, he sells the rest for a reasonable price, and in return for his contribution to society all he asks is money to live. Is that too much to ask?
[/quote]
What you’re casually throwing in there is that “for a reasonable price” phrase.
What is “reasonable price” for anything that can be reproduced/copied infinite number of times without any cost?
Infinite HAS NO reasonable price.
If you want to see how messed up the U.S is, watch this quick video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2026502830810551718
The rest of the world need to help the American public soon from their own government the way things are heading.
But judging by the way the U.S treat the rest of the world, they might not get much sympathy.
Some of the most ignorant and uneducated comments I think I have read, especially from some of you Europeans. You wouldn’t be shit if it weren’t for the USA. Don’t forget it. Who do you think would protect Europe if we were nowhere around? England?, a country the size of Florida. HA HA. We all know Germany and France would rather sell weapons to the enemy for some oil, so you can count them out too. What about..OH wait those are your big three. Well you can always call the Swiss army, I hear they have really great knives!
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