Microsoft Sues Prominent BitTorrent Tracker For $43m
Written by Ernesto on January 27, 2010In conjunction with Lithuanian anti-piracy outfit LANVA, software giant Microsoft has sued the alleged operator of the country’s largest BitTorrent site. Microsoft is demanding $43 million from the defendant and his company for assisting in the illegal distribution of Office 2003 and 2007.
In recent years we’ve seen plenty of legal action against the owners and operators of BitTorrent sites, mostly initiated by the movie and music industries.
This week, Microsoft joins the fight as the software company announces that it will pursue LinkoManija’s alleged operator Kestas Ermanas and his company in court.
The action against Lithuania’s largest BitTorrent site, which is in the top 10 of the most visited websites in the country, has been approved by the US headquarters of the software giant.
The defendant and his company are accused of facilitating copyright infringement of Microsoft’s Office 2003 and 2007 through their involvement with the BitTorrent tracker.
Together with local anti-piracy outfit LANVA, Microsoft has requested 107 million Lithuanian litas ($43 million) in damages at the Vilnius Regional Court. However, under Lithuanian law Microsoft can get up to $53,000 in damages at maximum.
In response to the demands from Microsoft, the assets of Kestas Ermanas and his company were seized and associated bank accounts frozen.
TorrentFreak briefly spoke with the defendant who is pretty shaken up by the news, but is claiming Microsoft sued the wrong people. We were told that as of 2010, he and his company no longer run LinkoManija. Kestas and his company operated the site until December last year.
Kestas further told us that Microsoft’s move surprised him, as the company has never sent a torrent takedown request to the popular BitTorrent tracker. “We informed them that we wanted to cooperate with them, they just had to give us the links to the infringing torrent files,” Kestas said, adding “they never wrote back to us.”
In addition to Kestas and his company, Microsoft is also pursuing legal action against LinkoManija’s users. In November last year, 106 users of the site were reported to the police and one of them will go on trial next month.
Previously: iPhone Pirate App Software Nuked Over Legal Concerns
Next: Anti-Piracy Scheme “A Scam & Legal Blackmail” Say UK Lords
123 Responses
Gah, when will big corps understand BitTorrent sites only host metadata not copyright data… ?
“However, under Lithuanian law Microsoft can get up to $53,000 in damages at maximum.”
Why even bother then? They will lose millions in lawyer fees.
The net closes in.
They don’t care what bt sites hold… if they can extort money from someone, they’ll go for it.
And now marks the time where Software companies want their “Piece of the Pie”. Wow they have this whole “Piracy” thing down to a fine art.
Whatever happened to Piracy no longer being a threat to Microsoft?
http://freakbits.com/microsoft-piracy-no-longer-poses-a-threat-to-us-1202/
Honestly they can keep their software, Linux does me fine here! :)
Hi, fellow Lithuanian here. I have no idea why Microsoft would want to do this, however winning this case would be beneficial for LANVA, as this would allow to take down other trackers in the country.
Microsoft once again trying to boost adoption of Sun’s OpenOffice.
LinkoManija.net is sued not for MS Office, but for Windows 7.
Get your facts straight, sir.
Now why exactly do Microsoft need that $43 Million?
Its Bearly even pocket change to them, they probably just want to build a money fort to play in.
Hahahahaha.
The net indeed closes in…
@8 & 12
I got that info from the person who was sued, so I think it’s pretty accurate. You might want to correct your source.
It’s “Windows 7 Ultimate” not Office 2003 or 2007 :)
Microsoft and LANVA do not care about money in this situation.
The only thing they care is to take down Linkomanija.
IF they will win this case, they will start taking down other trackers from lithuania.
Linkomanija.net is not a largest BitTorrent site.. Torrent.lt is bigger
Microshite are two faced hypocrites. They wasn’t so bothered about windows 3.1 being pirated because that served its purpose. That of spreading their operating system far and wide. I guess they are panicking because their browser share has plummeted, their OS is riddled with trojans, viruses and spyware and they are not allowed to sell word. Oh and the fact that Linux has made so much headway. Microshaft have stifled innovation for far too long. The sooner they disappear along with their 2c software the better.
I downloaded office 2007 a while ago but after using it a while i figured there wasn’t really any real benefits over open office. Is it really worth sharing?
@14
facepalm
According to local news sources, actions to shutdown the tracker are supposed to be taken after 7 days if no objection is made. I wonder how this will be accomplished with servers located outside Lithuania?
@12
I’m assuming you’re a Lithuanian like me and have read the local news. Where does it say that K?stas got sued for Windows 7? (the “106 case” is another story)
http://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-appeals-decision-not-to-shutdown-openbittorrent-100106/
n December 2009, the case went to court. For the studios, the outcome wasn’t good. Even though it was agreed that OpenBitTorrent was being used in some cases to facilitate the distribution of copyright works, the Stockholm District Court rejected calls to force Portlane to close down the site.
The court ruled that Portlane would have to be doing more than just hosting the site in order to be considered guilty of contributing to copyright infringement. The District Court’s decision was interim and the issue is set to be settled fully sometime next summer.
Hope this helps.
wait isnt MS ordered not to distribute it cause a that patent the canadian company owns?
Hope it goes torrent community’s way! Very imformative article:)
With OpenOffice and Lotus Symphony around, is MS Office even needed anymore?
Made me grin.
And this is kinda funny considering Microsoft’s alleged reliance on file sharing to spread the early versions of Windows across the world… but then, Microsoft does not have the most moral integrity to begin with.
I’m clueless. Is the site being sued for the sharing of cracks and serials?
Microsoft and Ballmer monkey man have nO clue that torrent technology could save them and is saving them millions and maybe even billions in manufacturing, storage and shipping of it’s software products. After all it’s the licence that is actually worth something and not the installation software.
Naturally, this would mean that every Romanian, Turkish, former Soviet republic mafia inspired hacker on the planet would distribute modified versions of the software so they can harvest identity theft information and create botnets to send spam, etc.
This is why M$ can get a torrent licence, modify torrent technology to close a special version that will checksum the file with their servers to ensure authenticity. Let everyone else distribute the software for them for free, and M$ sells only the licenses.
They better evolve and stay up on the times. Experts are predicting that CD/DVD drives are very likely to go the way of the floppy drive one day. Now with Googles online software, web optimized PC/OS, Googlephone, $25 billion net worth and innovative ideas, they can and will become bigger than M$. Oh and Google isn’t led by some bald Neanderthal looking hump backed monkey man that screams, sweats like a stuck pig and throws chairs around.
Of course once Google dethrones you, then people sells the shares in your company, it’s value drops, and the cycle repeats until the company is a dead husk of what it used to be.
This too is why the RIAA/MPAA is scared of happening to them. They are still managing to remain profitable despite the collapse of our economy. What they fear is that corporate stockholders will panic causing a “run on the bank” share selling causing the media corporations to collapse. If they even dare mention that they are losing the battle to pirates this will cause the chain reaction to their total collapse. Is there any wonder why they meet with lawmakers behind closed doors?
Anyhoo, in nature those that fail to adapt and evolve are doomed to extinction, and the same goes for businesses. If they fail to heed our warnings and refuse to evolve, then let Darwins evolution laws seal their fates.
Funny, Linux is getting strangely more tempting every day.
Microsoft is just trying to get some headlines. Lets all back up the site just in case something happens on a regular basis.
Someone rip the whole site every so many days so if something happens, they can release the site and it can continue. I would definitely seed/share site. Maybe if the site is not mirrored, it could be if not?
I have downloaded many microsoft operating systems (scaled down versions) because their softwear is bloatware for many lower end pc’s (in the past) and I was able to run whole windows os (xp) on just 500 mb or less.
emule is great
blow me if they even get 43$
Microsoft office? Why? Openoffice is way better :)
I wonder whehter MS proper would thank “Microsoft Lithuania” for such PR.
“Microsoft has requested [...] $43 million in damages[...]. However, under Lithuanian law Microsoft can get up to $53,000 in damages at maximum.”
HAHAHA! Who’s got screwed now!?! Although I have the feeling that suddenly the law can change in favor to the giant and crush the midgets. :X I’m making a good backup of my docs etc. right now. In a week or so I’ll finally get rid of Windows and devote my whole time in front of the computer to Ubuntu (Linux). I haven’t used MS Office since 2006 came out (I used it a month or so).People say Linux is crap. Well, I bet they haven’t used it. There is loads of good software for free, performance is great and the visuals are way ahead of Windows Vist or whatever.
PS: Totally agree with you, Unauthorized Content Consumer. Amen to what you’ve wrote! ^^
They better slow down thta sh*t before everyone switch to other platforms.
MS STOP SPENDING THE MONEY YOU MADE FROM US, YOUR CUSTOMERS, AND START PUTTING THAT MONEY INTO MAKING BETTER SOFTWARE.
BSD is also another free OS. Everybody that are be going to switch to another OS should give that a try.
All this thing is because of Windows7 not for the MS Office. I am glad that there are linkomanija.net because I don’t have such a sum of money to buy all that stuf.
Hahahahaha.
Troooooliiiiing!
$1!
I am tired today.
Who in is mind is stupid enough to download Microsoft office when Open Office and Star Office are doing so well and are free?
lol, Microsoft. Their whole existence is founded on plundering other peoples’ work. Now they want to shut down a torrent tracker for copyright infringement?
Nice irony. I have to say one good thing about them, though. By trying to shut down linkomanija.net, they’re trying to save people from downloading their shit-poor software.
For this I must applaud MS.
A switched to Ubuntu 64(Linux) from 2K after the release of Vista. The night and day difference in speed and stability!
It does everything that Windows is doing and more.
Also the Haking! With window 2K/IE6 my system would get a bug every month!
Now with Umbutu/FireFox not even an attempt after more than a year!
Also there is no stupid registry you have to keep cleaning to keep the system fast.
Let stay away from microslosh!
Office 2003 is indeed illegal, how can they sue for an illegal product?
Maybe this is just the tip of the iceberg. They test the waters in some third world backwater country where laws are weak and lawyers are cheap if they are successful in anyway they will start to go after all the sites.
Isn’t suing a site and a downloader double dipping? How many times do they want to be paid for their crapware?
Ms office is seriously mature software it should be almost free now. It hasn’t really changed that much in 15 years
Microsoft has not been doing to well lately after the Vista Fiasco.
May be this is why. They are in a bad mood.
The #1 country that is literally “milking” Microsoft products for all it’s worth is China.
So good luck trying to sue the Communists Microtards!
Use me and do not make deals with those M$ terrorists.
@24
Ballmer has no clue what he’s doing.
He’s a MAC fanboy that somehow landed a top job in a PC corporation.
And he’s an ego-maniac, which is also why Bill Gates didn’t want to have anything to do with him or his amateur MAC idea’s.
Anyone switching to Linux ( any flavour ) and want a good FPS load up Urban Terror :-)
Its free and legal :-)
I think that any loss on Micro$oft’s balance sheet from file sharing wouldn’t even cause a blip. We are talking about the most powerful software company with questionable tactics, especially with their lack of customer service and releasing a product before its ready.
This is just another corporate giant showing the world how powerful they are by being a bully in the courts.
Download Ubuntu 9.10 and try it. You’ll be surprised how user-friendly Linux has become. You don’t need to find device drivers. Almost all apps are available from central repositories (means you can install anything in 2 mouse clicks).
Try it!
Highly doubt that anybody is testing waters… in places like Lithuania the justice system is not based on anglo-saxon ideology and thus does not rely on precedent.
Since Gates detached himself from the vision of the company ~7-10 years ago, MS has been in a tailspin… so they prefer to do this stupid shit instead of focusing on their core strengths… if there are any left!
who use micrishit office btw? open office rules, there is always alternative free solution for paid programs.
lanva tried to shut linkomanija down for ages and hey just could’t
and now they have a reason to bring ermantas in court and maybe to pay fine for that ms stuff.
dont think they can shut it down as they could not before
so nothing changed tho
Yeah, Microsoft is a joke; just trying to get in the news over what has become a popular target during this global recession – piracy. As if piracy were stamped out everyone would be back to work.
The general public are the real idiots though because they believe that crap being spoon-fed to them by the corporate media. Sad indeed!
The way i see it is like this:
“Microsoft gets sued by many companies all over the world and loses lots of money, so to regain that money Microsoft is now suing Bittorrents to REGAIN that lost money back.”
So even though it can make huge amounts of money easily, microsoft just hates losing money, so it seeks a new place to steal money from. Shame its now the Bittorrent Community.
Microsoft “I want 1 Kabillion dollars” but they can only get max 53k. That wouldn’t even pay for the lawyers 1st class plane trip over there… Epic Fail…
Micro$oft rulez. They own 80% of the market $hare.
Linux, Apple and Vista/7 sucks. I support XP forever!
Seriously guys you can’t find any better OS ever made
Now aren’t these the versions of Microsoft that violated that Canadian company’s patent with something to do with XML (idk, never did read the full article)? Therefore Microsoft is suing a guy for illegally distributing software that they illegally distributed themselves.
And to earlier comments, it is worth it to them to spend a few million in legal fees, if that’s even what it would cost, to shut down a BT tracker and win a battle. In fact it may even scare other trackers into closing down in fear of legal action.
Allow me to add to the comments suggesting Ubuntu Linux as a viable alternative to Windows.
ubuntu linux got my vote
Windows Vista was the worst Windows ever, a total flop; and MS made Million$ ripping off people who bought it. Then, when Windwos 7 came out, MS did not give users of Vista a copy of W7 for free!!!
Microsoft shouldn’t complain because it (they) deserved what it (they) got!
PS: I am loving Windows 7.
Microsoft is always doing this kind of thing, it’s just because it’s not torrents that you don’t pay attention.
In Leeds UK they sued a insurance firm or whatever for using the same copy of windows on every pc they had in their offices, ordered them to pay the license of 100′s of computers. @61 copies of Windows 7 ultimate were available for ages and ages until August 2009 for free and it was legally valid for a year. Anyone how buys a pc or laptop with vista these days get free upgrades so why the complaining lol.
windows 7 is great if you can get some oder software to work .copied xp for me
MS Office 2003 & 2007, both bloated and over priced. I’d use Open Office over that crap any day of the week.
All you guys offering to switch ms office (and so on) for openoffice and other free solutions do not really understand that it is not as simple in Lithuania.
The fact is that MS products are very widespread in Lithuania (one of the reasons because these products were kind of “free” for a long time).
So if you use office only for yourself – it’s perfect to use openoffice. But if you need to share documents with companies, institutions, at universities then it is a pain in ass because of incompatibilities between MS office and free alternatives. Conversion and workarounding takes a lot of time that it is much more cheaper to buy MS office. My sister worked for the company which used openoffice. Since then she says that she “hates openoffice”. And this is not because openoffice is a bad software – it’s because of a lot of frustration and additional working hours then you have to work on openoffice with MS office documents.
I’m sensing that we don’t have a lot of Steve Ballmer monkey-man fans in here? xD
It’s unfair to heap the blame on Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft would be in the exact same situation it is today if Bill Gates were still in charge. Gates simply got the hell outta there because he realized at some point people would stop believing the hype and see their products for the shoddy pieces of shit they were, and he didn’t want to be the one at the wheel when that happened.
So he left Ballmer holding the ball(har har).
But who wants to bet he’s going to his ego and copycat nature get the best of him, and he’ll announce he’s coming back to save MS a la Steve Jobs and Apple?
The lulz. Epic will they be.
@65
Save normally for your own use and editing. Save as PDF to send to others.
@65
I agree that receiving MS Office documents is a bigger problem.
The comments here are hilarious. Windows 7 is the best OS out right now and Office has remained the best for a long time because it is the best. Yes if you’re a home user who hardly uses the more advanced features of the Office then of course you don’t need Office, hell you’re the very same users that moan about UAC but it’s incredibly helpful in the right environments. The world is bigger than your angry fuck-the-system lives. Microsoft are finally getting good again.
@65
I have not used OpenOffice with MS filetypes on any regular basis. What are the issues? I know that Oo is capable of saving files in word formats, so what specific compatability issues are there?
Besides MS format compatability issues are not really Sun’s fault. The problem is rather the ubiquity of MS bloatware and their deliberate document format complications to ensure vendor lock-in and forced program ‘upgarding’. MS refuses to sign on to ODF like everyone else because it would negate their vendor lock-in and they know they can’t compete on a level playing field.
I cannot stop wondering exactly how it comes to be this ridiculous way. People being sued for murder go away clear if there’s no hard evidence. And in this case, court accepts damned screenshot of IP’s in uTorrent client. I can make a picture with Steve Balmer stabbing someone in it – does this put him in JAIL? I really doubt it. Fuck those sick people
OO saves files that are VERY messed up in office, sometimes files cannot even be opened by office again.
Presentations in powerpoint 03 format created in office then edited in open office will have all changed slides as being blank
Also I would add further endorsement of Ubuntu 9.10. With Karmic Koala, canonical has just about brought the linux experience the user friendliness it needs to compete against the corporate OS giants. I, for one, will be an early adopter for Lucid Lynx upon it’s LTS release. When issues do crop up, ubuntu community support easily kicks the ass of any corporate software ‘support’ up one side of the street and down the other. Also, anyone who payed for OSX has purchased a free OS at extreme markup since it is built on Linux. Suckers.
Rboy, I see that you have no idea wher Lithuania calling it a third-world country. :D btw I agree too that the whole fuss isn’t about Office. Indeed there are great office products like OpenOffice that are free of charge and with an opened source. It’s all about Win7/ LOL I think that the big fault lies in Redmond, ’cause they created a crappy OS called Vista. Then they told every one that Win7 would be a fix for this mistake, that it’ll be as fast and needing less resources, but at the same time it’ll be as secure and pritty as Vista. Well, omho none of these promises were kept but nontheless – they told the whole world how cool it’ll be. So no surprise people download it. It’s like poking a dog with a stick and thinking it won’t bite you on the a*se. :D
This sounds like an issue with MSO not OO. OO has never had any issues manipulating files created in MSO to my knowledge, apparently the reverse is not true.
It seems that even mafiaa isn’t even happy about their own doings.
“Yes, Three Strikes Laws Have Unintended Consequences That Even Music Industry Execs Hate” http://bit.ly/a0107m
“Linkomanija.net is not a largest BitTorrent site.. Torrent.lt is bigger” torrent.lt is a porno site…
Just a bunch of retards trashing at Microsoft because they think its cool.
Microsoft On The Issues “Microsoft & Internet Freedom” http://bit.ly/bJ08OL
Microsoft is committed to protecting and advancing free expression throughout the world, even as we work to comply with local laws in the 100+ countries in which we operate. In many countries throughout the world, Internet and technology companies must comply with laws that impact privacy and freedom of expression, particularly peaceful political expression.
In January 2006, Brad Smith announced on behalf of Microsoft a formal set of principles on how our company would address freedom of expression on the Internet, in a speech to European government leaders in Lisbon, Portugal. Over the past four years, we have consistently adhered to these principles promoting freedom of expression. Microsoft’s executive leadership and Board of Directors have consistently supported these principles and remain fully committed to them today.
Ultimate foot in mouth Microshaft.
26 Jan 28, 2010 at 00:26 by Nice Pirate
Microsoft is just trying to get some headlines.
^ Thank God someone finally got it.
Is this the same Office that Microsoft is presently banned from selling
Only stupid people still use M$ Office shit, M$ became a big useless over-rich company BECAUSE of piracy, they did encourage people to use pirated win3.x and office at home so they won’t use anything else at work, where the real big money is and where small companies can’t afford a trial.
Using office nowadays is a crime against reason!
http://openoffice.org/
Go go go K?stas and Linkomanija, we are with you.
No ca$h for Micro$oft.
i got ms office 2003 some time ago via p2p and surprisingly, when installing on win7 ,, win7 found the key on its own ,, no need to enter it ,, i thought to myself ,, ms must have hung in the towel as they should have long ago
anyway screw ms ,, try “back|track”
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/
@72
Linux? OS X is built on Unix.
Although Darwin is free and opensource so you still have a point, kind of. Maybe.
@76
Yeah! Hey, did you know the DOJ only put Microsoft on trial because they thought it was cool, too? True fact.
Huh? Denial? What’s that?
actually ms and lanva wanted 106 millions for everything and thats not only for win7
@75 btw you are wrong becouse you think torrent.lt is bigger linkomanija .nes is bigger and alot better and the only difference is porn becouse you wont find alot of it in linkomanija but still linkomanija.net is alot bigger and people like linkomanija.net more then torrent.lt
So the probability is 100000 users to 106 reported and only one sued …
I can live with that :D
Ppl still use that bloated software ?
Haven’t installed that pos since Google Docs came out…
M$ has a decent customer support and there are pretty good software made by them. I’m using W7 but I do feel ripped off since I decided to go legal when Vista was released… Now that I’m on W7 I can see how crappy Vista was since the same programs and drivers never gave me blue screens and bizarre errors like they did on Vista.
As for M$ Office vs OpenOffice… Give me a break. Open Office is utter crap. I tried it and the only thing that ‘met’ my expectations was the spreadsheet one and for less complex stuff. The PowerPoint similar is plain crap.
You see, I’m not an hypocrite. I do use Windows and Office a lot so I did buy them despite the insanely expensive price M$ asks for them. But that’s it for me, I’m not buying any other software for the next 5 years – the minimum period I believe the software should last. Office 2010 is right there and it’s been less than 3 years. Vista was a fiasco and I used it for less than 2 years. Sorry, my money has limits.
As for the open source OS, Ubuntu is a good alternative. Very good if u ask me. But it doesn’t run games and many Windows applications. So we don’t have much of a choice but to use windows in those cases. When the ability to choose is taken away from me, that’s when there is a monopoly and that’s when file sharing will be the way to go. Pretty simple.
I thought I’d never buy licenses for programs such as mIRC or WinRar but then I found out that they are forever, doesn’t matter how many updates are released. The result? I bought them both (but I’m still using the illegal versions I downloaded from TPB, ironically).
Last but not least, if M$ wants to see less piracy they’ll have to reduce the prices. $30-$50 should be far enough for one to get Windows and install on both his desktop and notebook. Any other path they choose, including suing ppl, will end up in failure and their image being destroyed.
Sounds to me like Microsoft really needs to get over itself already.
Russ
“But it doesn’t run games and many Windows applications. So we don’t have much of a choice but to use windows in those cases.”
You do know that there’s a program called WINE that lets you run Windows apps under Linux and BSD, right?
Wine is not an emulator.
Your domain is now blocked for approx 5million people.. I hope you get perma-banned..
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/LT
there is a few torrent sites in the top 100
I am curently Linkomanija user, and all this storyline started long ago. the government realises that its imposible to stop piracy, they just try to make their lifes as difficult as posible. the real reason of this ridiculosity – just personal reason, spectacular humiliation. they just play damm game. they want us get frightened, and they are almost doing it :) …
The server for Linkomanija.net seems to be in Sweden (???)
But the way Sweden has been going lately, I guess all it takes is a phone call from the US ambassador to the Swedish head of police.
Pathetic.
@65 M$ products are wide spread globally your not any different from any other country. I’ve been using Open Office in my business for the past 3 yrs and personally I’ve used it for the past 5 without any dramas what so ever. Not even in editing documents saved in MS 2007. It’s saved me a pile of money. Even govt institutions where I live have started using it saving their departments tens of millions of dollars a year.
People are stupid not to use it.
Which only proves that you can never trust companies like this. First they say – let ‘em pirate our products than someone else’s, but when they time comes, they close in for the kill. I do not think any of this is of any benefit to the society.
Hey fellow lithuanian guys,
I suggest you take your pink glasses off. Stop being such hypocrites when it comes to piracy and warez. You all tend to forget that piracy is a theft. Here’s a good example why. You don’t go to your local supermarket and steal the most expensive food and drinks just cause you theoretically might get away with it. No, instead you buy what you can afford. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that same applies to piracy. One should use cheaper, GPL or free sofware.
With that said, a few months from now on and your beloved torrent tracker will be history.
While $53,000 in damages is not the RIAA amount of money, Microsoft said they want to create a precedent in Lithuania’s law system. This precedent would allow them to deal with “problems” more easily.
how can you compare something which is limited in numbers (food, drinks etc.) and something that is unlimited (software). If you steal food from a shop, you steal a real thing. And how you can steal something that is virtual? You just make copy of it. For free.
@101,
Copying what doesn’t belong to you is a theft. Just like watching sattelite tv via cardsharing is illegal for instance. Trust me, if you were a developer or someone related to this field making a living solely on creating intelectual property, you would understand this.
It’s a simple fact that most people tend to forget. Most of you guys here are pathetic average Joes that only care about leeching mp3 album, a CAM version of latest movie or download software that you don’t have clue how to use. I really hope by this case when Linkomanija gets shut down more people will understand this.
“Copying what doesn’t belong to you is a theft.”
Theft is when you take someone’s property away from them without their consent. Filesharing is when you virtually replicate a piece of property and then take only the replicated copy, which fails completely to qualify as theft for the obvious reason that nobody has had their property taken away from them, virtual or otherwise.
I uses OS X.
I Lurv Hack1nt0sh!
Also I hav one p3nis.
Wheeeee!
@105
Yeah mate, you just made exactly no sense. Let’s say I replicate your entire hard disk with essential data that makes your living. Would you still not call this a theft? Heh..
See, that’s another case how hypocrite you all leeching monkeys are.
heard rumors that legal action was planned to be taken against LM back when i uploaded there…
sad news, it’s a great group that runs LM
LOL @93
WINE hahaha try high en gaming with that LOL DirectX??? no thanks lolol
Linux annoys me.
They think diversity is a stength but in this case its not!!
They lack a standard having 2 recompile stuff for every linux distro. Let alone drivers and manuals xD
brent, i have no idea who you are, but you are most certainly not right. Lots of awesome and dedicated uploaders and moderators co-ran that site with GBiT. But most of them had to leave the sinking ship way before this case even started. GBiT started to care about money and his ego. So i guess what goes around always has to come around ;)
By the way, Linkomanija has userdb of almost 150K people. GBiT and his other fellow ass-licking admins encourage donations there, so i assume about not less than 20 percent of all users already donated at least $10, which leaves us with 300 grand USD. However, Poor GBiT got his accounts frozen after this case started, so bye bye the money ;)
as a site operator, i can confirm that micro$hit do not respond to replies to their takedown notices. i receive their mails and i respond and then nothing ..
i also want to squash any idea that free donations on a free open site are anything greater than 0.00001% of the monthly visitor count. no exaggeration even a big site struggles to pay the bills and it is no party for the operator. swallow the truth that people are not spending their hard earned cash on bittorrent. look how Vuze backs out of paid services and the MAFIAA back out of Bittorrent Inc
if it was the case that 0.01% of visitors were making a donation, if it was the case that advertising pays, would it not also be the case that the MAFIAA with all their resources would erect their own beautiful perfect torrent site with every kind of content available because there was money in this game?
truth is being a torrent admin is about sacrifice and serving the people in the world who do not have cash … or when they do have cash then buy the real thing
http://www.h33t.com after 4 weeks of hell is finally getting the new code under control … 90% done dudes, thanks for the patience
@Marius
Copyright infringement != theft.
You don’t compare the actual theft of a physical object with the downloading of a digital file. Wholly separate things.
Yes.
What is cardsharing? Is that anything like letting someone else use your TV signal? What on Earth is wrong with that, if so? It’s just like letting someone else come over and watch your TV.
You would also be using a relatively unreliable business model: charging for copies of something that is not limited in supply.
Give me one real-world example where someone copying the contents of my hard drive leads to me being out of business. (Note: the contents must actually fall under intellectual property law.)
lithuania is a just small country with a tupid goverment, which just making a money for them self, nothing bother them, even people, who choose nice talkink persons with nice promises… maybe it’s great idea to make some money with anti-piracy catching software users…
realy it’s not for our country… i can’t even call a country, it’s a bananas country with monkeys imbecils.
lanva’s workers are using same torrent programs and downloadind everything just at work place also using “very legal” soft, win and other stuff…
what can i tell, f*** our goverment cause it f***ing us each day, screw lanva, whos are real jerks and doing same piracy like other…
p.s. there are better os than win :)
p.p.s sorry for my mistakes, i’m just pissed off :|
@107 – Marius:
You fail to understand theft as a legal concept is keyed to a deprivation of property, ie: your tv is stolen and you may no longer make use of it. Copyright infringement such as making illegal copies of a MS operating system does not deprive the original owner of its use, and as such is not theft.
By confusing these distinctly different legal differences you demonstrate a profound ignorance of the importance of language and the law. lrn2lrn
@Micro$oft ,I’ll always enjoy your programs for free,come and get me.
@115
hiro81, as a developer let me tell you something. If you’d be making a living on creating intelectual property, you would actually agree with me. It’s no one but you that fails to realize that.
@117
Oh, yeah, because the pirating of a few thousand copies of on OBSOLETE program will hurt Microsoft that badly.
@117
Marius, as a developer let me tell you something, I make a living on my work and it doesn’t bother me if 99% of the users have my software. The more public have it the better, more distribution, awareness and all that. As long as 1% are paying for it then I am content and I can live with that.
It’s the greedy corporate fat cats who wants the IP down everyone’s throat. The real workers, the lower-level underpaid developers are not at all fussed about IP. We have a development team of 12. Not one of them will agree with you.
Linkomanija.net website stopped working an hour ago. Tracker hosted on different server is also offline. Looks like the whole situation is a lot more serious than people thought at first ;-)
It’s pathetic how people on here justify their stealing. Microsoft could have a billion times more than 700 billion dollars in the bank, and it still would not justify one person illegally downloading MS Office off the internet.
They did the work.
They made a product people want.
They have businesses worldwide using what they created.Thus, they get to get as rich from it is they can.
NOTE that there is nothing stopping the ignorant thieves from actually developing their own software if they hate Microsoft so much.
NOTE that you have no right to steal and use what other people legally own, and created by hardwork, and intelligence.
The rationalizations on here are just plain sad.
If Microsoft is so bad then I suppose people would stop using their OS and software, but that is very far from the case.
Go out and achieve something instead of jealously ranting against companies who have achieved.
Office sucks, and Microsoft infringed copyrights using some XML filter thing without permission; and unlike us, they asked money for it…
So who is the real thief?
you asked why bother??? not for money, for sure. that is to scare the uisers of top 10 site of lithuania to not use it anymore, and to buy the freeking wrong windows, as after win vista nobody wants windows in lithuania!!!!! atleast not to pay for that shit
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