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Link ‘Pirate’ Sentenced to Pay $13,000 to NBA, NFL, NHL, WWE and TNA

Earlier this year the U.S. authorities arrested Yonjo Quiroa of Comstock Park on suspicion of operating several websites that linked to unauthorized sports streams. Following his arrest, Quiroa was detained for more than nine months, and he has now been sentenced to time already served plus deportation to his home country. In addition the site admin has to pay restitution to five major sports leagues, totaling $13,000.

Under the flag of Operation Fake Sweep, the Department of Justice and Homeland Security’s ICE unit seized several domains belonging to major sports streaming sites in February.

In addition to pulling these sites offline the feds also arrested 28-year-old Yonjo Quiroa of Comstock Park, Michigan. Quiroa was apprehended for allegedly operating nine of the seized domains and was jailed pending trial.

The sites in question, including hq-streams.tv, sportswwe.com and sports95.com, did not host any infringing files but listed hyperlinks to streams offered by popular third-party services such as Justin.tv.

In the criminal complaint an ICE officer states that through these links he was able to access unauthorized streams of NBA, NHL and WWE events. The complaint further noted that during 2010 and 2011 Quiroa grossed $13,000 by running advertisements on his sites.

seized

In the months following his arrest Quiroa was held in custody without bail. In August he avoided trial by entering a guilty plea for a copyright misdemeanor on the understanding that he would receive a sentence of between 6 and 12 months.

After nine months in custody Quiroa was sentenced late last week.

District Court Judge Robert Ellis sentenced the former site admin to time served for one count of criminal copyright infringement. In addition, it was ordered that Quiroa should be deported to his home country after paying $25 in criminal penalties.

The largest monetary penalty, however, comes from the restitution he has to pay to several sports leagues. The $13,000 Quiroa earned in revenue was counted as losses to the sports majors so the NBA, NFL, NHL, WWE and TNA will each get $2,600.


Losses and restitution

losses

The verdict is the first against the operator of a sports streaming link site in the United States and sets the bar for similar cases in the future.

This includes the pending case of Brian McCarthy, the owner of Texas-based sports streaming site Channelsurfing.net, who was arrested Match 2011.

The sentencing for a lesser misdemeanor crime also raises questions about the looming extradition of UK student Richard O’Dwyer. The U.S. wants to extradite O’Dwyer for his involvement in TVShack, a site linking to TV steams.

The Department of Justice has yet to comment on the outcome of the current case. Interestingly no press release was sent out, unlike in February when the arrest of Quiroa was widely distributed over the news wire.

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  • http://twitter.com/Anime4PSP Anime 4 PSP

    Welp, at least losses =/= 100000000000000000000000 like it would be with media companies

  • Anyone

    misdemeanor
    if the DoJ follows their own laws that would mean O’Dwyer could not be extradited

    • $$$$ Lock em UP $$$$

      Nah, they will try to make O’Dwyer plead guilty to something else.
      Justice and law is irrelevant.
         Prosecution goes out to win, not get justice.
         Throw all sorts of charges at them.
         Kept in custody without trial, using “bail”, until you plead guilty to something.
         Pressure a “PLEA” deal, admit guilt of lesser charge to get out of jail.

      That’s how the American criminal system works.
      America has the highest incarceration rate in the world per capita, for a reason.

       
       
       
      “Land of the free” …..pffffttttt

      • SS77

        It is “land of freedom” indeed but behind the bars …and all of you know what happaned behind the bars , always the boss of jail fuck other in ass …LOL

        that it is USA – a big mess , junk , a big lie & hipocricy, a big jail = criminal maffia and slavery system propaganda

        Go away and stay away form USA and their Ue servants , soon or later all of them will be fucked up and collapsed …something floating in the air …it is the time of change

        • Andrew Lee

          LOL thanks I needed a laugh :P Really though jail is not like they make it out to be on TV I know. I have had a few encounters with the law myself over my drug habits.
          What happened in jail was two things I became a pro at spades & jailhouse rape alright alright JK about the spades. Seriously though it’s not that bad in jail it’s just time and since I fucking love to read I had no issues passing it. <3 James Patterson books :)

      • Xplorer4x4

        Yes, because you can post some stats means this is not the land of the free. As an American I will be the first to admit this country has plenty of flaws, but 1. This has jack to do with this story. 2. People commit crimes, they get locked up. Yes, it is messed up when a pot dealer gets more time then a murderer or rapist. Yes pot should be legal, but we have laws like any other country, and when you break laws like killing some one or raping some one, you get punished.If you want to prove your case try breaking those stats down and show exactly what the rate of incarceration is per crime.

        • nanoTomics

          God you are dumb.

        • Fabulous

          I like how people always compare murder with everything else. Murders fall under a different law… It’s again human nature to hurt one another. Period! The rest is regulations & rules made among based on personal opinions…

  • DrDavidKellysCorpse

    But there was no copyrighted material on the server.
    It seems peasants can’t AFFORD to operate in the grey areas of law.
    Meh.
    Can always murder/suicide…

    • Dondilly

      Such link sites along with pirate bay should be considered as news sites. They report the existence of content along with its location or identity and act as a valuable news source to the public and enforcement alike. The authorities and big media are holding the news site responsible for the activities or the public and the pirate source.

      If you extend this logic to its natural conclusion, what about prosecuting a news site for murder after they report a murder and publish a photofit of the assailant.????

      Both cases are reporting news and in a position to gather info otherwise unavailable to the authorities. Yet the former is prosecuted while the latter is commended.

      The fundamental difference is that the authorities and their paymaster medIa companies are at polar opposites with public opinion and so willing to trample on 4th ammendmet rights.

      It should also be remembered the very reason the right of free speech was protected was to safeguard against persecution when the authorities didnt like it.

      Compare a

      • Anon

        “If you extend this logic to its natural conclusion, what about prosecuting a news site for murder after they report a murder and publish a photofit of the assailant.????”

        No. Bad analogy. Infringement remains illegal. It’s more like a landlord earning rent on a building he knows is being used for illegal activity. That in and of itself is illegal because it should be. Piracy, duplication and distribution of products you do not own is also illegal because it should be.

        Now go whine about your bribed judges. lol Has anyone on this site EVER bothered to offer actual evidence of bribery? oh. I didn’t think so.

        • IHaveNoBalls

          “Has anyone on this site EVER bothered to offer actual evidence of bribery? oh. I didn’t think so.”

          Not everyone believes that judges are bribed. They can make bad decisions though. And yes infringement should be illegal but at the same time, suing someone for vast amounts of money uploading a few songs or censoring websites should also be illegal.
          So what you are seeing is the public vs corporate interests, people are frustrated because it seems they have no say.

        • Guest

          Yawn, By your logic Google should be prosecuted for linking to pirated material and too pirated websites.

        • Guest

          As Google is making money from the adverts on its sites they should also be prosecuted for profiteering from Copyright infringement also. If the reason that Google doesn’t get prosecuted is because it complies with DMCA takedowns then Megaupload was wrongly shutdown because they too complied with DMCA take down requests and also they too profiteered from adverts on its sites just as Google is doing so right now!

        • Fredrika

          > “Infringement remains illegal.”

          Breaking the law remains illegal? Are you sure? Since you felt it necessary to point that out, i assume that’s something generally unknown among the public?

          But you are saying that linking is legal then, since linking naturally isn’t considered infringement in most sane countries and regions, like for instance the worlds strongest economy, the EU? You know the place where the only growing parliamentary group now advocates legalized filesharing in accordance with the Pirate Parties political program? The place where political pirates have been elected to hundreds of governing positions over the last couple of years? The place which dictates the copyright rules to the weaker economical regions such as the US?

          Ok then, it’s legal.

          > “That in and of itself is illegal because it should be. Piracy, duplication and distribution of products you do not own is also illegal because it should be.”

          Heavy argument, really. Because it should be.

          You can’t really get around that..

          Well maybe one could change the sentence to it should be legal because it shouldn’t be illegal. Got damn, It worked!!

          So i guess the pirates won the debate then, by using your own argument? Does this mean you will give up now, since you just proved yourself wrong once and for all?

        • ScrewEwe2

          “If you extend this logic to its natural conclusion, what about prosecuting a news site for murder after they report a murder and publish a photofit of the assailant.????”

          No. Bad analogy. Infringement remains illegal. It’s more like a landlord earning rent on a building he knows is being used for illegal activity. That in and of itself is illegal because it should be. Piracy, duplication and distribution of products you do not own is also illegal because it should be.

          Now go whine about your bribed judges. lol Has anyone on this site EVER bothered to offer actual evidence of bribery? oh. I didn’t think so.

          ____________________________________________________________

          Anon, I just copied and pasted your stupid post in whole, as is. Is you is, or is you ain’t gonna sue me for plagerism? I gave you credit for your stupid post, but I’m not in a position to give you credit for anything else.

          Edit: On second thought, I’ll give you credit for making arguments that will never change anyones mind here on TF.

        • Who

          you are an Idiot.

      • Joeblow

        Haven’t you ever heard of “facilitation of a criminal enterprise”? Linking to sites defined as conducting criminal activities is itself illegal. Making money by doing so makes it more illegal.

        If a landlord knowingly let one of his units be used as a brothel or meth lab or illegal gambling operation, the landlord would be criminally negligent for “facilitation”.

        Know the law. Then don’t be all whiny when you knowingly break it and get caught.

        • MadAsASnake

          Pretty much the whole world can be found “guilty” by association. I’m unaware of sites being defined as “conducting criminal activities”. MPAA / RIAA blather does not count I’m afraid. Simply knowing that some thing illegal has been done by someone else is neither facilitation nor aiding and abetting. In your landlord example, you’d pretty much have to rent the house knowing that was the purpose they were intending to put it to. In regards to links to media, there is substantial fair / legal use and no reasonable way to identify infringing use. Presumption of guilt offends most legal principles, by the way. Don’t be all whiny when you find that others you dislike haven’t acted illegally.

        • nanoTomics

          The biggest facilitator of crime is the DOJ

          There negligent because their actions are facilitating copy right trolls…

        • Joeblow

          My landlord example indicated that he knew of the criminal activity.

          The MPAA/RIAA does indeed count. Just read the DOJ/ICE “website taken down” screen at the top of this article. It is unlawful to reproduce or distribute copyrighted material.

          Facilitating such distribution by KNOWINGLY linking to such sites that a “reasonable person” would interpret as reproducing or distributing copyrighted material (as well as non-copyrighted material) is also a criminal act.

          If DOJ can make a case that this guy knew he was linking to such sites, a charge of criminal facilitation is possible.

    • Who

      its all because of copyright trolls that THINK something is pirated. they clearly don’t know the TRUE meaning of it.

  • Liviodoublefang

    I’m at a loss for words on thus one. How can one be charged with a crime if he was never in possession of the material to begin with? Shit is getting deep in America and someone needs to stop this.

    • Violated0

      I expect to DoJ got him to agree to say “guilty” to a minor crime just so they could get a guilty return to bash everyone else with. He made so little that he was not worth much to them.

      Most interesting is that if the DoJ did a large Court case they may have lost against him. He would agree with this agreement when a large case would last years with the DoJ appealing every ruling against them.

      So only a win because they scared the crap out of him, he took the easy route out, then nothing about the law was proved here except that the DoJ are annoying bastards.

  • Dondilly

    The largest criminal penalty isnt the$13000, it is the cost of the investigation, court costs involved in the seizure and trial and the cost of incarcerating this guy while pending trial. This criminal penalty was borne by US tax payers.

    All this guy was doing was reporting what was out there. If the think about it, such sites are a valuable resource enabling anti piracy groups locate pirated content.

    No or little real loss to media companies as most viewers of such steams are in locations/countries where the events are not available.
    If the media companies had any sense, they would use such sites to assist in sales marketting as they could identify untapped demand in country X and pitch the event to a broadcaster in that country for the next year.

    With TV broadcasting rapidly moving to IP streams, why are these companies trying to maintain the outmoded regional markets or last century when a 21st century broadcaster can have global reach.

    If the media dinosaurs driving these pointless prosecutions, make them fund the full costs incurred.

    • TheyBeCriminals

      ‘With TV broadcasting rapidly moving to IP streams, why are these companies trying to maintain the outmoded regional markets or last century when a 21st century broadcaster can have global reach.’

      Because they need all the precedents set so when they do eventually move to the internet these corporations will own it.

      • IHaveNoBalls

        That’s pretty much it. All this time we have been telling the MAFIAA to adapt and give us what we want. Instead they are adapting by changing all the rules to suit them.

        • Dondilly

          The main reason big media is still thinking regionally is twofold, first to keep their outmoded regional supply chain (in this case regional broadcasters) happy and the other is to maximise profits.

          A good example NFL and the superbowl is milked in the USA wi5h games on subscription sports channels or PPV. Here in the UK there is only marginal interest (its just injury averse players in protective gear playing rugby wrecked by rule changes to maximise ad breaks) no one would pay, so any games are broadcase free to air live on ch5 late night and in recent years the bbc has carried the superbowl.

          Trying to keep regional broadcasters ie their outmoded supply
          chain happy is futile. The music industry were against download sales, even drm crippled ones as they saw it would erode their bricks and mortar retail cd sales.

          Ignoring technology changes is always bad business. Just ask Polaroid or Kodak. While Kodak may have produced the first digital camera they didnt develope it beyond being a lowres novelty competing against polaroid and would develope further as it risked cannibalising their existing business. Polaroid wouldnt enter the market for the same reason. Electronics companies and later camera manufacturers with nothing to lose and no film stock or processing interests to protect picked up and ran with the technology resulting in bankruptcy for both kodak and polaroid.

          While the existing broadcasters fight over dwinddling regional rights, the companies best positioned for the 21st century are the likes of youtube (who already host some live events, revision3 and other streaming sites.

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  • Alex

    Disgusting

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  • Danny

    If he gets deported does that not mean he wont pay the fine?

    • MadAsASnake

      Unlikely. Does not sound like much of an income and in the circumstance, it’s unlikely he’ll acquire such an amount in the US. Once out of the US, the morons who took out the case will get, as usual, nothing.

  • IHaveNoBalls

    Whats so funny is anyone can do what he did. Here is a link to a pirated boxing match on youtube.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3diEA40sCw

    Now i am as guilty as him, torrent freak is guilty for allowing me to post. Torrentfreak’s server hoster is guilty for allowing them to allow me to post it..
    Google is guilty for linking to the the page.

    Its a joke. Where does it end.

    • http://torrentfreak.com/ Rob8urcakes

      And all of us who read your excellent advice can now be charged with conspiracy to commit copywrong infringement because you very kindly taught us all how easy it is to do so.

      Yaaaayyyyyy, I’ve always wanted to visit the USA and now I get free trip c/o of their CIA or whoever is stupid enough to ‘police’ this copywrong shit, lol ;)

      • Who

        “copywrong shit” LOL stupid is as stupid does.

    • IHaveNoBalls

      I also forgot that youtube if guilty for hosting the “infringing” material on their actual servers. How could i forget that, its like the most important point.

      and lol Rob8urcakes, u made me laugh :D

    • Violated0

      It seems the world is changing when years ago it was clearly established that there should never be a problem with linking to what someone else put on-line when only to make and distribute your own copy would be a problem.

      The issue now is that right holders do not desire going after the many individual infringing copies going around when it is just too many, too much time and too many problems going after them. So they instead hit the middle linking site in question when that separates many viewers from the links without them removing any of the original sources. Not to forget that many official streams can simply be reworked out of the limited zone,

      Then the whole problem here is that people in power are now supporting them in their goal of always attacking the weakest link. Don’t attack the sources or uploaders when that is a public attack so attack anyone else who can stop it like announcement sites and ISPs,

      This is now warping the law into something it should never be,

  • Arg666

    They’ve deported him. How are they going to make him pay back the $13k?

    • ScrewEwe2

      Once they deport him the only thing they’ll get out of him is the middle finger. Does anyone know where he’s getting deported to? When the first article was run a few months back, there wasn’t any info on where the guy is originally from.

  • Guest

    Wow, I’ve done a felony and got less time than that.

    • Catsarepeopletoo

      What did you do? you cant not tell us what it was, now i’m gonna be wondering for ever

  • DunFooo

    NO way man, how messed up is that. These kangaroo courts crack me up man.

    iz-anon.tk

  • SS66

    GO SANDY GO GO DESTROY USA ! Finally someone or something must to do and finish this job , this maffia union must be totally destroyed for good world !

    • Asashii

      remember that the next time you need foreign aid!

      • IHaveNoBalls

        Haha foreign aid, a classic, you’re bring out the big guns eh. why do you think these countries need aid in the first place.. hahaha, foreign aid, what an argument :D

      • Anyone

        you mean foreign aid the US needed for Katrina?

        • Who

          AIDE is paid for by tax dollars, the government pays NOTHING

        • Anyone

          @Who
          I actually meant the aid foreign countries send to the US after Katrina

        • Guest

          Yes, but local aid would have been a good place to start

      • SS7

        REMEMBER THAT – THE WOLRD DONT NEED USA ! USA ENSLAVE OWN AND MESSED ENTIRE WOLRD ! if you dont see this maybe you need a new eyeglasses , new brain – becouse you are blind and foolished manipulated also

    • Anyone

      Sandy is on the wrong coast

    • MadAsASnake

      Unfortunately, SANDY isn’t targeting Chris Dodd. A lot of people are dead and a lot of people have seen there lives ripped apart – it’s nothing to celebrate

      • SS7

        dude – sorry to say but all american USA people are part of this criminal system , all of them pay taxes and sustain this shit , all of them are manipulated slaves and tools in hand of dirty corporations , all of them are quilty for what happened , and i can say even me and everybody on this wolrd are quilty ! WHY ? becouse we let that to happen , we dont stand up and fight against system – and system fuck em up all of us one by one except big fat greedy riches and corrupted political class ! Think why things go wrong in the wolrd , why doenst exist justice , freedom , why people dont have decent life even work hard , why more then 70% people from this world are slaves (work like slaves without real rights) and dont have real acces at education ,culture , medicine , etc etc dont have rights , home , lands etc etc , why all of them are manipulated and foolished , etc etc ! I WILL TELL YOU WHY ! Becouse nothing change for more then 2000 years , always riches , leaders manipulate lie and use people like slaves to have a luxury excentric life , to keep this status for they and for their descendents , they doenst care about people , about polution ,nature distruction , about wasting resources , they care just about maintain status – discover develop and keep new forms of manipulations – religions , law system ,multimedia TV etc etc

  • Just Me

    well atleast the sums that he had to pay are somewhat realistic. Not like the 1,6million dollar penalties the one person got when sharing a ~14 track cd..

    so would call this an actual “sane” judgment… even though I dont completely agree with the law behind it..

    • ScrewEwe2

      I think the sums the MAFIAA uses for damages are pulled out of the air or their Asses, cuz they usually have nothing to do with reality.

      • Fabulous

        Yeah I’d like to see a detailed breakdown how they calculated the lost to be equal to that amount. Maybe like a profit & loss statement or something. How can they lose on something they weren’t charging for in the first place? or what is their profit calculated per game?

    • Who

      LOL that was fake and set up to scare people in to NOT file sharing anymore. it DIDN’T WORK LOL

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  • Asashii

    something about a bull and horns

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  • JordanKratz

    I am a US Citizen and I want you to know how much I hate my Government.I want you to know how much I hate the MAFIAA A-Holes.And how much I hate SCOTUS the Fuckwad Court that gave us “Corporations Are People” .
    Right now the A-Holes are hearing a Court Case that could be used to stop us from selling anything Used which we bought and own.
    I am on a Boycott of all things MAFIAA.They will never see a dime from me.
    My plan all along was to Not Buy MAFIAA but would Buy Indie & Local Art.
    If SCOTUS Rules in favor of Big Book Ripoff Publisher over all of us Consumers then I intend on not even bothering to buy anything Legal.
    I will just steal whatever I want for books, music, and films……………..To Hell with it.If I can’t Re-Sell it or Will it to my Son to Re-Sell then I DO NOT WANT IT.

    FUCK THE US GOVERNMENT !

    • ScrewEwe2

      Jordan, did you guy’s feel much impact from Sandy up in your neck of the woods last night? I see you have power. I’m sure the MAFIAA are happy as hell about the damage and power outages due to Sandy, because it means there will be a miniscule reduction in piracy for a while in the N.E. US.

      I see on the News that the replica of the Ship used in the 1962 version of “Mutiny on The Bounty” was lost at sea and sunk due to the Frankenstorm. Pirates should salvage the ship and use it as propaganda for a “Mutiny on the MAFIAA” movie.

      • JordanKratz

        Just a bunch of wind with Rain which at times would be a Downfall but that was in bursts.
        Portland did not get it so bad.We got lucky here.
        And yes the ship sank and some guys lost their lives as well.Last I heard two had drowned.It was a tragedy to lose such a nice craft and to lose human lives.

        Some people on News Comments had said they wondered what that ship was doing in such a storm.They were speaking as to why the ship was not put into a safe harbor.
        The News on this will unfold today or the next few days.
        Sad tragedy.People died.
        No, we should not be using this beautiful ship or the tragedy for our cause.
        MAFIAA You Suck !

    • SS7

      dude , im glad to see you arent foolshed manipulated by this fucking system , better to emigrate somewhere in East Europe , there is much freedom now then in USA , i was there and system is much fair , also you can buy a house and some land , you can grow your healthy crops , organic natural food without chemicals , without so much polution and manipulation !

      “Corporations Are People” indeed it is slave dumb manipulated people – slaves of greedy fat bastards , part of criminal system which focus on making Money and how to foolish people to pay more for shit Not on care of people , not to care of nature

      And yes keep on Boycott , i will never pay for maffia , i will emigrate , i dont wanna live in countries like USA , i dont wanna pay taxes for they and dont wanna see my money used to manipulate , to lie , to kill inocent people in stupid wars , i dont wanna see people hate me becouse sustain maffia , also i dont wanna see my childrens live and destroyed by system of crime

  • Anonymous

    so, linking has now become a prosecutable offense, punishable by fines, jail and even deportation, courtesy of the US government, at the behest of the entertainment industries, yet again! one of these days, the public are really gonna kick back over this shit! it wont be pleasant! with the EU now bending over to enter into copyright discussions with the USA, we are heading towards a totally censored internet that wont be worth having. atm we are supposed to pay for access to the net and we can do almost anything. in the very near future, we will still be expected to pay for the ‘net but we will only be allowed to do what the government says. even that wont be consistent because what is/will be legal in one country could mean a person is extradited to another country that deems whatever you were doing is illegal. no one will know whether their arse is punched, drilled or bored until it is too late. we can thank the US entertainment industries desire to control the ‘net for it’s own use, in it’s own way, this shit! if the public had pushed back when it first started, instead of sitting back with the ‘it wont affect me’ attitude, perhaps things would have been different. they certainly would have been if there had been a kick off over having to be connected to the internet every second when someone wanted to play a game. you had bought a disk but couldn’t play the game until 500meg more was downloaded, an account was set up and all personal details were given to the maker. what a fucking joke!! and it is gonna get worse!!

    • Chronoss2008

      you should get a million people to link to somehting definately infringing
      go get xampp and then everyone brag at a hollywood site your doing it….let the court system put a million people into it all a sudden and see how your debts get paid….without any taxes….

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  • Ophelia Millais

    What I find interesting about this case is that he could’ve been fined, but wasn’t. The court only ordered him to pay restitution, making amends to the copyright owner for the “value” of the infringed content. That amount was $13,000—the amount the site had taken in from advertising. If the guy hadn’t put any ads on his site, what would’ve happened? Would the case even have been brought?

    • MadAsASnake

      The case was about taking the site down… would have happened anyway. Legal costs wii dwarf this, and they won’t see a penny anyway

  • Guest

    I guess that the Judge Posner ruling that linking to copyright streaming was ok went out of the window then.

  • joexxx

    Bad ruling and a very dangerous precedent. This judge should be suspended.

  • Bastardo

    So, this one day, this guy stopped me in the street and asked me where the local supermarket (Tesco) was. I gave him directions and off he went. Turns out he got caught nickin’ a KitKat. Now I get a knock on the door from the police, seems I am guilty of shopliftin too, seein as I gave him the directions to the store. Now Tesco are suing me for loss off revenue cos if I hadn’t given him the directions in the first place they wouldn’t be down a KitKat ! Thats not all, now Roundtree’s (who make KitKat) want a slice of me too for my ‘crime’. Then just as I thought it was all over, the fuckin cocoa bean growers association and fair fuckin trade want to sue my arse aswell !!!! HELP ME SOMEONE !

    • Chronoss2008

      HE you breathe oxygen like me and if you’d not been born you’d not have committed that crime above so we have to go through allthe above and sue your parents now too.

      woot lazy people sure do have a lot a ways to make money don’t they…NOW the church will fund this aspect cause they want you to never ever anyone have sex without there approval….

    • Joeblow

      You obviously know nothing about the law in the US.

      Giving directions to a store subsequently robbed does not rise to the level of “criminal facilitation”. Telling someone that you know a store that keeps its back door unlocked over night and the security guard goes to get some food at 2am and is gone for an hour…that rises to the charge of criminal facilitation if the store is robbed by the person whom you told.

      If this guy linked to websites that he knew hosted copyright infringing files for the purpose of distribution, he indeed facilitated a criminal enterprise.

      You don’t have to like it, but that’s the case.

      • Anyone

        how does he know what other sites host?
        for all you know he could have created the link when all the content on the other page was perfectly legal

        that’s why punishing linking is stupid, you never know when the page you link to changes

        • Pelham123

          “how does he know what other sites host?”

          He advertised what they were hosting on his site and sold ads as a portal. He was basically setting himself up as an alternative to the networks that owned the content.

          Now, we should be legally protected if we click on these links (and right now we are), but what he did will never be legal, not even when P2P is confirmed to be legal.

        • Pelham123

          And yes, I do think there is a distinction between what he did and what Google or TPB or Kickass Torrents do. He marketed himself as an alternative to the original source; they don’t. Right or wrong, the law will never let somebody do what he did.

      • Wallace

        “If this guy linked to websites that he knew hosted copyright infringing files for the purpose of distribution, he indeed facilitated a criminal enterprise.”

        This case is not about hosting “copyright infringing files,” which by the way is usually not a criminal enterprise.

        You obviously know nothing about the law in the US, and you also lack basic reading comprehension skills.

  • http://twitter.com/Mathew30 Mathew Lisett

    and google has yet to be arrested and treated the same

  • Pingback: Estados Unidos: primera sentencia histórica contra el operador de un sitio de enlaces « BlackBerry Warez | Blog

  • Chronoss2008

    so in future one day linking to a ad company that shoves ads at your site your then responsible for any legal action cause hte ad company say makes a boo boo and sends an ad that gets you in legal trouble.

    see i can see this future….gonna be fun…think google….

  • pcGnome

    I find it interesting that the banner of the seized site mentions everything but TV, which is the offense. You’d think they’d mention it in the banner as no “movie, music or game” was involved ….

    pcG

  • Chronoss2008

    ICE should update that notice
    he didn’t reproduce or distribute copyrighted material…..he linked to it
    as above poster is saying they should add

    reproduce , distribute or tell the gangster where the store to rob is located YOU are breaking the law , so the moral here is to never be helpful and curse at anyone asking for directions or asking for help.
    call them a scum sucking piece a shit pirate and walk off….

    ( when you get beat up don’t say i didn’t warn you its not the way to be )

    • Chronoss2008

      p.s. i dare any real musicans or actors to do this ….i love stories where they get the crap beat out of them …

  • Guest

    $2,600? Are you kidding me.The NBA, NFL, NHL, WWE and TNA wipe their asses with that kind of money.

    The $13,000 Quiroa earned in revenue was counted as losses to the sports majors.

    So if he had no ads then he wouldn’t be charged for anything? Why don’t they go after the ad company? Bunch of idiots.
    But then i can google search and find a site within minutes to watch anything lol.

  • Who

    @ Andrew Lee: O really not like how they say in movies? LOL I know an ex con that would tell you other wise.

  • Who

    @Joeblow: you are an idiot, the way you worded all that crap EVERY ONE is breaking the law. LOL

  • Who

    @IHaveNoBalls: OMFG some one knows what the hell they are talking about on here.
    nicely put.

  • Pingback: United States: first landmark judgment against the operator of a site links | Tech Crash

  • GeorgeDWarren

    Let me get this straight, i am a bit confused.
    Under the same logic, if I speak out a link to an infringing stream in public, say on a bus or on a train, i could be arrested and charged?

  • zhochi
  • Guest

    The best thing you can do is turn off the TV and RADIO. Lessen your dependence on big media and what someone else thinks. Get to know your neighbor and family members instead of some imaginary brain-fart musings of a nameless producer.

    Don’t purchase any entertainment media, or at least curtail your viewing habits. And also don’t download. Without an audience the “power” of the industry will weaken all on its own. Just like magic.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZD4NGSQBUC4AL2A67BCGKHBNWE AKP666

    Does anyone know if you can challenge Copyright Laws as infringing upon Property Rights, because does a receipt not imply a bill of sale? Legally the physical property is transferred into my ownership and the data is part of the physical property? It almost seems as if the RIAA and MPAA are trying to use Copyright Laws to enforce some type of Leasing Agreement and that would mean the retailers are misrepresenting their sales transactions. Leasing agreements are explicit contracts.

  • Pingback: La primera sentencia contra el streaming ilegal

  • Anonymous

    That’s probably more money than TNA Wrestling makes in profit from their pay per views, if you believe the rumors about their buyrates.

    • BeBeINC

      haha, i was thinking the same xD

  • Kay

    There are all these online casinos that never get busted for US clients maybe location needs to be reviewed?

  • Thom

    So now that they have deported him, he can go to his parent country, set up shop again, host servers outside the US, and be out of arms reach from the US DoJ. LOL. They just cut off their own balls. ROTF.

  • Pingback: EE.UU. condena y deporta a administrador de sitio de streaming de deportes | Descarga de Programas Juegos Música Películas

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