BitTorrent Site Admin Sent to Prison
Written by Ernesto on October 26, 2006The 23 year old Grant Stanley has been sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of home detention, and a $3000 fine for the work he put in the private BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents.
This ruling is the first BitTorrent related conviction in the US. Stanley pleaded guilty earlier this year to “conspiracy to commit copyright infringement” and “criminal copyright infringement”. He is one of the three defendants in the Elitetorrents operation better known as “Operation D-Elite”.
Operation D-Elite (they love word tricks) was orchestrated by the FBI with a little help from the MPAA in May 2005, and resulted in the shutdown of one of the largest private BitTorrent trackers at that time.
FBI Take home Message that replaced the Homepage of Elitetorrents after the shutdown
Two months ago we reported that Scott McCausland pleaded guilty to committing the same crimes. Scott is to be sentenced on December 12, 2006, and invited everyone who sympathizes with him to write a letter to the judge on his behalf.
In a response to the present case US Attorney John Brownlee said:
“This is the first criminal enforcement action against copyright infringement on a P2P network using BitTorrent technology. We hope this case sends the message that cyberspace will not provide a shield of anonymity for those who choose to break our copyright laws.”
Stay tuned…
Previously: Underage Finnish BitTorrent admins fined $60,000 each
Next: Free full-length horror films on BitTorrent.com
154 Responses
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Lets unite and beat the crap out of them :)
This is neither about bittorrents nor about “justice”. It’s about control.
Industry (movie, music, etc.) is controlled by profit (i.e. making more and more money). They have already reached the limit of control that they can push on customers through conventional ways (advertising, etc.). Now they think it’s time to push things a little bit further and take control over customers’ freedom in all senses of the word.
I for one welcome our new Copyright Overlords. All hail the United States of Motion Pictures and Recording Associations.
Feels good not to live in USA right now. I visited this website a lot of times. I wasn’t a member though. Good luck to everyone.
this is like something out of a poorly written cyberpunk storyline where the customers get done over by a corporation in order to protect an old competitive advantage that is just no longer popular with the customers… hmmmm…. this is sorta’ preaching to the choir… isn’t it?!?
I imagine a hundred years ago that when customers changed from horse drawn buggies into motor cars that the horse whip makers were all trying to make the best product and failed to realise that their customers just moved into a different market. Now, Steve Jobs can spot a market shift and I actually prefer buying music on-line that searching at a CD store for my music so online is better… at least for me.
Companies (or any organisation) never ask the question “when is it more profitable for me to sell this business and move the shareholders money into something else”.
the MPAA haven’t recognised the market is changing and in less than a decade their sales will also be on the Internet so they’re defending a market space that is being replaced. Now the catch is that it won’t take the 4 decades before it starts to hurt as with the transition from horse/cart to motorcar but may be only 1 decade, starting 6 years ago.
it’s only 5 fucking months! stop crying and get it over with, then start a new site for torrentfans… but 5 months aint shit! He knew what he was doing was illegal, so fuck him! can’t take the heat get the fuck out of the kitchen, unless your cooking crack, then you can stay!
Best stick to crimes like bombing civiians then.
If they guy committed a crime, and got caught then he should be punished. What’s all the fuss about?
Crybabies, please stop with all the whimpering when these guys know full well what they are doing is illegal.
Yeah, man, seriously, can’t these guys take a little competition?
I mean, just because a bunch of people at Lucasfilms work a couple of years on a movie doesn’t mean they should expect to sell their product for our hard earned money once it’s finished. Just because we take it without paying for it, they call it stealing.
This is just an example of “the man” trying to bring the white middle-class man down.
Seriously, a popular torrent site might get hundreds of thousands of movies and cds downloaded from it. EliteTorrent allowed people to obtain free copies what would otherwise translate into millions of dollars of sales.
It’s not a question of whether George Lucas needs the money or whether he loses potential business by being a hard-ass. When you download someone a movie, you’re stealing someone’s work.
People who think copywrite infringement is harsh and that stealing requires hard copies of something have never had someone copy their website design. While the person didn’t pull anything out of your hands, they got something you worked hard on for nothing, and it diminishes your work.
If someone who steals a 3,000 dollar car can go to jail for ten years, I think Mr. EliteTorrent can serve five months in jail.
Illegal. WTF???
There are fucking U.S. Army ads on the front of the Bittorrent site. So if the subtorrents don’t pay uncle sam their a terrorist? How does a fucking U.S. Army ad have anything to do with MPAA?
Am I missing something?
He can now sue the U.S. government or subpoena them and the other advertisers on the Bittorrent site like Google did in the book case. I go to the site and figure it’s legal because of the high profile ads.
Bittorrent can’t say ‘beware of illegal downloads’ if they are supporting them on their site with ads.
Either Bittoreent is legal or illegal, can someone make up their mind.
He was duped into doing illegal stuff. He got caught, you didn’t. Yet. You will get caught though, and you’ll be in prison for a long time too. You and him can be buddies and drink water at the fountain during the exercise break. Have fun guys, it won’t last. Enjoy your stolen 50 cent movies.
Ese es el problema de vivir en una dictadura, ademas el FBI tiene que justificar sus gastos y que mejor forma que algo que tenga “prensa”
[quote comment="17536"]it’s only 5 fucking months! stop crying and get it over with, then start a new site for torrentfans… but 5 months aint shit! He knew what he was doing was illegal, so fuck him! can’t take the heat get the fuck out of the kitchen, unless your cooking crack, then you can stay![/quote]
Exactly. I did five months for breaking a few windows back in the 80’s, and it ain’t shit. What he got was a slap on the wrist, far as I’m concerned. I’m sure he provided plenty of info for that plea agreement.
“Either Bittorrent is legal or illegal, can someone make up their mind.”
It can be used for legal or illegal means. Legal means it has been used for are things like downloading patches, Linux distros, and yes, even some music that artists have released on it. Illegal uses are downloading movies, music and programs that you’d have to pay for normally.
Thank goodness there aren’t any terrorists or anything more important for the FBI to be going after.
All this talk about it being illegal. Who cares if it’s illegal, these are bad laws and should be resisted. Copyright is a joke. Free Mickey.
Everyone you ask would probably say that libraries are the backbones of our society and knowledge, now you can find arbitrary differences between sharing on the internet and sharing books via a library, but essentially they come from the same camp, so how can one be so great and the other be so evil…
I guess if they invernted libraries now all the publishers would get together and make them illegal…its all bollocks and profit…fuckem!
ALL ART IS FREE! (donations welcome) it is born out of a society which we all own.
Scott is going to get worse it looks like. 16 months in Federal PMITA prison, then 3 years home detention.
The punishment should fit the crime. Right now there is a guy that molested a 6 year old, got 3 months. One of our American soldiers kidnapped, raped, killed an Iraqui citizen, he is getting less than a year.
This is about big money using our American FBI and Homeland Security as a vigilante force to protect thier greedy asses. As if hundreds of millions they make a quarter isn’t enough. We all know the copyright catch phrase is used just to make sure they keep rich, just like Bush uses “stay the course” to try and spin his unecessary war.
http://www.mafiaa.com
US Citizens (and other target market slaves),
We really need to recognize the situation we find ourselves in, and fight for some sort of change. The large businesses in the U.S. (amoung others) really run this world and have turned us into mindless zombies who simply shut-up, watch Jay-Z (insert any other ‘artist’) self-promote himself and his masters into ridiculous wealth, and all the while we lip-synch the words as we drive our gas-guzzling/Need4Speed rice-burners to our minimum wage jobs each day. Watch out though, as here in the U.S., big business really doesn’t like it when we start to take off our own collars. We are the market they can and will control if you allow them. I.E.-You bess not go messin with that New World Order by developing/operating any sort of P2P websites.
Still don’t get it?…They don’t want us to share anything…only continue greasing their pockets with the fruit of our labor. But honestly, can you blame them? We are a captive market and when they see free sharing of anything, and it’s done faster and more efficiently, they create formulas and equations on lost profits to justify a legal war against the citizens…THEIR market, and to legally terrorize them into submission. *Still, you can always bring your 300GB external harddrive filled with your favorite stuff to your best friend’s house and yes they’re trying to fight that too.
I just returned from Iraq and saw how it works outside the U.S. We (soldiers/contractors/anyone) were able to buy packaged music, movies, and software for what it’s worth…$3 apiece…that’s right, in the open and from anyone! Let’s not kid ourselves though, in the U.S. and western world, the lawyers for the RIAA and the executives living on million dollar salaries don’t give a damn about any freedom except their own. They are taught that worth is basically what you can extort-i.e. “what the market can bear”).
Don’t want to be a dog to the RIAA or big business? Don’t want your government dictating to you how to live your life? Well, first off you better be voting (of course the two-party system works to their favor but you have to start somewhere) Secondly, and more importantly, stop playing the damn game!!! Take your ball and go home! Simply get everyone you know not to buy the music…maybe organize a ’sit-out’ or other event to get enough people to not buy the music/media during a dedicated month. Profit margins on a large number of goods today are so small that even a relatively small decrease in sales for a period of time can wreak havoc on modern business models. Believe it or not, YOU own the market, not big business. And btw, when it comes to copyright issues, please think for yourself. Copyright law was not created to make people wealthy, that’s a great associated result for creators (unfortunately you are controlled by the firms that “create” stars - is Britney really all that?), but the original idea behind copyright law was to maximize the general benefit for the public…that’s right…YOU! Copyright laws were supposed to create an incentive for creators(artists, etc.) to continue working for the betterment of society. Sorry, but it wasn’t so Baha Men (remember “Who Let the Dog’s Out”?) could make a million dollars from one song (furthermore was that really a benefit to society?). Don’t get me wrong either, I love free enterprise and capitalism, but it needs to be free. Free IS NOT having large firms control the market by strangling competition or customers with legal, copyright, patent, and lobbying control. Copyright law today needs serious revision and I for one am VERY pleased that P2P is instilling just a little fear of change in the entertainment arena and somewhat levels the field for the little guys.
(sidenote: Don’t believe big business controls the world? Think this is starting to sound like a conspiracy?…you better start reading the headlines and read between them.)
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