Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Feds Convict Warez Dealer

Posted by timothy on from the sympathy-glands-are-quite-dry dept.

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)."

8 of 560 comments (clear)

  1. Alright by OverlordQ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Queue "Rapists get less time" posts. If you think this is unfair punishment, lobby your congressmen, complaining about in on /. will accomplish slightly less then nothing.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    1. Re:Alright by networkBoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      True, but I don't know that the punishment is unjust. It partially depends on where he is incarserated. I realise this is a long sentance, but he did pirate quite a bit of software.
      This is not a troll, it is a point ov view from someone in the Tech industry.
      -nB

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    2. Re:Alright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Truth be told, one might get less time in jail for physically assaulting our congress persons.

      But seriously...

      Individuals lobbying congress will never acheive anything. You need a political group (EFF anyone?) that has political clout in numbers and can play the politics game on that level.

      Even that maybe fruitless. One would have to have backing and understanding by mainstream media or an enlightened political leader to take up the cause which won't happen anytime soon. Unless of course computer geeks everywhere formed their own political party and marched on Washington.

      Hey. It could happen.

  2. It's not that it's not fair... by purduephotog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... it's just scary.

    In one case you've destroyed an individual- taken his/her dignity, the right to be safe, the very 'temple' of his/her body with a violent act such as rape.

    In another, we have little bits of signal that have 'more' importance than the afore mentioned victim.

    I have always been cynical and said everything comes down to money- religion, lawyers, corporations- it all revolves around that little dollar sign.

    But when you hear about someone getting locked away for 15 years (sorry Kevin) ... it's just another world.

    And it scares me.

    1. Re:It's not that it's not fair... by MAdMaxOr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Comparing SPAM, warez, etc to rape and murder is an interesting case. It brings up social taboos on putting prices on human life.

      Suppose I ask, "Which deserves more punishment, sending X spam messages, or killing someone?" How high would X have to be for you to think it worse than murder? Many people would say that X can go to infinity, but murder is still worse. But say you send 100,000,000 spams that take 15 seconds each to deal with. You have then robbed society of 48 man-years of time, an equivalent loss to a murder.

      People are willing to concede that time = money and life = time, but they are unwilling to follow it to the conclusion that life = money.

      It would be an interesting criminal justice system that punished in proportion to the economic damage inflicted.

  3. The genie is out of the bottle... by sgant · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I see this going the way of the "war on drugs" in the way they jail people...but is this really going to stop the flow of mp3's or software or movies? I mean, do they REALLY think they're going to stop this now that the genie is out of the bottle?

    Perhaps, they should re-think their distribution methods on how they receive payment for their work/art.

    I don't have the answers or even a suggestion...but jailing people left and right certainly isn't working on drug use...why do they think it will work here?

    --

    "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
  4. 15 Years? My 2 cents by Man+in+Spandex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just hope any 'attempted murder' sentences will last more than 15 years because if software pirates get 15, then convicts arrested for shooting somebody should have double!

  5. The US has come full circle. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Industry in the US, back in the clolnial days, started out by explicitly violating the British patent system.

    That system was intended to create long-term monopolies on many manufacturing processes and devices, such as thread mills and power looms. Part of the point of these patents was to keep colonies agricultural and raw-material producing, dependent on the "mother country" for their manufactured goods (rather than competing with it and becoming a world power).

    The arrival of people with knowlege of mill manufacture, who set up their own plants here, was a major factor in the colonies achieving the ability to break away. And the "mother country"'s attempts to enforce these monopolies produced some of the major greviances that lead to the revolution.

    So now it looks like the US has come full circle. B-(

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way