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Man Gets 7 Years for Software Piracy
mytrip writes to mention a C|Net article about the largest sentence for software piracy ever handed down by a U.S. court. Nathan Peterson of Los Angeles has been levied with an enormous fine after selling millions of dollars worth of software between 2003 and 2005. "U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III on Friday ordered Peterson to pay restitution of more than $5.4 million. Peterson pleaded guilty in December in Alexandria, Va., to two counts of copyright infringement for illegally copying and selling more than $20 million in software. Justice Department and industry officials called the case one of the largest involving Internet software piracy ever prosecuted. "
He won't have any Slashdot priviliges in prison.
If he was smart, half his assets should be in a Swiss bank account and someone will be waiting with plane tickets to a safe-haven country when he gets out in three years for good behavior. Only then will crime pay.
*drumbroll* sell pirated software to defraud BOTH the customer and the company that made it and land in pound me in the ass prison. Piracy is one thing, but making a buck off of it is something else entirely. At least with a personal pirater theres a chance they'll buy the next version (say they need support). People doing what this guy does deserve every day they get (and white-collar criminals have a much harder time behind bars). Now if only we could get the same kind of treatment with equally criminal C*Os that just skip the piracy part and just steal cash.
The guy miaswell have put a sign up that said "come arrest me PLEASE!!!" Just because you can doesn't mean you should kids.
You might want to swap out that 40 watt bulb in your head for at least a 60, if not 75.
How in the world do you get "perfectly proper" from copyright infringement? Just because it isn't stealing doesn't necessarily mean it's OK.
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It's like any prohibition: criminalize the behavior and you get even more social dislocation as a result. Then, we're all victims.
The solution is to mandate the use of Free Software everywhere.
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Well thats a pretty stunning juxtaposition. If the existence of laws creates crime, won't criminalizing closed-source software make criminals out of closed-source software developers, causing even more social dislocation among them and their customers? I can see it now: "Pst, buddy, you need a productivity suite? I got a holo-certified copy of Office 2007 right here. This "#$& is real, holmes -- usable UI, attractive ribbon interface, backwards compatible with all your documents, contains actual documentation, and a comes complete with a toll-free number for tech support. I just gotta ask you -- you ain't a GPLnarc or nothing, right?"
"Open up, this is the police!"
"Aww #$%", its the GPLaw. Quick man, hide that "#$" under a Knoppix CD and pretend we were discussing something innocuous, like crack."
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
That's more than enough time for buttsex! :)
"Serves him right. (Score:-1, Informative)"
Dude, you got a -1 Informative on Slashdot. Put that on your resume!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Why do you think pawn shops are doing good business?
I was thinking prime locations, friendly staff and clean stores with outstanding merchandise... no?
In my experience, people who steal once tend to do it again...even if they get caught. It becomes a wierd habit. Look at George Bush. He stole the first election and, even thought he got caught, he proceeded to steal another. Software thiefs are much the same.
he should be better off in the end.
I am guessing "his end" will not be better off after 7 years in federal prison!
Hey, there is only one Return and it's not of the King, it's of the Jedi.
Photoshop was free with HP and other scanners a few years back. I haven't checked recently. There is no way that the vast majority of people even paid for Photoshop.
Fact is that if people actually had to pay for products like Windows they would try to find freeware. THE ONLY REASON WINDOWS MADE ITS MARKET PENETRATION IS BECAUSE IT WAS PRE_LOADED
People like me were expected to pay for windows as a bundled product then reformat the disk and install another OS we paid for like OS/2. Microsoft owes me quite a lot of money. Of course they have no intention of paying. No worries. I have no intention of supporting Microsoft.
What these shysters fail to realise is that short term gain does little more than gain them an enemy and I for one have a very long memory.
Linux WILL replace microsoft.
It will do so through large institutions, businsess and schools. Large organisations have the resources to be able to support an alternative and over the last few years we have begun to see many reports of the cost savings involved with switching to Linux. This will expose more and more people to the benefits, and as has been happening, through this process a critical mass will form.
Most people use a computer like a phone. They would never consider swapping an operating system any more than they would consider swapping the motor on their car. It has to be done for them. Like a phone - the computer is only worth what it can do for them at the moment. Most people do not back up their work because ususally they have no real work worthy of being backed up. This is in stark contrast to the graduate students who routinely fail to back up their Thesis!!!
For people like this - there is close to ZERO vendor loyalty. The minute something better comes along they will switch. In fact, its worse... Our field is very subject to fashion trends. Often those who adopt a new fashion do so without any logical reasoning why the new custom might be better than the old. They just switch because they want to try something new for a while.
The thing is this switch will take place and it will do so likely at the speed a large herd of buffalo changes direction.
One can look at the herd while it is stampeding and think this herd has a large areal extent and hense it cannot change direction quickely. Yet it can. Suddenly the individuals decide to switch and they do. Stampedes are not lead by leaders. When they change direction it can be totally non-obvious and just as unpredictable.
Vehical buying patterns can switch suddenly as well and for the same reasons. The actual "investment" people have in a vehical is not very large. They can be driving one model one day and another the next day. In fact the automobile industry takes advantage of this through the sale of so many different models.
Taken in this light, Linux offers far more flexibility than M$ ever has. We have several choices of shells and desktops for instance, it is actually a very rich environment.
What the USA auto manufacturers discovered in the early 70's and now again in the 2005-present time frame is that there is little in the way of vendor loyalty. Once there is a perception to change something a large part fo the population will hop on the new bandwagon whatever direction it is going.
The stockmarket also shows this. The "investment" one typically has in a share is the amount of time and the commisions to sell out. Of course some folks form an emotional attachment to the stocks they own. I rather think day traders make their living off these emotions.
Most market crashes have not been predicted very well. We might have a general feeling of unease that a crash may be forming now. We can surely find some pundits who are predicting this. We can also find some who are not. Thus whatever happens - some folks will be right and we can search them out for interviews by the talking heads and ask them how they were so smart.
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The crit