Warez Bust: MaGE Leader Sentenced to Prison
Written by enigmax on November 04, 2007A 27 year old man has been sentenced to prison on one felony count of conspiracy to infringe copyright in his capacity as leader of the warez release group ‘MaGE’. On top of this he was also fined $5000 and ordered to serve 2 years supervised release.
Last week, District Judge Frank D. Whitney sentenced Justin Paul Emch for his involvement in the ‘warez scene‘ - specifically an offense claimed to have been carried out when he was leader of the release group ‘MaGE‘.
Emch was indicted in yet another action forming Operation Fastlink - a huge undercover investigation carried out by the FBI, the US Department of Justice and Interpol into the ‘warez scene’
It’s claimed that Emch was a leader of the group ‘MaGE’ and worked to supply the group with software. Other members of the group then cracked the software (removed the security/copy protection) and passed the titles back to Emch for testing. The group had a huge collection of copyright material to which Emch had full access.
For his actions, Emch (like a few before him) received 12 months in prison on a felony count of conspiracy to infringe copyright, two years of supervised release and a $5000 fine.
Presumably the authorities will be wanting to keep a tighter grip on Emch than they did with the leader of RISCISO who proved to be quite an annoyance.
Previously: MediaDefender Emails Disprove MPAA Claims
Next: Swedish Pirates Stand Up Publicly To Stay Anonymous
31 Responses
I hope he doesn’t plead guilty like everyone else who has been busted.
Stand up and fight the bastards, this is a difficult case to prove.
My bad, looks like he already did plead guilty.
Why don’t any of them fight?
Pleading guilty is the stupidest thing you could do.
Sending people to jail for copying.
Who are the real criminals here?
Ass rape in jail or supervised release?
Its easy to say he should fight when its not your life on the line. You can go to trial, pay the lawyer bills, and if you lose, face fail time.
Personally, I think he should be caned in public. At least, we’ll all get a laugh out of it.
These people are just wimpy file sharers. They cannot prove you took any part in uploading the content, regardless ALL evidence in cases like this is circumstantial. If you fight it there is a good chance you will win.
Funny how alleged Kazaa downloader Jammie Thomas is forced to pay $220,000 to the record companies for supposedly violating copyright, but Justin Emch only has to pay $5000 (to the US government) for what would seem a far worse crime — and the US taxpayers will be paying the bill for his room and board for the next year.
Perfect example. Jammie Thomas went to trial, lost, and has to pay. Jammie could have paid a smaller amount (like the university students) and moved on with her life. But she took a chance and wanted to prove a point.
Justin Emch just plead guilty and struck a deal early.
Its ironic how u could serve less time for dealing crack.
Odd, I’ve never heard of this group.
Still, ANYONE being punished AT ALL for sharing data online is a bad thing.
IT’S CALLED FUKIN WITH SOMEONES MONEY YOU CAN RAPE KILL DEAL DRUGS AND MOLEST BUT YOU CANT FUK WITH MONEY THAT IS WHY HE WENT TO PRISON SO YEAH YOU CAN GET LESS TIME FOR DEALING CRACK, YOU MIGHT ALSO KNOW THAT WRITING A BAD CHECK 1ST OFFENSE PUNISHMENT IS HARSHER THAN 1ST OFFENSE MOLESTING DONT FUK WITH MONEY
Has anyone ever seen a MaGE release before, because I’ve never heard of them.
MaGE is pretty big actually, seen some releases coming through
and @spycopy
you really should consider a mental check up, and try to find the capslock button….
CAPS is a attention getter. And I had physco exam and it came back that I was A torrent addict.
Unbelivable!
Fine No justice no peace!
you never heard of MaGE, must be kiddin’
http://www.nforce.nl/index.php?switchto=nfos&menu=quicknav&item=search&search=true&group=MAGE
from the only true scene source (defacto):
[quote]
Former Leader of Mage Sentenced to 12 Months
Linux Electrons | 05 Nov 2007 (12:06 AM) GMT | Ipggi | 10 clicks
Justin Emch, 27 of Kenmore, Washington has been sentenced to 12 months prison on one felony count of conspiracy to infringe on copyright. He has also been ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and serve two years of a supervised release.
Emch was one of many scene members netted in the April 2004 worldwide bust known as Operation Fastlink. His group Mage was a minor player in the underground application ISO scene who continued to release for over a year after his arrest.
Incidentally Mage used to include a generic disclaimer in the NFO file of their releases. It would state that the release is copyrighted, and that the warez release was only allowed to be used as a personal backup or archive. This type of disclaimer was quite common in the old BBS pirate scene days during the early 1990s. Obviously disclaimers are nothing more than wasted space.
MaGE LEGAL DISCLAIMER; It is against the law to reproduce copyrighted material for the purpose of selling it to third parties. US Law only allows for you to make one backup copy of any software or media for personal and archival purposes, which is the ONLY intended use for this software. This program is not meant for those who intend on breaking copyright laws. In no way will we be held responsible if you do. Any other use of this software is strictly prohibited.
[/quote]
scene is no p2p enigmax
MaGE only have had one real big scene realse it was McAfee for about 3 years ago other than that its not so main stream aps.
That explains why I have never heard of them, they crack the Apps I would never use.
[quote comment="203533"]Its ironic how u could serve less time for dealing crack.[/quote]
Possession of a controlled substance (not including marijuana) is a Class C felony, and persons convicted may be sentenced from one year and one day up to ten years, with a maximum fine of $5,000.
MaGE hasn’t released anything in the last 18 months. Seems interesting to see this bust happen now.
*nevermind*, already stated
[quote comment="204322"][quote comment="203533"]Its ironic how u could serve less time for dealing crack.[/quote]
Possession of a controlled substance (not including marijuana) is a Class C felony, and persons convicted may be sentenced from one year and one day up to ten years, with a maximum fine of $5,000.[/quote]
Could
plz nobody confuse warez with p2p
sharing a file on a social networking site is not warez
preparation and dealing of warez has always been a criminal action
the way i look at it is.. if they dont want people cracking there programes then they should make the darn things so we carnt crack them.
if they dont want us to use p2p then why dont they creat something to stop it dead.
Now yes its posible to do his and they have all the money in the world to but reason why they havent done it is cos they are tight fookers that dont wanna pay.
I bet bush sits there downloading music,films, i bet the cops do. i bet most of the fookers do but are to stupid to admit it.
Look at demonoi there doomed, they would have to start all over again, they need new domain name and a fresh install of there tracker and start members over again, its the only way for them.
The admin will run out of funds to keep moving demonoid to diffrent servers.
At end of the day if these goverments dont want us doing what we are doing then they should stop it, if they think they can then do it. they are only concerned cos its gonna cost to much money and they dont wanna pay out.
Well give up then and stop trying to bug us into giving up on what we are doing.
We will stand for our rights and always do what we are doing in warzz/torrents world no matter what you say.
Me personaly dont care what you do, i pay my taxses and i work my azzz off..
I have my own torrent site and me running it doesnt break any law. i dont personaly copywrite anything
i dont sell any of it.
Get your facts right, torrents sites dont even have the freaking movies,music,appz on the servers at all.
All we have is a id file to the torrent.
Learn trackers before passing the buck on us.
Theres wars and people dieing and theres alot more places and people that need real attention and help why are you bothering to fook us over when you have better things to do? why carnt you do whats right and help out thoese that are in need of help, why carnt you go arrest the people that realy need to be?
Why carnt you stop the fooking pervs mingling with kids,
why carnt you go stop the people that kill for fun?
why the fooking hell are you messing with us?
we do p2p for fun and it doesnt hurt anyone or anything(well apart from my harddrive)
I will never stop doing what im doing on this internet il keep my site up no matter what and if you banged me up so be it atleast i stood up for myself..
Il sit in my cell happy knowing i defended myself.
fook you cops.
Go do your job where its best served
Ah yes Mage, with excellent releases such as Master Landscape Pro.
Bye!
hey kids lets not send rapists killers and corrupt drug dealers to jail ! instead lets pick on teh copyright downloaders and pirates !!
awww justin. poor guy
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