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
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [9] 10 11 » Show All
[quote comment="217486"]Maybe we should lock up librarians for sharing movies…oh no! They share books and music too don’t they! OH GEEZ! SOME DO SOMETHING!!![/quote]
Fucking Truth.
#198, wheres the thread going?:
A fine thought to write your congressman. But, you better hope he or she is Republican. Obviously, the Democratic party is in lockstep with Hollyweird.
But, also read the comments from the 11/5/07 London Financial Times (post #155) showing that the Democrats are the party of left-wing Billionaires and megamillionaires.
George Soros (he’s not even an American), Warren Buffet, Donald Trump, the Yahoo bunch, the Google bunch, and the rest of these super-rich dudes are bankrolling the Dems. Not to mention that all of the Dems in the U.S. Senate are multi-millionaires too.
Hello Loser hows it going in prison. I bet you will love our prison guards raping the **** outta you while the rest wanna Kill you.
Hahaha That’s what you get for messing with My Corporate America, u *******, hahaha I know goto Gunatamo Bay u son of a *****.
hahaha I love cussing and making you feel miserable, cause that’s a presidents job, in fact the voting systems are rigged so you will never get rid of me unless I got a stroke which will happen in 2065 then I’ll let Hilary Clinton take over my job and then my lovely bondage-loving daughters and they will really torture prisoners.
hahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahha
This anti-american stuff has gone a little too far, its out of context, and I’m an anti-american in some sense of the word living in america at the moment. I’m primarily an Australian and can tell you that the anti-american sentiment is felt world-wide, and mostly, for me at least, because of the attitudes reflected by those americans on here rebutting anti-american sentiment with a blind, arrogant patriotism and nationalistic extremism that confronts and offends people. Second to that comes American international policy, and thirdly they way that Americans seem to “forget” or ignore the facts in history that their “greatness” as a nation only comes at the expense of others. Their wealth today only comes from the expense of others. But americans choose to see only the “good” they’re doing bringing democracy to the world … hahaha, yeah right. They’d do well to find a real democracy here, on their home turf first. This country and democracy DO NOT MIX yet … forget terrorism guys, the biggest threat to American life at the moment is the Religious Right intent on converting the US to a THEOCRACY, and then the world to Christianity one muslim/jew/buddhist/hindu/athiest/whatever at a time! USA … the land of the free??? Please … forget it, America takes away more freedom on its own shores and abroad than it gives. FACT. And any giving they do is conditional.
BUT …
there’s good people in America too. I’ve met them, I promise its true. People who believe in true democracy, freedom, equality, multicultural tolerance and all the things this world needs so much.
Anyways, to continue … enough talk about past, present and future wars, they’re all bad, no one wins, and just for the record, the world could’ve lived without the USA interfeering, things always work out, it just happens that the USA had the means and initiative to police the world. doesn’t make it always right, it just is, but I hate that assumption that everyone should bow down because they did it. WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Another thing that’s wrong … the banning and criminalization of file sharing. But that’s another story :P
I would just like to say i have spent sometime in China and Russia and you can go in to shops all over these countries and get pirated material. Vista 1pound, Photoshop CS3 50pence!!!!
America needs to stop hunting down and persecuting its own people for file sharing when the rest of the world gets this shit for basically free.
They have lost the copyright battle but just haven’t realized it yet.
Well Yankees …
When are you going to start a war against that bloody RIAA ?
Thats a war that REALLY can be won.
Time to show us your skills !
Need help ? P2PISHERETOSTAY@LIVE.NL
@196, Anonymous:
Great, just what we needed, another deluded American Neofascist, accusing others of his own attitude. And again, only reason types like you always bring up WWII is that it was on this rare occasion that America really did something useful for the world. But okay, I have some time to waste and also like bashing idiots every now and then, so let’s take a closer view at all the nonsense you spouted:
“I’ll take a look at your pitiful attack on our gracious service to
humanity to save you Europeans from yourselves (again), after you take
a walk around the graves of the 400,000+ Americans who willingly gave up their lives for you and your progeny. You’re comment is a great reason why we should have left you to your SS benefactors so you could happily serve the German-Nazi corporate empire. There’s a real sickness in Europe and your love of fascism is at its heart.”
When you say “Nazi corporate Empire”, are you referring to the same Nazi corporate Empire that helped one Prescott Bush to make just enough money so his family could get its next two generations elected as your presidents? And anyway, where was this “gracious service to humanity” when it comes to, let’s say, the Native American tribes or slavery? Where was it back in Vietnam where you dropped Napalm on women and children? Or in the massive Black Op that was nicked “Operation Gladio” and aimed at toppling democratically elected leaders like Salvaldor Allende, installing “good” fascists, fanatics and dictators in their place all over the world (Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden being only two of them), to fight “bad” communism? Try adding up the 400.000 dead Americans from WWII with all the innocent civilians that have died in various US-fuelled silent wars and substitute conflicts all over the world since then, and you’ll soon get to hang your head in shame for “God’s own Country” as you oh-so arrogantly put it. So, who’s the “lover of fascists” now? Yeah, right, but it gets worse:
“It is ONLY because a benevolent USA does NOT insist on a “natural right to rule” over Europeans that you live freely to spout off your vitriolics. We have the military and economic might to rule Europe, and to do so, with ease. Were they the sole world superpower, neither the Nazis or Soviets or Chinese Communists would give you a lick about Europe, other than to enslave your sorry rear-ends.”
Geez, if that isn’t the most ridiculous piece of smear only a truly deluded fascist could write! And more so, it’s still written in that same ol’ Goebbles tongue-in-cheek style: “We=benevolent and gracious; They=vitriolic and pitiful” But for a reality check (which you might need at this point), if you really think your country has “the military and economic might to rule Europe, and to do so, with ease”, just try and do some ruling in Iraq for starters, okay?
Not?
Well, I see, it’s a tough sport, with all this ruling and deciding, when these stupid iraqis happen to disagree. They really don’t know what’s good for them, but then again, maybe it’s only the language barrier, so best make sure the general population understands some basic english, (like “No, that’s our Oil, you just happen to live here”) next time you invade anything. ;-)
And wait, don’t zone out yet, there’s still more to come:
“America is more than a parcel of land, but an idea and ideal. Read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. People are literally dying trying to get into this country because of that (easy to say, being half-Mexican). People aren’t dying trying to get into Denmark, France, Belgium or Russia.”
Yeah, I’ve heard that crap before. And you’re right that once upon a time in a galaxy far far away there was an idea and ideals behind the foundation of America, but since then you have given it all up while handing over your foreign politics to the CIA, your economics and welfare system to the NeoCons and your freedom to the patriot act, the most unpatriotic and paranoid law ever to emerge out of a democracy since Hitlers Ermaechtigungsgesetz. And above all, you still try to debunk global warming as a myth, only because you fear it might get into the way of your business interests. I repeat, no freedom at home, no protection of natural resources, environment, civil liberties or your own working poor, no health care except for the rich, but lots of international undercover warfare to forward your own goals, invasive actions and torture in spite of international laws - that’s a really piss-poor and blood-smeared summary for your country since WWII, don’t you think?
And it might surprise you that I’ve actually read the declaration of Independence AND enough of your Constitution to notice that you’ve recently re-elected (?) a government that’s raping the bloody shit out of the ideals written down in this very documents. Now, I understand that it must be pretty hard for you to impeach somebody over lying about his reasons for war or violating the Geneva conventions with torture on a regular basis, let alone his bloody incompetence with anything remotely resembling politics, but maybe he’s hiding a semen-stained blue dress somewhere, and then it would be all easy again, right?
Okay, that’s pretty much all I had to say in a nutshell for you. Now you have two of them, second being the one your parents raised you in. But as one last token of your unmatched nationalistic ignorance, just let me state bluntly that your answer gives away that you actually didn’t catch anything slats was trying to tell you and your Nazi brethren in comment #194, so please don’t read that again. You might really learn something, and you don’t want some unwelcome truth to spoil your precious opinions, do you?
that sucks man
u rape a girl u get 3 yr impirsonment
and u upload some movie u get 10 years
it s equivalent to raping 3 girls
that really sucks
[quote comment="216954"]
WHETHER YOU COPY OR STEAL, THE FACT REMAINS THE SAME, there is a financial loss from copying, and there is a financial loss from stealing, the fact they are different physically or methodically is irrelevant.
[/quote]
Under that logic, every book you have borrowed from the library or a friend has created a loss for its author and publisher.
You can extend that to any idea you have ever repeated: Every joke you have retold. Every bit of knowledge you have ever used. For everything you should pay to use it.
There is a massive difference between not giving somebody a financial gain and stealing.
However, I agree on one point - that what we are talking about here is illegal in many countries.
But that doesn’t make those laws good.
@ Bwahaha!Quote Bwahaha!
Vaggina, See above, line one.
Bickering on this comments board plays into the hands of the MPAA and RIAA. I would expect that they pay people to provoke it. It stops us from discussing the issues and uniting.
@ bollywood
As may have been mentioned before, the 10 year sentence is the absolute maximum, and it is unlikely that he will serve that much time.
According to this document published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics the average sentence for rape is much longer than 3 years.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/soo.pdf
“For rape defendants sentenced to
prison, the average term imposed was
164 months, or just under 14 years (Page 14).”
@ All the people comparing this to rape.
Instead of arguing the average sentence (it is between 11yr and 14yr according to conflicting stats from doj) think that you are comparing this to the WORST act, short of murder, a human being can commit.
It would be more logical to compare this to the enron convictions (avg under 5yrs http://www.chron.com/news/specials/enron/)
And consider the financial losses of the two, Billions of dollars of real money of real people(obviously enron) Vs Little to no real provable money loss by a faceless corporation.
For those that equate this to stealing, think about it like this, You buy the movie, watch it, don’t like it and decide to sell it on ebay (which you legally CAN’T as now you dont really own the movie just the right to watch it and its non transferrable … but it digress) (ie: you seed it to 1.0) the person you then sold that movie on ebay makes 100 copies and sells them and so on down the chain … are YOU liable for those 100.000.000 copies ? or just the first, if any ?
I am also a software developer, and have “suffered” (tho not much) to piracy, and have lost time thinking and coding up licensing and validation schemes that had nothing to do with my app. But i would never view it at stealing, every pirated copy of my stuff in the wild is for me, not a loss, but someone who likes what i did, just not enough to pay for it. And if i make an effort to make an affordable worthwhile product they will buy it (if they can afford it). But that’s just me as far as i can see.
Finally someone else found the Rape Sentencing statistics from the DOJ.
In your face Mr. Anonymous (posts 29 and 39).
the Sun Sword!: Did you have to train long to become that stupid, or were you just born that way?
Tux: The fact that people do not read EULAs really isn’t my problem. That’s like buying a house without first inspecting it. Anyhoo, in addition to being written in the EULA it was also stated on the product download page as well as the support forums in very clear text.
Again you amaze me with your ignorance. I haven’t been “crying” about lost revenue, hence I will not deactivate the pirate copies out there (although I easily could, by blocking those “fingerprints”).
You have completely missed the point (time and time again) I was originally making, which was this “Piracy does cause a loss of business”.
I don’t really have a problem with the pirated versions out there, I was merely pointing out the fact that if even ONE of those people now running it as a pirate would have paid for a license, I _have_ lost revenue. As for none of them willing to cough up the cash - what the hell do you know? Again, running the stats, there are around 50 users who started out with a pirated copy and have since purchased a license.
The users who are not aware of “my spying tactics” are either illiterate (like yourself) or complete morons (again, very much like yourself) as you really can’t miss the fact it’s doing so. Even listed as a “feature” on the product page.
Finally, pull that penguin out your ass and stop posting rubbish.
You know there’s something wrong with the country when someone gets 24 hours in jail and three years probation for driving while drunk AND having cocaine (www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/11/19/tyson.sentenced.ap/index.html), and you get 10 years and $500,000 fine for illegally uploading a movie. MPAA and RIAA: GO F*CK YOURSELVES.
[quote comment="217475"]#191, European Ignorance is bliss:
I’ll take a look at your pitiful attack on our gracious service to
humanity to save you Europeans from yourselves (again), after you take
a walk around the graves of the 400,000+ Americans who willingly gave up their lives for you and your progeny.
You’re comment is a great reason why we should have left you to your
SS benefactors so you could happily serve the German-Nazi corporate
empire.
There’s a real sickness in Europe and your love of fascism is at its heart.
[/quote]
Well I have already done that. Can you now look at your fine corporations that were sponsoring and selling war materials to the nazis? Not to mention that terrorist network your secret services set up afterwards.
I didn’t think so either. It’s people like you that are pissing on those graves with their disgraceful hypocrisy.
This thread has made me angry, and made me laugh, and made me think too.
Aside from the simplistic ‘Fuck-you’, the thoughtful extremism of the comments tells me that this thing called the internet exposes how truly ignorant we are about each other, about what and why another person/nation thinks, and about how we live or can’t live together.
May the ‘better’ cultures win!
But if I met you on the street, with guns, knives, or sticks in our hands, then I hope we’d have enough sense to talk first, instead of casually brutalizing each other.
#207, Bwahaha; #216, European Ignorance is bliss:
How dare you Europeans attack America!
Before you smug, arrogant European hypocrites drone on about GW, Cheney and Rumsfeld and crimes against humanity, keep this in mind:
Since you Europeans first learned to read and write you’ve perfected RAPE, TORTURE, and KILLING of HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of your fellow human beings! Not one of your countries escapes complicity in barbarism.
How can anyone doubt that Europe has been a constant threat to PEACE? - chew on a tiny list of your human achievements:
1. In the 1950s and 60s, France (after signing the Geneva Conventions), used its Algerian colonialism to brutally torture, rape and murder 500,000+ Algerians; that was shortly after the great Frenchman Papon and his buddies deported some 76,000+ Jews to Germany (virtually all were exterminated);
2. The British perfected the European tool of starvation and military occupation long before the “Great” famine in Ireland (which killed 1,000,000 Irish men, women and children), and has ruled with an iron fist for centuries; by the 1950s Britain honed these skills to operate Gulags to enforce its African colonialism by brutally raping, torturing and starving Kenyan men, women and children, with more than 100,000+ Africans dead;
3. Europeans caused WWI, which led to the deaths of some 15,000,000 lives;
4. Europeans, led by your Adolf Hitler, caused WWII, which led to the deaths of some 50,000,000 human lives; he proved his European bona fides by exterminating Jews, using Gulags, murders, torture and massacre of some 6,000,000+ human lives;
6. Joseph Stalin, another hero of anti-Americans, enjoyed the pleasure
of Gulags, executions and torture, to the tune of some 20,000,000+ human lives. Of course, he learned well from Ivan the Terrible, who killed a mere 100,000 human beings;
7. Mussolini, another great European, killed some 250,000+ human lives;
8. Yugoslavia, murdered another 500,000+ human lives;
9. Romania, used its own Gulags to murder another 500,000+ human lives;
10. Europeans love killing so much, you did it for a Hundred Years straight!
You Europeans gave up any moral right to attack America, which, in the main, has served humanity far better than Europe, given its ability to rape, torture and kill your fellow human beings.
We don’t hold a candle to Europeans if one man goes to jail for stealing some movies.
[quote comment="218506"]#207, Bwahaha; #216, European Ignorance is bliss:
How dare you Europeans attack America!
blah blah …
10. Europeans love killing so much, you did it for a Hundred Years straight!
[/quote]
As off topic as your post is (as the ones it makes reference to) for someone who knows that much about massacres, surely you considered that yes there was a war between France and England that lasted 116 years, which was really 3 or 4 different wars close together… but due to the years that this took place (before 1492), most of US’s ancestors FOUGHT in that war …
Before you go bad-mouthing a whole continent of people, if you are white or latino there is a 99% chance are your grandfather or great-grandfather was european.
Anyway, this “piracy” thing where the only thing stolen is the watching of someone else’s work (just like sneaking into a cinema), or facilitating that watching by a 3rd party (just like holding the emergency exit door open for a friend at that same cinema) is being blown out of proportion all over the world, sadly not exclusively in the US.
@ 218, Amer …ehm, Eurofascists:
Aw, thanks man, you just opened my eyes there. Surely, the past violent history of European countries gives America every right to presently corrupt, torture and wage war on the rest of the world, because we all know you can’t stand being last in line, and since your country’s violence has only a history of some 200 years (although you made some really good us of these, body-count wise), you sure have a lot of catching up to do. Geez, it must really hurt your national pride to be 1800 years behind everybody else. And we don’t expect you to learn from World History (after all, you never were a part of it, because everybody knows your ancestors all immigrated to America from the realms of faerie), so you’re free to smear yourself with blood and guts whenever you want to.
Moreover, since America currently is the worlds greatest Weapons supplier and we also know that a huge part of your shaky economy depends on that, we have nothing against you carrying on with selling genuinely engineered death throughout the world. After all, we already had our fun with bloodshed and war profiteering in the last couple centurys, and why should you be affected by that in any way, when you just discovered how necessary concentration camps can be?
So thanks again for being a shining example for us all. Hitler and Stalin will be proud of you, as will Attila the hun, Pol Pot, Charles Manson, three generations of the Bush family and all other deranged and criminally insane.
#220, Bwhaha:
1. BODY COUNT. let’s skip the poor souls tortured and murdered by Europeans in the 1,900 years of Euro history before WWI —- you could line up the 100,000,000+ human beings killed as a result of Europeans in the past 90 years of America’s existence and their bodies would circle the planet 5 times or reach halfway to the MOON! You Europeans have been no different in the past 90 years than you were in the previous 1,900 years.
2. GUANTANAMO BAY. While the French, British, Germans, Russians, Italians, Romanians, etc. were torturing and maiming untold millions of human beings, did any other their captors hire lawyers to beg and plead to stay with their captors?:
Associated Press, 8/7/07:
“This was supposed to be the moment Ahmed Bel Bacha was waiting for — the end of his five years in prison at Guantanamo Bay. Instead, the Algerian is fighting to stay put rather than return home. Bel Bacha, reportedly slated to leave Guantanamo Bay soon along with three of his countrymen, fears he will be tortured back in Algeria, a country he had already fled once before to seek asylum in Britain, his lawyers say. And so lawyers for the 38-year-old former hotel cleaner have been waging an 11th-hour attempt to keep him temporarily at Guantanamo while looking for another country to give him political asylum. Bel Bacha — captured in Pakistan and deemed an enemy combatant by the U.S. — is not alone in his fears. Human rights groups say at least two dozen Guantanamo detainees — including many from the North African countries of Libya, Algeria and Tunisia — are afraid they will face abuse upon returning home.”
The terrorists own lawyers are putting the lie to the “torture” their clients receive from America.
Makes sense these terrorists would rather stay under American control, given the real “torture” they might receive elsewhere (May 15, 2007 news report):
“An accused enemy combatant held at Guantanamo Bay told a military hearing he was physically as well as mentally tortured there by having to read a newsletter full of ‘crap,’ being forced to use unscented deodorant and shampoo and having to play sports with a ball that would not bounce. Majid Khan of Pakistan denied any connection to Al Qaeda and said he was tortured and his family hounded by U.S. authorities, according to a redacted transcript released Tuesday by the Pentagon. Khan told an April 15 hearing called to determine whether he was rightly classified as an “enemy combatant” that he also had his baby pictures taken from him, that cleaners left marks on his cell walls and that detainees have no DVD players or other entertainment. At one point, Kan said he wrote on his walls, ’stop torturing me, I need my mails, newspaper and my lawyer.’”
Sounds like this terrorist would consider himself tortured because he couldn’t upload Star Wars III!
A New York journalist who visited Guantanamo Bay last year wrote:
“The high-minded critics who complain about torture are wrong. We are far too soft on these guys - and, as a result, aren’t getting the valuable intelligence we need to save American lives.
The politically correct regulations are unbelievable. Detainees are entitled to a full eight hours sleep and can’t be woken up for interrogations. They enjoy three meals and five prayers per day, without interruption. They are entitled to a minimum of two hours of outdoor recreation per day.
Interrogations are limited to four hours, usually running two - and (of course) are interrupted for prayers. One interrogator actually bakes cookies for detainees, while another serves them Subway or McDonald’s sandwiches. Both are available on base. (Filet o’ Fish is an al Qaeda favorite.)
Interrogations are not video or audio taped, perhaps to preserve detainee privacy.
Call it excessive compassion by a nation devoted to therapy, but it’s dangerous. Adm. Harris admitted to me that a multi-cell al Qaeda network has developed in the camp. Military intelligence can’t yet identify their leaders, but notes that they have cells for monitoring the movements and identities of guards and doctors, cells dedicated to training, others for making weapons and so on.
And they can make weapons from almost anything. Guards have been attacked with springs taken from inside faucets, broken fluorescent light bulbs and fan blades. Some are more elaborate. “These folks are MacGyvers,” Harris said.
Other cells pass messages from leaders in one camp to followers in others. How? Detainees use the envelopes sent to them by their attorneys to pass messages. (Some 1,000 lawyers represent 440 prisoners, all on a pro bono basis, with more than 18,500 letters in and out of Gitmo in the past year.) Guards are not allowed to look inside these envelopes because of “attorney-client privilege” - even if they know the document inside is an Arabic-language note written by a prisoner to another prisoner and not a letter to or from a lawyer.
That’s right: Accidentally or not, American lawyers are helping al Qaeda prisoners continue to plot.
There is little doubt what this note-passing and weapons-making is used for. The military recorded 3,232 incidents of detainee misconduct from July 2005 to August 2006 - an average of more than eight incidents per day. Some are nonviolent, but the tally includes coordinated attacks involving everything from throwing bodily fluids on guards (432 times) to 90 stabbings with homemade knives.
One detainee slashed a doctor who was trying to save his life; the doctors wear body armor to treat their patients. ”
Europeans are the last ones who should be lecturing America on “torture”.
Now that we’ve tackled the world’s problem of smug, arrogant, ignorant anti-Americans, some of you guys need a reality check:
THIS GUY WON’T SERVE 10 YEARS IN PRISON!
Apparently, none of you bright anti-Americans bothered to look at the hyperlinks in the article. One of these uploaders is getting 5 months in prison and 5 months of home detention and a $3K fine. Another guy got pretty much the same deal to sing.
You gotta realize that American prosecutors use the leverage of these penalties to extract plea agreements to avoid going to court. 90% or more of cases get plea bargained away, otherwise the court system would grind to a halt.
2nd, American judges have guidelines to use for sentencing and aren’t always inclined to go with the max, especially the libs on the court.
3rd, there is no truth in sentencing law in America - guys getting life imprisonment get released for good behavior or parole, for example. It’s not normal that ANY criminal will serve his complete sentence.
Will prosecutors make an example of the ringleader? Of course. But, he still won’t serve 10 years!
1) Mr. Do will not be going to jail for 10 years. Read the article again, he “faces” 10 years, which means that is the maximum penalty for the crimes he pleaded guilty to. Then read: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extenuating_circumstances. Next time you feel like taking an off the cuff extreme point of view, perhaps you ought to “extenuate” your attitude by doing a little research.
2) Piracy absolutely causes monetary harm to the rights holder, it’s Economics 101 plain and simple. Let’s say I created software, for anyone who downloads it, makes it possible to print passable copies of the 20 Euro currency on their home printer. Any use of my hypothetical software would not reduce the actual amount Euro in the EU central bank, but the currency devaluation, if used to the scale that IP piracy is committed, would be felt across the European continent. Intellectual property IS the currency of the rights holder. Piracy is not so much stealing as it is counterfeiting that undermines the fundamental economics of the industries it affects.
3) Business plans don’t turn on a dime. Its way too simplistic to think the movie,music, and software industries should just abandon their current fee for use model and way too irresponsible for ALL the stakeholders on their side of the equation. “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and WRONG”. -H. L. Mencken
4) Enough with the cultural superiority arguments, WGASA. Invectives and taunts are the hobgoblins of anonymous Internet cowards! Raise your game and your intellectual credibility will follow. Otherwise, you must really enjoy the smell of urine to engage in a fruitless pissing contest.
2 references to this post
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [9] 10 11 » Show All
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.