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BitTorrent User Guilty Of Piracy

DIY News writes "A Hong Kong man has been convicted of movie internet piracy in what is believed to be the first case involving BitTorrent file-sharing software. The man was found guilty of copyright infringement for distributing three Hollywood blockbusters using BitTorrent."

6 of 470 comments (clear)

  1. Next Gen p2p by VAXGeek · · Score: 5, Informative

    All actions like these do is force development of next gen p2p like Mute Filesharing.

    http://mute-net.sourceforge.net/

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  2. More reports on this by cciRRus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here, here and here.

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    w00t
  3. Some notes from the trial by bartash · · Score: 4, Informative

    The government prosecutor Hayson Tse Ka-sze said it would be "absurd" to argue that the tracker server and not the uploader was responsible for distribution. He defined distribution as "sharing" and said the court would have to look at the intent of the legislation

    Copyright-infringing copies of three films - Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality -- were found on the defendant's computer during a customs raid on his home on January 12. Photo images of the labels of the compact discs were also found on the computer. A digital camera consistent with the make and model used to take the photos was found at the defendant's home, government prosecutor Hayson Tse Ka-sze told the court.

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  4. I wish people would stop using this analogy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    "Why don't you go out this monday night and grab a bunch of kids trick or treat bags... its all stealing, either way you look at it!"

    How many times must this get corrected on /. before people stop using this false analogy? If you take a kid's candy, you have the candy and he does not. On the other hand, if you share a movie over the Net, you still have the movie, and so does the other guy. This is not stealing, it's copyright infringement.

  5. Having been to China... by crashcodesdotcom · · Score: 4, Informative

    In China...

    Pirated copies of all kinds of things are sold at shops out in the open for all to see. They don't even try to hide it.

    At one place I thought was like a flee market, they were selling GBA cartridges for about $5 US (before haggling). The cartridges looked legit at first. I just assumed they were used, then I saw a 6 games in one cartridge. Not a game like the Atari collection or something like that but like 6 Super Mario games in one including a recently released title.

    Another place I went to was in a strip mall like shop. It looked like a retail buy/sell/trade place you might find in the US. Maybe like a mini version of an EB games store. The clerk behaved just like someone working at EB might act. Not pushy, but really zealous about gaming. I didn't even know it was a store for pirated stuff, until the issue of price came up. A few games were priced higher than the others only because it required a different type of DVD. Between that and the prices, I finally realized what they were selling.

    The point of all this? I wonder if most Chinese have even given piracy moral consideration. /.ers may be pro piracy, insulted by the word pirace, anti-piracy, or whatever; but at least moral consideration was made at some point.

    For a long time, I've been very careful about piracy and stuff. I got my own convinctions about it, and I try hard to hold true to them. I've explained this to my wife, who is from China, over and over again. Yet she continually puts me in compromising situations, and has to be reminded why I wont go along with it. Outside of my influence, I don't think she has any considerations toward piracy whatsoever.

  6. strange fixation on transfer protocol name by Ahaldra · · Score: 5, Informative
    I cannot remember any slashdot article reading "HTTP user guilty of piracy" - What is it with BitTorrent that people are so hung up on the name of the transfer protocol?
    Just because it's fast doesn't make it illegal! Every time a dumb headline like this is posted the tech crowd shoots itself in the foot - It's like saying "Porsche driver guilty of manslaughter", these two things may have something to do with each other, but expressing it this way makes it appear as if they are causally related - which they are not.
    It's not that this specific transfer protocol enables copyright infringement right out of the box or anything....

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