Christmas Brings Freedom and Hope for Jailed BitTorrent Admin
Written by enigmax on December 26, 2007After 2005 FBI raid, sk0t, the admin of EliteTorrents, was arrested and subsequently jailed. After serving his time he was fitted with an ankle monitor which restricted his movement when released. This Christmas, sk0t got a great gift - he was allowed to remove his digital shackle. He talks to TorrentFreak.
Most people in the BitTorrent community know about EliteTorrents. After falling foul of the newly introduced Family Entertainment Copyright Act, the site was raided by the FBI, resulting in a few arrests. Sadly, a few people went to jail because they were involved in the uploading of the pre-released Star Wars Episode III, even though movie insiders say that pre-release piracy has little effect on box office takings.
One of those who came to grief was sk0t - aka Scott McCausland - who pleaded guilty - an admission which earned him 5 months in jail and 5 months home confinement. As part of the home punishment, Scott was required to wear an ankle bracelet which monitored his movements. Fitted on July 19th 2007, the bracelet enforced the terms of his release: Monday to Friday 08:30 to 21:00 he was free to do as he pleased. Weekends were more restrictive - freedom was allocated between 08:30 to 17:00. Freedom - proper freedom - was 5 long months away.
Eventually the day had arrived to remove the bracelet. Scott told TorrentFreak:
“On December 19th, I was allowed to, personally, remove my ankle monitor. After 5 months of curfews, and missed occasions, I am now allowed to partake in all the benefits this free world has to offer. After 5 months in prison, and another 5 months on home confinement, I have just one obstacle left: my 1.5 years years left of probation.”
After a couple of years of ruined festivities for Scott, things are really looking up for him now:
“This Christmas has been quite good to me. My first semester back at school is over, I am with my family, and I am off home confinement… the holidays are going well for me.”
Scott hasn’t been sitting around idly since his release. Aside from spending time with his family and friends and buying a new home, Scott went back to school, finished his first semester and got some pretty good grades, despite ‘taking it easy’ with his 4 chosen classes:
BA 243 (Business Ethics) - B
Phil 014 (Love & Sex) - B+
Phil 012 (Symbolic Logic) - A-
Econ 002 (Microeconomics) - B
It’s good to hear from Scott but a little sad that we don’t hear anything from the other guys who also went to jail who must be going through similar experiences. I’m sure that everyone in the BitTorrent community wishes them well, whatever they might be doing.
Final word from Scott: “Everyone have a Happy Holiday Season”
Previously: The Pirate Bay: Torrents and Peers Double in 2007
Next: IFPI: ISPs Should Block BitTorrent and The Pirate Bay
39 Responses
Pages: [1] 2 » Show All
fucking government! that kinda punishment for pirating. jesus fucking christ, i bet it was george lucas behind it.
yesterday i DDoS’d his “fansite” a lot, too. come and get me if you can, lucasarts fags!
Cool
Wow, that’s some punishment just for pirating.
Fuck the government.
Good to see he is getting his grades up. You Americans appear to have given your freedom away to the corporations. It saddens me a great deal as the American people deserve better, because you are better than your legislators.
Hey, did he have any serial killers next door when he was confined to the house? :)
AM
[quote]I am now allowed to partake in all the benefits this free world has to offer. [/quote]
A world is not free when someone goes to jail for sharing.
Unfortunately, our “North American freedom loving legislators” are hypocrites. All of them make empty promises to the American people. They only listen to the corporations that fund their campaigns. Additionally, 99% of them are “followers” who don’t even read the facts of the new technology. They just have footnote opinions of what some corporate lobbying group has to say about filesharing, and dictate their conscience according to what some corporation lobbies for. We have less than 1% of North American politicians who have some quality of “leadership”, and these are usually low profile politicians who are not in Washington D.C. taking orders from the big corporations. That’s the sad truth of our American politicians, and then we the voters have to live with the consequences.
Ron Paul for Prez!!!
We love you, Scott!
A damn shame that you’ve been treated the way you were, but I’m glad to read some happy news all the same. :)
It was a shame to see ET go, but I’m glad to see you didn’t let your troubles take you down. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do with your life dude. Hope you’re thinking of opening another BT site lol!
damn…. that sucks, hopefully the us will learn to live with technology
Stupid government.
Good luck to those who were arrested for such a stupid reason as piracy.
I agree
Ron Paul for president
P2P= freedom.
Shit, that dude must have thought over a lot of shit while doing his term. He must be so happy now, fuck I am glad he’s out.
Isn’t it sad how our groups and movie directors that we love turn into bitches(metallica, lucas)
If lucas loves children so much that he makes shitty movies because of that, then why didn’t he help that poor bloke? It just proves that they are all hyppocrites and fags.
No Justice no piece.
The best way to detroy the credibility of a governement his police and his justice system is to do exactly what the curent governement is doingn right now
Sooner rather than later all those responsible for fucking up our law and trampling the cosntitution will have to pay dearly for that.
There is no free lunch in this world and those that think they can go away with anything are delusional. Mark my world.
fuck the government and those anti-p2p companies.
and fuck the law !
fuckem
Happy holidays and congratulations to Scott. I bet it sucks not being able to run torrent sites and downloading them, as they are probably keeping an eye on you. =\\
[quote comment="248531"][quote]I am now allowed to partake in all the benefits this free world has to offer. [/quote]
A world is not free when someone goes to jail for sharing.[/quote]
Enough said.
being punished for sharing a lousy movie on the net wow …….stupidass justice system this days
Yes, just a bit of imbalance in the judicial system there. Someone shares content, 5 months. Someone incites a group of friends to brutally violate a disabled child committing all manner of obscene acts to his person - walks free because some appeals court judge thinks an 8 month sentence is too harsh.
Seriously, haven’t our courts, prosecutors and legislators got better things to do with their time.
so how do the ‘artists’ sleep at night knowing that because someone thought their shit was awesome decided to let others enjoy it? this whole situation angers me. but I’m taking the higher road. for it’s ‘going straight in 2008′. I’m done with torrents, sharing and working on my exit strategy from technology. it’s time to go low tech. get back into the world and enjoy nature and life. before someone copyrights that and living becomes illegal.
THE GOVERMENTS SUCK. THE ONES WHO MAKE LAWS, THE ONES WHO CONTROL ARE RICH ENOUGH TO BUY EVERYTHING, THEY GOT CONTACTS ETC. FOR US POOR CITIZENS, ETC - THEY CREATE HARSH LAWS. DOWN WITH THEM
Hopefully it’s only a matter of time until him and the others are back in action. Getting caught is just a way of saying “hide yourselves better”, in my opinion at least.
On another note, jesus fucking christ I hate these laws. This isn’t deserved punishment, this is legalized torture. Next thing you know you’ll be hearing about me getting a 10 year jail sentence because I was talking on a cellphone within 50 feet of a movie theater parking lot.
[quote comment="248552"]We have less than 1% of North American politicians who have some quality of “leadership”, and these are usually low profile politicians who are not in Washington D.C. taking orders from the big corporations.[/quote]
That is so true, like one African American woman Senator, or representative who was against Americas debt problem, and Mafias ruling our country. thats right Criminals are running our country, blood thirsty tyrants that wanna kill people forever in Iraq.
but anyways back to her, She cares about us poor people, yet the big place you see on C-SPAN, they shut her up, they don’t want her to make change, they rather be bribed by Banks, RIAA, Special-Interest groups, big lenders, and scum of the powerful.
This woman should be be our president, Why, because she would put us out of debt, 2: She cares about the poor people, 3: She would follow the people more, Yet shes being ignored.
It seems like anyone who wants to be bring change, they are either ignored, or assassinated.
Jesus tried to bring about change by turning over greedy money makers Tables such as like the RIAA, they crucified him.
Martin Luther King Jr. tried to stop the KKK, and racism, and tried to bring every race together, and bring change, oh and let me guess what happened, they killed him too.
Aberham Lincion was I think a guy who tried to bring about change, they killed him too.
Gandhi, he tried to bring change without bloody civil wars, it’s all peaceful change, they shot him too.
JFK was a great guy who wanted to achieve great things such as Man on the Moon, oh yeah they killed him too.
Lets just face it, the Elite, The Bilderberg group, Skulls & Bones, the rockellfellers, rouhchild, etc etc is In Control. If you try to fight them or create change, they’ll kill you, they’ll make file-sharing illegal, disappear any true cures for diseases, they’ll do anything to make slaves out of us.
The file-sharers will never be free unless the Elite were brought to justice, and put on trial for treason.
5months for sharing!! wtf!?! here in aus we have rapists and phedos walking away from court with a slap on the wrist all the time….what is this world coming to….
Pages: [1] 2 » Show All
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.