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Feds Convict Warez Dealer
XaviorPenguin writes "News.com.com.com has a story that says the DoJ has '...landed its first conviction against an American defendant trapped via Operation Fastlink, a multinational law enforcement effort undertaken against online software piracy. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa said that Jathan Desir, 26, of Iowa City, has pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in a criminal enterprise that distributed pirated software, games, movies and music over the Internet.' Desir is the first conviction that Operation Fastlink has done. He will possibly serve up to 15 years in prison when his sentencing is in March 18, 2005. Previous Slashdot articles are included here(1), here(2), and most recently here(3)."
Violent cimes-- the ones that really matter-- tend to be crimes that lend you in state prison. State prisons are overstuffed so if you go in, you get out on parole in a fraction of the time you were sentenced for.
Crimes against property and society, like running a web server or giving someone drugs, tend to be felonies. Federal prison == no parole.
Yeah, copyright infringment is a felony offense, and is under United States Code Title 17 sections 501 and 506. I have seen enough of these FBI Warnings when playing movies on DVD/VHS... Penalty: 5 years in prison and $250,000 fine per work infringed. Harsh? yes. Fair? Debatable? Yep. But it is the law...
Some call me Howie Feltersnatch
Have gone unanswered. What you dont realize is that 'elected officals' only listen to people that are worthy of their time. ( i.e. people or corporations that can 'donate' huge amounts to their campaigns... ) The little people dont count anymore. Have not for a LONG time. And in this fight, the *AA has the bigger pot....
---- Booth was a patriot ----
How do you know which machine has the material you're looking for on it until after you examine it? (ie: you seize all machines to find the 30 you're looking for)
Copyright law violations are a federal matter, rape and murder are a state matter. If you feel that the latter are not being enforced properly then push for reform in your state if after some investigation, you still believe it's not level. Your state may be tougher on such crime that you think, VA for example which doesn't seem that tough compared to some, has the second highest execution rate in the U.S. last I checked.
The irony of your choice, rape, is that it is so often not punished because so many young women lie about it. I know tons of girls who claim they were raped. Some even go so far as to claim that several guys have raped them because their standard of rape is being pushy, not literally forcing them to. One of the biggest problems now are how so many college age women in the U.S. will get drunk, fuck and then freak when they're sobre and cry rape. I know guys who've been caught up in that before.
If you want to blame anyone for rape laws not being enforced much, blame the young women who cry rape as a weapon against guys they don't like. The situation has gotten so bad that a friend of mine watched a number of her girlfriends get literally raped back home in New Jersey and the cops said that since they had no real injuries they wouldn't believe them. The only way to get justice back is to take all of the Tawana Brawleys and lock them up in the deepest, darkest hole in a maximum security prison, "coed" and let Bubba have some "real sweet meat" for a change.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
The sad thing is that the E911 document was originally valued at $79,449 but had roughly the same information as the "BellSouth E911 Service Interfaces", available for $13 from a Bellcore catalog (_Hacker_Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling).
Maximum sentence for rape is variable from state to state, whether it's a federal issue, and whether it's aggrivated or not. Aggrivated rape carries a maximum of life in prison, otherwise, it's 20 years max.
State rape statutes here.
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It's rare for the federal government to claim jurisdiction in cases of rape or murder.
1% of federal prisoners are serving time for sex offenses, 3% for homicide, aggravated assault, or kidnapping, 4% of a prison population of 180,000. Federal Bureau of Prisons QUICK FACTS September 2004
To be among the 38% sentenced to more than ten years, you have to had mucked up your life pretty badly.
Wrong...this is not a state case, its federal. He will receive a nice chunk of the 15 years. Read the Federal Sentencing Guidlines. Judges usually and typically do not depart due to potential career ramifications. It has been done...but its not usual. However, if a judge truely believes that 15 years is excessive (and hopefully he/she will), they will depart. Cross your fingers for this kid.
What is amazing to see is this kid is facing the possibility of doing more time than your average homicide, rape or sexual assault criminal. According to the National Criminal Justice Reference System (NCJRS), the following sentences are listed as the average:
Make note this potential sentence exceeds the averages for violent crime, and exceeds the time given by the Department Of Justice to Andrew Fastow, the CFO of Enron convicted of bilking millions of dollars from employees and investors. This poor kid is looking at 180 months. We have a problem with our criminal justice system.
Those homicide stats include manslaughter. Break it out seperately and you'll see that most first and second degree killers get far, far longer sentences.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
Wrong... this is a federal case, but not the end of the world. Judges can depart as often as they want without fear of anything, as long as it is suggested by the prosecution. And, since this guy pled out, it is likely that the prosecution will either be suggesting a "downward departure," meaning the judge can depart downward as much as he feels comfortable given the facts of the case and this individuals previous record, or I believe they can also suggest an appropriate point range to depart downward to, though I might be incorrect about that. I was one of the first warez cases to go through this great court system. I was facing 5 years in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison, but took a plea bargain, got a motion for downward departure from the prosecution, and ended up with 3 years of supervised probation and 300 hours of community service. Every bit of which I deserved, given my level of involvement. The system, believe it or not, works pretty well. The worst part is the patience that it instills in you. This guy already has pled guilty, but won't know whats going to happen to him until a few months from now. It took about a year after I pled guilty to get my sentencing, as they waited for all of the co-defendants cases to be pled out or finished.