BitTorrent User Pleads Guilty

Written by Ernesto on September 12, 2006

Scott McCausland pleaded guilty today to “conspiracy to commit copyright infringement” and “criminal copyright infringement”. McCausland was a avid member of the “private” BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents, that was taken down by the FBI, May 2005.

This case is the first BitTorrent related criminal enforcement in the US. 24 year old McCAusland could be sent to prison for a maximum of five years.

The plea was announced by Attorney General Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Buchanan of the Western District of Pennsylvania earlier today. In a response to this case U.S. Attorney Buchanan stated:

“This groundbreaking case demonstrates the commitment of the Department of Justice to prosecute individuals who use new technologies to undermine the copyright laws. It also serves as an example to those who believe that there is anonymity in cyberspace.”

When Elitetorrents was taken down May last year, the frontpage was replaced by this FBI takehome message.

FBI’s Operation D-Elite resulted in the permanent shutdown of the Elitetorrents community. The irony of this case is that it concerns a so called “private tracker” that is believed to be “more anonymous” than public trackers. Strange enough, there is no “we told you so” press release from the MPAA yet, but I bet it wont take long.

McCausland is scheduled to be sentenced on December 12, 2006.

(press release)

If you don't like torrents try MP3 Fiesta. They hold nearly 67,000 albums from nearly 17,000 artists. Prices are around the $0.10 mark for single tracks with full albums coming in at roughly $1.00. Tracks are available from 192kbps and they take major credit cards and PayPal

Saved in: All, Anti-Piracy Gangs, Hot Off The Press, Legal Issues, P2P and Filesharing
Tags: scott

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58 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)

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26 Sep 19, 2006 at 16:34 by uknown

davis.
lol. that is so true.
anyway wat einstien said somehow is true. the american law paint makes people look wateva it wants them to look like.
an american soldier who raped and killed wouldn’t have went through the same situation. ik uk. a man who raped a gal was sent to jail when he got out he then raped a gal and accidently killed her. he was senteced for only 6 years. of which he could only serve half of it. 5 years for just doing some pc work!!? wat has the world changed to ???

27 Sep 22, 2006 at 21:51 by Mike A

He probably should have just bought or rented the CD’s and DVD’s that he wanted. Now he will have to watch and listen to whatever the prison guards allow for the next five years.

Or at least he should have taken all the money he saved by not buying and renting CD’s and DVD’s and used it to hire a better attorney.

28 Sep 27, 2006 at 00:44 by Coin

It was nowhere near private.

29 Oct 04, 2006 at 02:02 by Scott McCausland

http://www.cafepress.com/sk0t

30 Dec 30, 2006 at 12:26 by RODDERS

WELL I THINK P2P IS ACE - IF THE GOV. IS SO BOTHERED ABOUT COPYRIGHT THEN WHY THE HELL ARE PC’S ABLE TO INFRINGE IN THE FIRST PLACE THEY SHOULD BE LOCKING UP MICROSOFT ETC !!!

31 Jun 08, 2007 at 21:29 by ScRaTcHeD-ViNyL

This individual should be left alone.

The thing any power structure fears the most is the unity. Just think of how many torrent users there are on the planet. Maybe the space alien pimps in minneappolis could intervene.

If one is not doing immoral things like killing and rape, and if a individual is able to share with thy neighbor, then in my eyes, no crime committed.

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