Warez Scene Member Sentenced to 18 Months Jail
Written by enigmax on September 20, 2008A member of the pioneering warez group aPOCALYPSE pRODUCTION cREW (aPC) has been jailed for 18 months. Barry Gitarts, also known as ‘Dextro’, was sentenced after he was convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Copyright Infringement. Thus far, there have been 15 convictions of aPC members.
aPOCALYPSE pRODUCTION cREW (aPC), was thought to be first organized ‘warez‘ group to coordinate the pre-release uploading of mp3s to the Internet. Founded in 1997 by members known as acid^rain and Viper, aPC’s forté was the pre-release of music CDs which they obtained from music industry insiders and magazine workers. The group was raided as part of Operation Fastlink.
According to evidence presented at his May 2008 trial, Barry E. Gitarts, aka ‘Dextro’, operated and financed a server based in Texas which was used by aPC to store thousands of music files, movies, software and games. The New York resident was convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Copyright Infringement.
On Friday, Gitarts, aged 25, was sentenced in Alexandria federal court to 18 months in jail for his role in aPC.
Another ex-member of aPC, Jacob Stahler, aka Lunatik, was on the witness list at the May trial, and there has been speculation that he testified against Gitarts. Stahler himself was also convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Copyright Infringement, but was later sentenced to just 2 years probation.
So far there have been a total 15 criminal convictions of aPC members, including that of Mark Shumaker of Florida (aka ‘MarkAlso’), a previous leader of the group who already admitted criminal copyright infringement back in 2003.
Previously: Linking to P2P Downloads Confirmed Legal in Spain
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54 Responses
Someone quick.. reinvent the internet!
Why are they arresting and jailing people for what is basically ‘handling stolen goods’? Surely, a slap on the wrist would be sufficient. Then the authorities could spend some quality time jailing the industry-insiders and magazine workers, the true culprits in all this.
Well, that’s lame. Sending someone to jail bacause of that, why not send the actual criminals to jail instead?
Dan.. are you mad?.. arresting CRIMINALS?.. thats just INSANE
go back to that warped bunker you’ve been living in for the last 420 years
“Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Copyright Infringement.” ?
What the hell is that ?
Talk about making up laws.
#6
1. your a retard. this was a scene group that released music, not films
2. your a retard because this really isnt a jailable offence, AT ALL
3. go troll somewhere else you moron
better start using Wipeer. google it..
#6
I think I know who you are! And no, I will not post here your name.
@6
everything from your name to the shit your wrote is solid proof that anti-piracy idiots like you really are 100% certified IDIOTS
@6 isnt a “anti piracy idiot”, but a old school troll who is feeding himself from your emotional responses. So stop feeding those already!
The real “anti piracy idiots” dont write on unimportant internet message boards.
Criminal copyright infringement is a jailable offence, and it is a proper crime. It is usualy reserved for large scale piracy operations and organized bootlegging. In both cases its the ‘for profit’ nature that gets the ass rape treatment from the courts.
People know the consequences, yet there is excuse if there own opinion on the USA and co law. Get over it, stop whining and don’t upload if you disagree with the punishments. I download myself, but it pisses me off when people whine 2 years is too long for a jail sentence. Get used to it already, that’s the way it is.
OMG is everybody going to jale now?
Greetz, Zippy
http://www.torrentin.com
The “GUD, CRAMNALS IN JAL LOLZ” people are only trolls :)
“Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Copyright Infringement.” ?
What the hell is that ?
Talk about making up laws.
What that amounts to is talking about doing something illegal. If you talk about copying something copyrighted you’re planing to do something illegal, therefore conspiracy.
I’ll give you some truth about the USA right here right now. What with the wall street fiasco & the idiocy of bailing their asses out to the tune of trillions of as of yet unprinted dollars, it is unlikely that new laws will be adopted anytime soon to fight piracy, as in P2P. I suppose President Bush can always print more. However public outcry will hopefully prevent it. We haven’t seen the last of the wall street crash I predict! It is foolish to fight Hollywood’s problem of their perceived profit revenue loss due to piracy, besides, the government has no business in the private sector to that degree.
damn where are all these troll(s) coming from?
i hope everyone is doing their job and boycotting the malicious companies who lobbied for these twisted laws.
LET’S NAB ALL THEM MARIJUANA USERS AND MUSIC FANS, THE OTHER GUYS ARE TOO MUCH TROUBLE!
2 articles back you can find
Police Arrest ‘Wanted’ P2P Pre-Releaser
This person pre-released the movie wanted and receives:
he faces up to 10 years in jail and a $95,000 fine.
and now take a look at this article and you will see this guy gets 18 months… now thats a strange law isnt it.
pre-releaser can spend more time in jail than a scene member.
@21 the man arrested two articles back was in japan
#6’s name or pseudonym seems to be Dick Masterson according to the stupid ass website that he put as his name. If you truly believe that men are better then women then you either are VERY GAY or A LOT more ignorant(it means STUPID!) then those supposed “criminals” you keep insulting that are going to PRISON NOT JAIL! Jail is for one year or less while PRISON is for one year or more! Also you said”…illigally(I left in the spelling mistake) download criminal copies of…” First, it is “illegally” NOT illigally! Second, what happens if I illegally download a NON CRIMINAL copy? LMAO! WTF Do you mean “criminal copy!” It should be a crime to be as fucking ignorant as you! Then YOU can go to prison and enjoy some of those “HUGE chocolate poles” that you seem to REALLY LOVE because of the way you’re raving about them!
!!/\/\/\/Obama & Biden 2008\/\/\/\!!
@16 “What that amounts to is talking about doing something illegal”
More accurate would be to say adding the “conspiracy” tag means it was a collaborative effort ie: you may not have committed a crime but where part of a larger effort to make it happen.
Back to the matter at hand though, to be honest I’m surprised, in the US, that a so called sceener (especially one that may have provided financing to a key part of the operation) would get away with so little. It’s sick that it is surprising, but it is none the less.
To clarify my own statement before I get shredded… I meant that it’s surprising that they would get so little time in a place that slaps dang near anyone in jail for anything that offends the media cartels. Re-reading it came across another way at first
I guess ive been conspiring to commit infringement every time I turn on my computer; US courts are a joke. Come get us in Canada MAFIAA/MPAA your lobbied copyright bill just died on the order table. Your puppets in parliament have been exposed. Cant wait to see the next move. Canadians will be waiting :P
Last comment – whoopee!
well where are the details?
how did they find these guys?
this article is pretty sparse :/
Obviously ridiculous, but when nobody protests it, should it be such a surprise? This is what happens when nobody tries to resist. Each and everyone one of us, myself included, are allowing this to happen by doing nothing. Things can get only worse thereby.
Roze
http://www.28chan.org/apstdt/
False Imprisonment Class Action Suits
For how much 30 Million?
@13
No, it does not have to be the way it is. It can be changed, copyright law itself must be changed, and decriminalize it. 3 years is definitely too long. The time in jail should be reduced to 0. The consequences are unjust, and disobedience to the law is okay. If you don’t agree with a law, one should strive to break it as much as possible. We are not disagreeing with the punishments. We are disagreeing with the punishments for copyright infringement.
you can read some select court documents at http://www.piracyisacrime.org which explains a lot (the goverment’s opinion is included as well as the original complaint)
1% of america’s population is already in jail, is there room?!
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Makes me sad. Really sad. I pray for their soles, hope he’s on probation anytime soon.
“Piracy” is called a crime, but all-but-perpetual copyright terms for “rights-holders” who in the vast majority of cases weren’t the actual artists who CREATED the “product” is perfectly fine. The vast majority of stuff shouldn’t even BE under “copyright” anymore, but the RIAA’s lobby-bots have managed to ram through extension after extension — SHIT on the “public domain” over and over and over. Now we get more people imprisoned for something that shouldn’t even be a legislative matter at all.
But hey, we ARE the “land of the free” after all. (Oh, and Iraq was really about “democracy”.)
To #2: Seth Kleinberg (a.k.a. “basilisk”), 26, of Pasadena, California, pleaded guilty on March 8, 2005 and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Sentencing was originally scheduled for July 1, 2005, but has been delayed to January 6, 2006. He admitted to being a supplier for Fairlight and Kalisto while being Executive Editor of Game Over Online Magazine. The case is 3:05-cr-00049 from the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut
FUCK what wrong with people ruining people life just for filesharing?
“It can be changed, copyright law itself must be changed, and decriminalize it.”
Technically it CAN be changed, but actually doing it is another matter. Copyright law is controlled by the government, and the government is corrupt. The politicians serve whomever gives them the biggest contributions, meaning the media industry. They only people who can change and reform the system are corrupt people who are now profitting by it. They have no incentive to change it. Vote them out of office? You have to vote for somebody and no matter who you vote for, they’re either corrupt already or will be after the corporations get done making their donations. On the slim chance that they ARE honest, they’re completely outnumbered by the corrrupt ones.
Don’t play the game if you can’t take the heat.
Transitively, don’t take the heat if you’re going to play the game. The heat parses, the cloud debugs and the crashes like this are a shame, but so is everything else. Every step exponentially encroaches irreality – can heat ready big bang?
lock em all up and throw away the key.
If you value your rights online, don’t vote for Obama/Biden.
Biden is in bed with the RIAA and is against Net Neutrality. :(
hack the planet
apc was not the first mp3 group, nor the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, whatever. the mp3 scene started in 1996 by a guy named netfrack who founded cda which was the 1st mp3 group.
apc was a product of 2 groups that merged. i forget though. apc and rns were 2 of the biggest most active groups a long while though.
anyway, all ftp/irc/mp3 that crap is behind me. mp3s sucks. flac is where it’s at now people.
to #36:
Seth Kleinberg
basilisk
Supplier for FLT and Kalisto while working at Game Over Magazine
Time Served, 3 years probation, $15,000 fine
Wow, what a load of Crap! The Feds clearly have WAY too much spare time on their grubby little hands.
Jiff
http://www.anonymize.us.tc
Well, never let it be said that these dudes haven’t now been totally pwned. When you go round 0wning people all the time, i.e. ripping off shit they worked hard on, releasing it early and for free to the public, basically slapping them in the face, you’ve got to expect they’re going to get a little bit upset and try and own you back???
good
i will be rap3d in jail
This is a fucking joke. Why are they wasting time on this bullshit when there are hardened criminals selling drugs and killing people. This is why every day i consider moving to europe or hong kong. seriously.
http://www.everythingsucky.com/
EVERYBODY STFU AND SAULTE. Tis a sad day.
Dextro.. you ran the risk and they got you.. you did a good job.. we will see you soon! :(
In the US the jail population is growing growing growning and growing and is reaching a level greater than in Russia or even China!
Now it is just a matter of time for soemeone to organize a nation-wide jail insurection and we will have an army of million of marginalised people that could take down our entire society!
Seriously we will just need that after the financial melt down and the destruction of this contry will be completed!
Good job! Really! Neocons!
Please some republicains and democrates, say something dam it!
Or may be we should constitutionaly dismiss our curent governement and reorganize new election. Incumbant not to apply!
@#6 razer17
“your a retard.”
LOLOLOLOLOL
ironic thieves are ironic.
Shame on Jacob Stahler if he did testify against his buddy, dirty grass
haha never heard of this group
cda -> dac -> rns -> apc, etc…..
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