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Australian Man Found Guilty for Hyperlinking

Posted by Zonk on from the dark-day-for-the-rebellion dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Major record labels are celebrating in Sydney, Australia today. It took almost two years but they've finally won a legal battle against a Queensland man and his ISP for alleged music piracy. Amazingly, Stephen Cooper didn't even have to host the alleged pirated files. All he did (allegedly) was to hyperlink to a few sites that had infringing sound recordings. His ISP didn't escape either. Even the ISP's parent company got sued. No jail time but all parties will have to pay costs."

18 of 439 comments (clear)

  1. lovely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hi.

    1. Re:lovely by Raistlin77 · · Score: 3, Funny

      You sexist pig.

      You anonymous coward.

    2. Re:lovely by kernelfoobar · · Score: 3, Funny

      You anonymous coward.

      He's paranoid you insensitive clod.

      --
      Here we go again!
  2. If he was running windows by farker+haiku · · Score: 5, Funny

    It should be hard to prove he did it... I mean, his machine could have been compromised

    --
    Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
    1. Re:If he was running windows by ObiWanKenblowme · · Score: 5, Funny

      Windows will even warn you if your machine has committed an illegal operation and shut it down for you - that's how good it is.

      --
      Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS.
    2. Re:If he was running windows by Harangutan0n · · Score: 4, Funny

      When I was 11 or 12, my grandmother picked up a copy of Windows 95 for us the day it came out. She must have read about it in the paper, or something, because to this day, neither she nor my grandfather has even been able to figure out how to play Solitare, much less check email, despite my best efforts to tutor them.

      I had great fun, playing around with this pretty new interface. It was quite a step up from programming LogoWriter on our Apple IIGS (we had that computer for quite a while). But my tomfoolery didn't last too long, because I eventually made the computer do an illegal operation, which shut it down.

      I freaked out, because I thought I had broken the law and someone was going to come arrest me. Oh Windows 95, how you let me down!

      (this is just after I had gotten busted by the Man for burning down a Port-a-Potty (it was an accident, I swear), so I was a bit skittish about such things)

  3. In other news.... by dr_labrat · · Score: 5, Funny

    A man in Queensland was found guilty of pointing at a stolen car in the street....

    --
    The secret of success is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake those, you've got it made. (Marx)
    1. Re:In other news.... by Philzli · · Score: 1, Funny

      Same here in switzerland, not conspiracy but still guilty (for something I can't remember)..

  4. See, the DMCA isn't so bad by eta526 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now in the US, the DMCA would have let the ISP off the hook scott free. Yay for safe harbors!

  5. Thought police .... by Alain+Williams · · Score: 2, Funny

    I know someone who copied a music CD ... should I go into hiding or turn him in & claim a bounty ?

  6. Re:Australian Man Found Guilty for Hyperlinking by Gleng · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think Neptune is still relatively safe.

    --
    "Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
  7. Re:Teach a man to fish by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Funny
    Good point, Mr. Catsup. Google is far and away the predominant tool used to seek out such copyrighted material, and even to seek out tools to download copyrighted material, or to seek out "how-to" articles.

    Could be worse: this guy could have linked to Google :)

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  8. Re:Linking can be taken to several levels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Because you know that if you recurse more than six levels deep, you'll be downloading Kevin Bacon...

  9. Re:His crime by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Funny
    "Do you arrest the owner of a shop that sells slim jims(tool for breaking in to cars)?"

    Oh....I thought those plastic-wrapped pieces of ridiculously hot psuedo-meat at the 7-11 were for eating, but that never seem quite right. How do you use them? Do you unwrap the meat, and then set it on top of the car, and wait for it to melt a huge hole through?

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  10. Re:Teach a man to fish by mog007 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Tut tut! This was a ruling in Austrailia, so I think that www.google.com.au would be more appropriate.

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    Learn something new.
  11. Re:The intent is relevant. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You have a link for that BBS?

  12. Good effort for the indicted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Surely this man who is being prosecuted should be given a financial reward for finding all the free mp3 sites for the authorities without them having to spend ages trawling Google?

    He saved the taxpayer money!

  13. Re:Fun with news by kanweg · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, the judge infringes and Mr Cooper is found guilty.

    Bert