Slashdot Mirror
First BitTorrent Arrest in Hong Kong
prostoalex writes "Associated Press says a 38-year-old was arrested in Hong Kong for uploading Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality via a BitTorrent client. Hong Kong laws provide for a maximum of 4 years in prison and $6,400 fine for every copy distributed without copyright owner's permission."
Rather, they prosecute bad taste in Hong Kong.
I'd nearly finished that download too! Why don't the authorities pick on the torrents with a lot of seeds to give people a chance?...
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Since when does Hong Kong care about copyright/patent enforcement? The last time I was there I could have gotten a (counterfeit) North Face coat, Rolex watch, and Prada bag, and for about $100US. What gives? 3 movies? I mean, seriously...
The punishment for distributing Miss Congeniality, legally or illegally, should be death.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
We don't have, nor should we expect, the right to pirate movies.
But I love Pirate movies! The Curse of the Black Pearl was awesome!
"I planned within my means and got a fixed rate mortgage, so where's MY bailout?" -cafepress
...$6,400 fine for every copy distributed without copyright owner's permission.
Luckily, there were no downloads of these fine films.
If you're distributing Daredevil you deserve to be arrested, piracy or not.
The truth is that the Hong Kong street vendors selling pirated copies of movies, software, etc are taking a beating from the people choosing to use P2P methods of obtaining their media. A group of street vendors has taken it upon themselves to turn in every BT user they can identify in the hopes that people will quit using P2P and go back to the street vendors. The cops are rather upset about it to as they get kickbacks from the street vendors which have gotten smaller as well.
Mord
Ironic the link is posted on 'iWon' news. Well, he's certainly going to get a prize...
I wonder which this guy feels dumber about, getting arrested for using bittorrent, or getting arrested for distributing crap.
:P
And, I take it that figure is in USD, correct? 'cause I could probably find that much in HKD in my COUCH.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
Hey, anyone want to go see a pirate movie?
What do you mean? This guy is singlehandedly responsible for over ONE BILLION DOLLARS (pinky-to-mouth) of our losses for the year!
</RANT>
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Don't call it a "BitTorrent Arrest" -- some of my best friends use BitTorrent for perfectly legitimate reasons... It's really an arrest for piracy.
Don't call it a "Piracy Arrest" -- some of my best friends board aquatic vessels and kill everyone aboard to steal the posessions for perfectly legitimate reasons... It's really an arrest for violating one-sided copyright laws.
Seems like a fair punishment.
Those were horrible movies and unleashed pain and suffering to those who downloaded them.
I realize the perp is in Hong Kong. I thought that it might be a useful tidbit of info to outline what U.S. law says about this. That's why I prefaced my remark by saying "Under U.S. copyright law."
However, I guess my thought was wrong. I am so sorry.
But hey, at least I learned that I am a douche bag, so it wasn't a complete waste of time...
"That's not even wrong..." -- Wolfgang Pauli
You're not using RIAA-approved math.
He owned an ethernet cable. Ethernet cables can carry full digital copies of almost any move made, and even some that haven't been made yet.
Ethernet cables can carry up to an average of 10 GB/s.
He will live another 75 years or so.
One high-definition movie can be compressed to roughly 1 GB.
Each movie is copied an average of 100 times by other pirates.
Each movie costs the motion picture industry USD25.
Therefore, he is clearly capable of causing at least $59,130,000,000,000 worth of damages (roughly $59 trillion). Maybe more (if he owns TWO cables for instance).
How can we sit around and let people like this walk the streets at night? Can you imagine the financial damage he could do?
Thank God that the police are watching out for us like this.
Associated Press says a 38-year-old was arrested in Hong Kong for uploading Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality via a BitTorrent client.
He should have been arrested for his taste in movies.
I seen it in a documentary on BBC2....