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
111 Responses
That sucks… If I knew how to hack i would FUBAR those assholes. Fuck, now I’m probably on the feds terror list.
That Sucks! Jail? WOW.
Scary… it feels good not to live in the US…
Dam that rele sucks….. if those bastards ever come after me ill make sure i dont give up without a fight even if it means destroying my hdd as they break in the door
You might get a bigger sentence for destroying evidence, interfering with a federal investigation and perverting the cause of justice than you would for copyright infringement…
This begs the question why isnt the FBI more focused on real crooks?
“This begs the question why isnt the FBI more focused on real crooks?”
Dude…if they put the REAL crooks in jail, there wouldn’t be anyone left to sign their paychecks.
Wow, it seems that I have a little idea of what to expect come December.
I hope he’s in touch with his feminine side and or his inner bitch..
All the more reason to support the pirate party.
I hope people outside America start Rampant Piracy drive to protest against these undemocratic acts and bring down the empires source of evil powers
[quote comment="17469"]Wow, it seems that I have a little idea of what to expect come December.[/quote]
hi skot,
thought i’d say wassup. i denied them 2 times here… holding out! good luck man
im glad he went down! may his thieving soul rot in hell!
most of us are smart enuff not to be caught….all n00bs must die!!!
man.. that’s harsh.. :(
dude he was anything but a noob.
i was a member on that site. god that shit scared the hell outta me
the reason they got fucked was they published on the front page fr everyone, not just members to see, was HEY WE GOT STAR WARS III
before it hit theaters. they were on of the first sites to obtain the movie also, before the scene…seeing how it was a p2p rls from the guy inside of lucas studios.
how is that mr steve?
does it feel good?
altho i had nothing to do with it.
The annoying thing is that George doesn’t mind one bit if it escapes to the fans a little early. More people get to see it and (probably) he makes a little more cash because of the word of mouth.
I think that it’s interesting to see that he’s been taken out of the picture, but I just want to point out that while he may have seemed like a big name in the Bit Torrent scene, I have to admit never having heard of Elitetorrents… Maybe I’m not “h4×0r”iffic enough for this kind of piracy, but it seems to me that there are just WAY too many admins like this guy for it to be worth the time, money, and resources required to take down at least a substantial number of these guys. I’m not trying to say “more power to the pirates,” but you can’t ignore the fact that this is all a pretty worthless endeavor.
And on that note…
http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hahahahapirateskq5.swf
so is my tom waits cd done yet?
Well this just makes the world unsafe from prosecution and persecution.
Recently the US introduced laws that allowed them to extradite and imprison anyone who they considered terrorist and hold them in prison for an indefinite amount of time.
This means that now that the US government is able to imprison people who use or support pear to peer applications, then that would mean theoretically the US can consider anyone who uses or supports P2P applications a terrorist since they can reason that these actions divert funds away from legitimate companies and supposedly into terrorist actions. And to make matters worse, since now they can extradite and imprison anyone, they can now imprison anyone in the world and effectively hold them in POW camps for as long as they like.
The world ain’t safer, not from terrorists or from certain governments.
From all, that looks very much the same thing they did in Europe: personal attack on hub operators. There are several people prosecuted over here for eMule servers and BitTorrent hubs - but only PirateBay story got the attention. Seems RIAA/MPAA/IPFI filter all traffic for what the people download themselves, then press local police to do searches in the people houses/servers and use the evidence against them. Since people run the servers their IPs I presume are pretty static. They have failed with PirateBay - but last I heard eMule guy got beaten pretty hard, regardless of procedural errors made by prosecutors and no evidence of infringement.
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.)
How can these people be prosecuted for posting links for DL’s? They are basically just a specialized search engine…So is Google and Yahoo next? I can provide proof that both supply WAY more links to copyrighted materials to DL that any torrent tracker…
MPAA + FBI = Total asshats
“You will get caught though, and you’ll be in prison for a long time too.”
Highly doubt it…
I feel for Grant. He is caught in some of the ugliest business. He is caught between freedoms intellectual rights and The RIAA with the Government on it’s side. Anyone with a PC and a browser can download MP’3 copy, movies, distribute text and totally shed all the copy rights laws. The idea these laws are out dated is a mute point. Every since the original Napster sting I have refused to buy and music supported by the RIAA. I believe there needs to be a wide spread boycott of anything the MPIA or the RIAA touch. They should be restructured to meet with the modern era and they should not be a witch hunt to find out where they believe they are loosing money. They shouldn’t have anymore money period. Our government has better things to do (Like fighting terrorism). They need to stay out of it, or get voted out. AS a tax paying American I am fully against turning a 24 year old Bittorrent guy into a convicted felon. What public interest does that serve? Are the streets safer? They don’t enforce our immigration laws as much as these Copy rights laws and I believe that is a bigger issue these days.
Money is power and we have the power when it comes to delivering the message to the MPIA and the RIAA. Stop buying their crap. When the RIAA originally sued Napster the recording industry did it after the after recording record profits. Their greed is endless. Stars Wars III was so bad they need to be giving it away. I will never purchase anything George Lucas has ever had his hands on. He is rich enough.
We have been programmed by the Advertisement Industry to be super consumers. We go around with jingles running through our heads , and we get excited about premieres’ of movies and DVD release dates. All because of the way they have programmed us.. They market toys and gadgets to us from a very young age. The understand how we work better then we do and they use it to remove the money from out pockets. It is not a conspiracy it a fact that the more we pay attention to hype the more we get sucked in.
Support Grant Stanley and understand he is going to jail so that the MPIAA and the RIAA can keep control over you. Understand that they want control and we have the power. Voting can help. Not buying their crap will take the winds out of their sales. My music is my music. My movies are my movies. And you are all welcome to come and share it with me.
I don’t understand why people who break the copyright law don’t think the law should apply to them. I really don’t. My theory is that people who are generally law abiding in most of their lives have to construct massive rationalizations to keep on thinking that they are “good guys”. In my long life, I’ve found that people will steal if they think that there’s hardly any chance of getting caught, and if there is no obvious victim close at hand. People just can’t help the urge to get something of value for nothing if the chance of punishment is very slim. I’ve done it myself, (copied software, etc) but I don’t kid myself that there’s nothing wrong with it. If people think there’s nothing wrong with obtaining copyrighted material without paying for it… then they are just lying to themselves to maintain their own self image as somebody who is basically a good person. If you want to do it… fine, go ahead… just stop lying to yourself. My attitude about this case isn’t “Oh those mean FBI people!” it’s … “Damn… sucks to get caught doesn’t it?!”
Americans…
Welcome to 1984. Big Brother is watching you.
That’s awesome. Federal prison? He’s probably somebody’s bitch already.
Don’t know why everyone’s so worked up. We all know he was stealing, he knew he was putting himself at risk.
As Johnny Cochran said, “If you can take the prison buttsex, don’t do the crime.”
Of course, shoulda been “If you can’t take the prison buttsex, don’t do the crime.”
Just like their name shoulda been MaybeNotSoEliteAfterallTorrents.com :)
Proof-reading FTW!
Just wait for Internet 2 to arrive … you think your controlled now - you ain’t seen nothing yet.
You can’t even upload any video at all without an expensive tv station (FCC) license.
And even if you have a license it will depend on the content.
It’s a fascist/corporatism takeover … just hope Hell doesn’t come to your house anytime soon.
damn thats scary, hope he does okay, the messed up thing is that movie studios expect this stuff and they over react, if they really wanted this stopped they could easily do it, its turning into communist russia.
Man; I just still don’t understand the difference between downloading a t.v show from somebody 1,000 miles away and borrowing the same t.v. show on a vhs tape from your buddy down the street. Same thing. Hopefully in 20 twentys we’ll be laughing about how people used to go to jail for sharing files. Geez, I can pay $1.00 to rent the film or I can just download it. 1 freaking dollar and you’re gonna send people to jail over it?? Yeah, I’m proud to be an American.
No freedom left in the U.S. … If you ain’t a multi billion company, you don’t have rights anymore… But the one to keep silent about everything and ignore what’s going on around you. Same with the US Coast Guard in the GreatLakes…
Pur insanity…
Jacob, you’re right — $1 isn’t very much at all. So why not pay it?
Hmm, let’s see…pay a dollar, or spend the next half-year getting raped in jail? Face it, dude was dumb.
Elite torrents was shut down like 2 years ago. Also, any reputable bit torrent private site like elite torrents today is operated in places like the netherlands where anything goes. They’ve already unsuccessfully tried to shut people down there, example pirate bay. I’ve heard pirate bay has redundancy to the point that it’s virtually impossible to shut it down for more than a few hours.
Plus, we’re talking about the guy who programmed the site, not Joe user downloading their full DVD’s at 400kbps haha. Soon it will be faster than going to the video store.
If big business wasnt so greedy, they could have found an alternative that people would actually buy into and pay for but I’d say its too late now for the current generation of media at least.
waaaaaaaaaay ?????????
i think this not good
http://www.lo7a.com/
what you Americans need to ask your politicians is whether they support you the (common men) or the motion picture / recording artist sadomasochistic billionaire association.
And then c\vote for the party who supports you.
That is called democracy.
i hope it works ;)
or else lets have dictatorship like cuba china russia.
“I don’t understand why people who break the copyright law don’t think the law should apply to them. I really don’t.”
I didnt pay the royalty the last time I sang the 19th century “Happy Birthday” song, something for nothing scofflaw that I am.
Copywrite law has become entirely perverted, I refuse to support it.
I support prosecution of thieves like this, Anmol, and will be more likely to support any politician who agrees. Thank you for asking.
The US Attorney would hope to send a powerful message, these case are like spitting on a forest fire, so the powers that be’ll take anything to spread some disproportionate fear. The problem is our laws. They’re not keeping up to reflect the people’s actions in the information age. Its a balance of needs, the need to spread information is currently overwhelming the powers to stop it.
The comments on this thread indicate that there is a real lack of understanding about the role of bittorrent and admins who promote copyright infringement. If a user installs bittorrent, and know his bandwidth is going to be used by people he doesn’t even know at moments he doesn’t expect, I guess that is the breaks of not knowing what you are installing.
As for copyright infringement, my experience was that I worked for two years on an enhanced operating system and later one of my customers who bought one copy told me that “all hist customers really liked my software”. I sold my software for a fair price and I never made enough money to make up for the time I spent developing it.
The Internet is wonderful, and bittorrent is a cool invention, but distributing copyrighted information is a crime. That’s very simple to understand, and all these self proclaimed computer wizards should have enough brain cells to understand the nature of stealing. Whether it is art, music, literature or code, if it’s copyrighted then the creator has rights. Get a job, make money, and purchase things that you want to have, and hope they aren’t stolen from you.
Hey! I live in Asia…somewhere. I’ve downloaded THOUSANDS of songs, put them on CD and listen to them in my car and my office. I give them to my friend free. So what?
If I go to the local market I can buy CD’s and VCD’s of exactly the same songs for $3 or $4. The music moguls can’t control the world, only that little bit of land you call USA (U Suck Ass!). Ha Ha!!! Come and get me dickwads! I’m waiting.
Oh! But wait. There are just so many of us. Will you have time to find us all? And what if the IP address you claim is downloading is wrong? Or worse, I have hijacked the IP address from a little old lady who lives in Pasadena? Or even worse, I am one of the millions of Chinese living somewhere in the middle of Middle Earth. Hmmmm, that could cause a problem, couldn’t it? How are you EVER going to find me. Good luck!!!
Let this serve as a reminder to all american voters, to vote Bush and his cronies out of office!
Wow, what some of you repliers lack in political understanding ironically (and unsurprisingly) make up in being very politically vocal. I cringe hearing how “evil” these USA copyright measures are and how “we” should vote out politicians who support such “ridiculous corporate money-hungry schemes”.
Let’s get real here - if it weren’t for USA copyright laws, who would protect the thousands and thousands of developers. producers, distributors, etc., and anybody else dependent on the success of the sales of those works of entertainment to retain an income for themselves and their families? Is not ~money~ the only motivator these industries have to continue investing in new films and movies, new games, new computer software, etc.? If we were to eliminate these laws and legalize pirating, wouldn’t we be effectively destroying future development in these industries?
It’s a bitch to be financially struggling and to see top executives in any industry making the big-bucks, but that does not give justification to steal from them. Rather, let us appreciate the opportunities this country provides to advance ourselves, through hard work, to “big-buck” status… and let us continue to reward those, financially, with the time, investment, and labor they have endured to put that entertainment work you enjoy on our store shelves.
all i can say is thank god i don’t live in the united states. i mean come on, getting these cds off the internet through torrentz is no different than me borrowing my friends cds and copying the material to my computer and making copies for myself. The internet just cuts out the middle man and gets me the music faster.
i would like to point out the fact that these “artists” that create the music we all love and listen to are just the same as some of the garage bands i have seen, the only difference is that the “artists” have soundboards and millions of dollars to digitally enhance their voices. These artists make tens of millions of dollars every year for making one or two albums.
Now i know that a lot of work goes into those albums, but i mean come on, i work a hell of a lot harder than these people and i’m happy that i have enough to make my house and car payments as well as bills and still have enough left over to enjoy the small things in life.
So the very fact that we have just stolen 10 million dollars from them by downloading their cds does not bother me in the least, because god forbid they should have to downgrade from their 20 room mansion that they live in by themselves in some cases to a 4 bedroom house and give up their 20 different kinds of luxury cars and SUVs.
The very fact that these some of these people “work” for 1 year to create an album that they make 20 million dollars off of and think that THEY ARE SO HARD WORKED DISGUSTS ME. I work anywhere from 5-7 days a week anywhere from 10 to 12 hours nonstop and i can guarantee you that i don’t make 20 million damn dollars a year, cause if i did, i wouldn’t need to work, any other person that has actually had to work for a living could truly appreciate the kind of money these people make.
What they spend in one day is equal to what some of us will never see if we work every day of our entire lives. So while i do enjoy their music, i think these “artists” need to be taken down a peg and i feel no bit of remorse for taking a hole twenty dollars away from them, or for whatever other money they lose because heaven forbid they cant add another level to each of their 23 million dollar 3 story summer mansions.
i hope that downloading increases and these “artists” are forced to come live in the real world with the rest of us.
Hahahahha ….USA, the bastion of democracy…hahahah….what a joke….
[quote comment="17685"]I support prosecution of thieves like this, Anmol, and will be more likely to support any politician who agrees. Thank you for asking.[/quote]
Democracy == What majority wants, happens.
Majority of ppl are using p2p’s.
minority are suing them, if p2p is really killing them then why is that they still are millionaires ?
[quote comment="17574"]US Citizens (and other target market slaves),
I just returned from Iraq and saw how it works outside the U.S. [/quote]
Hi Soldier,
You’re in a unique situation in that you were ‘over there’, do not seem to be brain dead/washed like so many poor enlisteds and are willing to say your piece online. It would be good for those of us in the US to know more about the situtation over there.
For all others, did you know that American newspapers hardly ever publish info about the casualties of the Iraqi war? We’re fed only jingoistic slop (”terrorists must be caught no matter the price”) that the Hearst conglomerate allows.
You have to work to find the realistic picture if you’re not plugged into online shources. Lately, however, even the standard news media has been publishing news that the majority of the US citizens are ‘grumbling about the necessity for the war’ and Bush’s ratings have not climbed out of the 30’s no matter what new distractions they create (e.g., “Wag the Dog”).
It’s a good thing that the media seems to have jumped on the ‘hip’ bandwagon where casting a wary eye at the going’s on in Washington is becoming the smart thing to do. Whatever works. Media stars who openly criticize the war and G.W. Bush are no longer getting boo’ed off stage but are receiving standing ovations. And those stories are getting published!
Yes, it’s been utterly crummy living in the US these past 8 or so years. Alot of unemployment, rising costs, a pall of depression over what could be a wonderful, buoyant, free place to live. But, as an honored US icon once said, ‘The fat lady ain’t sung yet’. It’s not over, and maybe it’s just beginning.
Here’s to Freedom!
BarbaraCat
Damn u government, why don’t u just worry more about sexual predators who DIRECTLY abuse women out there and their families
peace of shit and nothing else…
My stomach always turns when I see perverts spreading groundless fear. Evidently some people fantasize extensively about homosexual gang rape. Prison rape is less common than street rape, in reality.
I admire this person for having the moral courage to go to prison in the fight for freedom. I’m glad that it won’t be very inconvenient for him (5 months). I’m happy that it will cost the federal government nearly a quarter of a million dollars, but feel sorry for the poor fool taxpayers who have to pay for the MPAA extortion racket.
The U.S. can put a supposed copyright infringer in prison, but they still cannot find Osama Bin Laden. Am I the only one that sees a problem with this?
US style…
dosnt FBI has other business’s to deal with, like catch terrorists or something
I cant understand all this crap about the FBI etc… I see that instead of going after the sick b*stards, making money off little kids with their DIRTY vids, they go after a good communtiy that dont hurt no one but the rich b*stards that can afford it anyhow. The f**king FBI need to get their prioities straight, but i hear they are all perverts anyhow so they are probably getting their prioities right. :(
i think basically the same as ‘mr illegal downloader’, artists are capitalists, theres nothing wrong with capitalism if its used correctly, but all artists are out to make money from the general public in any way possible, e.g. gig’s, albums, singles, posters, tshirts, this makes them very wealthy i.e. millionares, but the general public are not millionares so how is it fair.
Music is art, art should be shared with everyone. I dont think it is fair that the art i.e. the music can be sold on a plastic CD in a case for £12.00 ($22.00) when the disk and case costs pence to produce and ship.
I think that if bands should make their money by performing live and maybe by selling memorabilia, LOL! pop music would be buggered! Stupid computer generated booms, bangs and various twittering voices and sounds xD how can that be played live LOL, oh well, CONTINUE DOWNLOADING ‘ILLEGALLY’ AND POP MUSIC WILL BE IRRADICATED AND GIVE WAY FOR MUSIC ACTUALLY MADE WITH INSTRUMENTS NOT ‘TOOLS’ SUCH AS COMPUTERS!
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…
hmm, boohoo? too many crappy music artists around anyway.
i’m sorry, is anyone dying in iraq over this “horrific” crime?
Just found your blog on Google and really enjoyed your writing style. Picked up a couple of great ideas so Im adding your blog to my Bloglines account to share with others.
I think the problem here is content. If your selling a movie that somebody will only want to watch once, then yes we are talking about alot of lost revenue. But if this is a movie you would see in the theatre and want to own the DVD to see all the special features and watch it again and again, then isnt P2P sharing really just another form of advertising? Same goes for music. a CD has 10 songs in a cheap plastic case, with no bonus video or cool artwork, then download it. Its about people tired of being fed the same bullshit. If art(music/video/books) is actually art then people will want to support it. I know lots of people that download stuff to try it out, and if they like it they purchase the original. I also know of alot of artists that dont have a problem with downloading. I dont know what to say about software, i dont download software except for trial versions, and if i like it i purchase. Sucks that people are going to jail for this but theyll be able to write books about it and sell them on Opra, so smile for the cover jacket. :D
Imagine this…
Inmate: what you in for?
Stanley: Copyrigh infrignment
Inamte: Really, Im in for man slaugter
I agree with Charon Why isn’t the FBI focused on REAL Criminals rather than cyber ones… Its a waste of time they could be using there resourses so much better to track down REAL criminals… this is just stupid
fuck the fbi mmmmmmmmmmmmmkkkkkkk
i love torrents and there still going strong….infact….even stronger than ever before…soooooooooo fuck the police fuck the police fuck em
its obvious the laws ar’nt keeping up with the technology.The copyright laws were written for books and records,with a few changes peged on when TV and video recorders came about.It dosnt aply to the internet , BUT it is a good way for big companies like Warners to protect their $$stash
by lobbying the US polititians.Power in the hands of the rich ‘AGAIN”.
Im building a social site for shareing home movies , but with a twist, we dont have admin .
all the admin stuff is decided apon by members,cause were to lazy to maintain etc.the problem is when we went to lawyers about the obvious copyright issues ,there is no clause for interactive wiki style upgradeing of websites.Even if we have the members doing the admin sign employment forms!!So even if the community is the admin, i get chucked in jail cause im the creator.
My site:www.chair2there.com
when are the US citizens guna realise it ai’nt a democracy if the masses have no power or rights and their polititians only listen to rich lobbiests????
Do it safer. Do it better. Do it faster. Before you can’t do it anymore.
Read this guys, How to get everything online for free hacks. Good stuff.
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1174909/3256425/
Move to Canada, download until your hard drive is full, quit the scene, write an ebook, give it away on demonoid.
Find out you still have to delete all that shit on your hard drives, because your ebook got to popular. Support the scene. I agree with feedbacker, a drive is in order.
I used to be a tiny small part of the inner strength which damned and destroyed USSR.Well, later on canadian immigration authorities made everything to lock me in jewish country. And today another authorities trying to terminate my free access tothe CULTURE. No way!I’m NOT a terrorist, just LET THE POWER ($) FALL.And I do not care about any democracy wherever demo = asshole. That’s true…I like George Orwell, Robert Fripp, Bill Rieflin and many more.
i say fuck it and lets all just move to canada
Solution is simple folks.. FTP through VPN. Screw US gov and any legal bandits in any office. Let them have fun
trying to get to my 5 level segregated network FTP server. Not everyone is a noob like the FBI. And yes it is all
about control. Look at Microshits!! (UNIX kicks ass!) And they’re dessacrating the true intent of the creation of
the internet, which was for the freedom of data and information exchange. Way to destroy the dream. I wonder if
God spoke to Dumbass Bush directly again about this!? Stupid misguided retard her is! He’s the biggest threat to
everyone’s freedom itself.
Ever since that moron has been in office he’s threatened everyone’s civil rights and liberties from day 1. First
clue he’s a retard is the fact for the longest time that uneducated moron couldn’t even pronounce “nucLear”
properly. Right M. Nukilar White house fucktard?!? JFK was taken out for less than this idiot has caused. Not to
mention R. Reagan had an attempt on his life too and the man was a good man as far as I know. Ok he was a bit of
a dweeb, I agree, but a good man non-the-less. The million dollar question remains why is this current redneck
retard still breathing? Another thing that scares me silly today is the way Bush brains is taunting the Koreans..
If his track record keeps up it’s just a matter of time before he fucks up with them and *WE* all end up paying
for his lack of intelligence!
And todays north american democracy is nothing less than a hypocritical Dictatorship. Keyword there is DIC! At
least in a dictatorship you don’t waste your time and money voting! If Bush’s intent really was to get rid of all
weapons of mass destruction, he’d of hung himself the second day in office! We’d all be happier for it! Not to
mention safer!
As far as Copyright infrigements are concerned, no one complained back in the 80’s when you’d sit there in front
of your sound system waiting for your favorite song to come on and record it! as far as I’m concerned, this is no
fucking different! Live with it you fucking rich ass holes! If I really like what I hear, of course I’ll
encourage my favorite band by buying their material anyways. Just to get the original box and lyrics. Even tho I
know for a fact that the artists get literally pennies off the purchase price. Over 85% of the price you pay for
a CD goes right the Label company, 10%+ goes to the retail store, and then the artists are forced to pick up the scraps and made to look like a hurd of wild pigs, when in fact it’s everyone else who shamelessly rob the artists!! Fucking dick-head thieves!! So bottom line, FBI, go fuck yourselves or go after the REAL crooks and leave us alone you fucking sell-outs!
HA! Like piracy and the internet can EVER be stopped or controlled! There are too many hellbent genocidal NERDS out there like me. What will the internet inevitably destroy next…..? MWAHAHA!!!
[quote comment="17426"]Dam that rele sucks…..
if those bastards ever come after me ill make sure i dont give up without a fight even if it means destroying my hdd as they break in the door[/quote]
Congratulations for adding to the collection of immature comments on this post. First, destruction of evidence will get you in even more trouble. Second, if you are actually doing anything illegal (and BitTorrent is very shaky ground — somewhat extralegal, in fact) you are going to be prosecuted either way. And finally, Feds won’t come and break in to your house; they’ll send you a letter telling you to turn up in court.
Much like that CEO whose name escapes me, sometimes being charged with destroying evidence carries a lesser penalty than the actual thing you’re being tried for.
If you’re a big-head pirate (not a torrent admin), destroying your hard drives might be the best strategy, but only if the cost of being found guilty outweighs the punishment for perjury.
You all are so screwed…
The RIAA/MPAA and their master evil entertainement company can sue the entire planet and shut down the all internet it will not make us buy any crap from them again until the are dead in the sand!
BOYCOTT! BOYCOTT! BOYCOTT! AND BOYCOTT!
We need to take back our countries and fre ourselves from all these evil multinational corporations, TV movies, music banking! let clean the place folks!
Don’t bother with the law. it is not our law. Don’t bother with judges and attorneys! The game is rigged against us and we should not be playing with all these parasites anymore.
No Justice No Piece!
No Justice No Piece!
No Justice No Piece!
[quote comment="17485"]im glad he went down! may his thieving soul rot in hell!
most of us are smart enuff not to be caught….all n00bs must die!!![/quote]
Everyone starts somewhere, I don’t guess you were ever a “nOOb” or did you just start out knowing everything already.
May we all rest in peace with all our cyber downloads!!!
49 references to this post
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.