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
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Ok so why do the Initials insist of prosecuting small fish when come on there are plenty of big fish out there to fry,
This seems a little odd to me
OH dear that’s sucks I hate the US government!
god dammit, so many assesins in liberty and justice sends to prison this tipe of guys, he may have to pay, but he doesn’t deserves prison, prison is for murders, he’s not a murder.
he just distributed illegal material, i think everybody loved him ^^ except JUSTICE
media pila boludo…..
wow i feel so much safer knowing the fbi takes the time to do these important operations. Its because of these sort of stories ill make copies of my entire music collection and give it to anyone; for nothing in return. What a waste of time, fbi, go suck your mothere’s dick, the mpaa. You guys terrorize me more than anyone.
No wonder we have all these illegal mexicans hanging out in america. The FBI has lost focus on illegal immigration and spear heads on bittorrent. The Illegal immigration problem should be top priority and not torrrents.
This is what capitalism does - take public property and make it private. Whoever owns it, gets the most money - and the capitalists need muscle (in this case, the FBI) to make sure no one else gets it.
Capitalism is about a tiny ruling class keeping social goods from the vast majority. Workers created the art - workers should control it.
For those defending copyright: the money doesn’t go to the artist. It goes to the big corporations. P2P technology removes their monopoly on distribution. We can do it without them now - and they’re scared.
BTW, the capitalists don’t just control copyright. They control access to water, education, land - and capital. Since they’re doing this to everybody, maybe it’s time we fight them on all fronts?
Revolutions don’t happen overnight, but fighting copyrights is a small, first step.
Life sucks and then you get busted for piracy
If you download P2P you know that already. I’t posted at the bottom of every torrenting website, that you should not post anything you don’t have the rights to distribute.
Now …… The 64 million $ question
Did he take it on the chin or turn in others he knew?
afo-butcher
I found this via google and I’m surprised.
I thought copyright infringement was a CIVIL offense, not federal. Oh well I guess all those legal books I read are wrong and I need to throw them away now.
FUCK THE FBI…they just spoil our needs. I bet some FBI dudes are downloading illegally like us. and I bet Bush aand his family are downloading aswell. so FUCK the rules. Leave the guy alone set him free…and restart the torrents. CIA FBI should NOT interfear his bussiness!!! CIA and FBI should chase after criminals and NOT chase internet hackers. AND FUCK THE MPAA….they are the worst TERRORIST…even WORST than bin laden.
Face it, you can rant all day on the evils of the US Government and the profit mongers at the studios and the aliens we’re hiding at Area 51. In the end, we are breaking the law. Doesn’t matter if you stole a movie or a car, it’s still stealing. If one neighbor comes in and steals your TV and the other neighbor comes in and rapes your wife, do you forget about the TV? There are no gray areas. If you don’t support the movie makers or whoever, don’t buy their stuff. It’s your dollar that is in their paycheck.
Remember, the government is only as powerful is the population lets it be. Unfortunately, being an idiot is a criterion to be President of the United States of America.
Anyone who pirates knows that it’s illegal and most understand the risk they take to pirate.
It’s ridiculous that people are whining and saying the US sucks for enforcing its laws.
Get a life people.
sstupid assholes if you want to judge someone why dont you go to the man ho create this tech??
fuck off
I just wanted to say I’m a musician and I read most of these posts. I think there has to be some middle ground. I agree that most of the money does not go to the artist, it goes to the label that produces and distributes the material and I’m certainly not for that. In today’s world a band like mine plays live, saves money, and uses that money to record our music (in most cases thousands of dollars). So, I don’t need a record label to distribute my music when I have online music sites to release to. However, if everyone downloads the music for free then I starve. Granted there are some musicians that have multi-millon dollar houses, but they are so few in comparison to the rest of us who are trying to make it. I don’t expect you to pay $15 a cd but I don’t expect you to download it for free either. Has anyone ever thought why there are fewer and fewer true musical artists around that are master’s of their instruments? Because it’s too damn hard to make any money doing it. So, keep that in mind. If everyone contiues to steal, the content you crave may dissappear because it won’t be worth anyone’s while to create it. And for all of you who think artists don’t deserve what they make you have a distorted view of reality. We play multiple shows per week, promotion, traveling, recording… it is not a cup cake job like you think, and then when someone steals your work it is a real slap in the face. What if you made crafts for a living and someone stole you inventory, you’d be pissed. So, in the end I think the sites that sell the music for around $.30 - .99 per track is fair. You don’t have to buy anything tracks or “filler” you don’t want and everyone wins. There is a right way to do it and I think we are on the right track…
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