Slashdot Mirror
Man Gets 6 Years for Software Piracy
smooth wombat writes "In what prosecutors are calling 'the ultimate case', a Florida man has been sentenced to six years in prison for selling illegal copies of computer programs. From the article: 'Danny Ferrer, of Lakeland, Fla., pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy and copyright infringement charges after an FBI investigation of his Web site, BuysUSA.com. Ferrer also was ordered to pay more than $4.1 million in restitution to software makers Adobe Systems Inc., Autodesk, and Macromedia Inc.' The judge ordered that items he bought with the money, including airplanes, a Lamborghini and other cars, be sold off to pay for the restitution."
As many people know, Raman is far cheaper dog food. Considering how much my cat likes Raman I'm toying with the idea of not buying her any more cat food.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Looks like the blood bank thinks, prisoners will get AIDS after three days in jail.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The Imation DiscStakka, I've been hoping they come out with a 1000 disc holder w/ Reader built in
. html
But currently each unit only holds 100 discs, which can be stacked in 5's, It comes with a nice indexing software, although the units have to eject the CD & have you put it into your computers CD or DVD rom drive as there is no built in reader.
Here's the link http://www.imation.com/products/disc_stakka/index
This is roughly comparable to the discount that allofmp3.com offers on music, and many people defend their allofmp3.com use because they cannot afford to pay $1 / track. Just like allofmp3.com, this fellow was able to sell $649 software for $99 because he did not need to worry about paying the rightsholders. Unfortunately, lots of people would disagree with you about actual harm to Adobe, et al.
Well, allofmp3.com is not breaking any law. They are compliant with all US laws and all Russian laws. So, how is someone illegally copying something, misrepresenting it, defrauding the buyer, and profiting at the expense of someone else "roughly comparable"? Just because you think allofmp3 should be illegal does not mean it is. Your lies about the $1 a track not being affordable is not a correct statement. The issue is what you are downloading and what you can do with it. allofmp3.com is the only place I know where you can legally download (legal if you are in Russia, questionable legality if you are in the US, though that has never been decided in court) non-DRM files in a variety of formats, including lossless. It simply offers services that aren't available anywhere else at any price.
Since you can't see the difference between that and someone that knowingly breaks copyright, fraud and other laws (wait until the IRS gets a hold of him) with the intent to profit at the expense of the company he is imitating and the people he lies to while selling his fraudulent product, then you are a nutjob no more logical than people that illegally copy music and clam it is legal or a moral imperative or such.
Learn to love Alaska
Does it always have to come down to pimps and hos with you, megaditto? Every time I turn around
its like pimp this, those hoes that. Every freaking analogy is its like when you x to a prostitute and then the pimp
y's. The world is NOT a whorehouse, megaditto.
music lover since 1969
Really? All US laws? You need to research that a bit because you don't have the facts, yet make very bold statements.
Is it against US law for someone in France to kill someone else in France? I will assert that it is not against US law (excepting very unlikely circumstances, like a war crime or other international situation). The "legality in the US" that you point to refers solely to whether an American can, from the USA, download the content, or whether they can enter the country with it from abroad. allofmp3.com is not in violation of any US law. The people that buy from there may be. If you care to, please quote a single US law that allofmp3 could possibly be violating (again, not the users/customers, but the company themselves).
This isn't P2P sharing, this is selling something they don't own.
And if I cover a song at a party with an admission, I'm selling something I don't own, nor do I have permission from the artist or any artist's representative. And you know what? That's perfectly legal in the US to cover a song without explicit permission from anyone. It's a compulsory license. I would have to pay a trivial sum in a manner laid out as per government regulations, but I do not need any permission from the owners. The legal stance of allofmp3 is the same. Are you saying that it should be illegal for me to cover a song without permission? That'll kill a lot of really crappy bar-bands. Please, think of the artists and keep compulsory licenses. In fact, let's expand them to include downloaded music. Then we'll have caught up to Russia and everything will be good.
Learn to love Alaska