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BitTorrent Site Admin Sent To Prison
Marc wrote in with a Torrentfreak story which opens: "The 23 year old Grant Stanley has been sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of home detention, and a $3000 fine for his role in the private BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents.
This ruling is the first BitTorrent related conviction in the US. Stanley pleaded guilty earlier this year to 'conspiracy to commit copyright infringement' and 'criminal copyright infringement.' He is one of the three defendants in the Elitetorrents operation better known as 'Operation D-Elite.'"
1) I see no need to send someone to jail for copyright infringement. The punishment does not fit the crime, and its not helping society, by removing a danger, nor do I suspect it will be useful in rehabilitating.
2) I hope he stocked up on torrents of stuff to watch/listen/play during house arrest.
Pirate caught and hung, film at 11. Or as 'hung' as our justice system can manage; I mean hell, murder only rates a couple of years if it is your first offense and it wasn't a brutal gangland slaying or anything like that.
The Napster kerfluffle should have told anyone with three brain cells that building a site for the express purpose of putting people with a copy of a copyrighted file in contact with people who want a copy is infringement. The technology that implements it isn't all that important, it is the intent. And elitetorrents was ALL about warez. Just because the guy wasn't running an FTP site hosting the files wasn't going to save his butt and he should have known it wouldn't.
Don't like the laws? Either work to change em or violate them as an act of civil disobedience and accept the consequences in the hope of gaining sympathy for your cause and eventual change. But don't act shocked that the operator of what was a major warez site got busted and sent up the river.
Democrat delenda est
NOT.
My guess is that he nor any of his users ever got any chance to vote on any copyright law. Can't say I have. Have you? Have you ever gotten to vote on any copyright issue?
Hell, I never even agreed to be any citizen of any country. Show me a signature where I did. So therefore, how do any laws apply to him, or me? As far as I'm concerned, if you have no say so in the making of a law, then you have no obligation whatsoever to have to abide by it.
Kind of like your neighbors down the street getting together and making an assinine aggreement, that all windows in the neighborhood must be left open in the winter time. And then enforcing that law on you. Fining you and or imprisoning you when you don't abide by it. Assembling a police force of patrollers to enforce this rule and smashing down the door and taking prisoner those who are in violation of it. Conformity and enforcement at the end of a barrel of gun.
Only the neighbors aren't down the street, they are 100 miles, or 1000 miles away. Or worse, somewhere back in time, even before you were even born.
Tell me the US version of representational democracy / republic isn't a total crock of ****....
Further, if you're under 18, you have no say so whatsoever. If you're over 18, your say so is generally limited to the joke of a vote. Which is nothing but a weak concession to undermine your primary right, which is the right to riot.
There isn't going to be a trial. The prosecutors probably offered him a deal, and he plead guilty. He probably would have been looking at a hell of a lot more time if it went to a jury trial. I certainly wouldn't trust my future to the mouth breathers they get on the jury. After all, all the smart people are dodging the duty because they have jobs that pay more than $5 a day.
-R
Seriously how fucking dense do you have to be if you think putting up a torrent to Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith before it was released to cinemas was not going to put you top of the MPAA shitlist and destined for special attention.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Uh.. this raises a question: Would he go to a prison with rapists, murders, and other violent people or would he go somewhere where he'd sit and think about what he did instead of worrying for his life?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
...crimes that benifit herself and deal with actual money : 5 months
Grant Stanley, crime characterized as sharing : 5 years of butt sex.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Why is it that pointing out the obvious is modded flamebait? Does everyone on Slashdot have zero respect for intellectual property or just a few moderators? I am an ISV and make a living by selling my software. I contribute to and use open source solutions but open source is not the solution to everything. I know that some people try and justify stealing music by noting that the artists make very little and the labels make lots, but without the labels, must of this music wouldn't be available to the mainstream. Yes, the labels make a disproportionate share the money but it costs a lot to produce an album but very few independent artists have the resources to produce an album on their own. Suggesting this guy should get a lighter sentence because no one is hurt is like suggesting a car thief should get off easy because no one got hurt. I had a friend who's car was stolen and he was very happy with the outcome and his insurance check. Victimless crime? Frankly, this guy is getting off easy. If he stole a car he'd be getting a worse sentence.
it seems appropriate to insert a small reminder here that a federal criminal record can have long term consequences.
Copyright keeps money flowing into the hands of corporations.
The GPL counteracts copyright by making the media free in most ways except for making non-free media with it, ie keeping the money from flowing into the hands of corporations.
You seem to not understand why the GPL exists. If copyright didn't exist, I really don't think that the GPL would be needed at all.
Great Intellect...
Funny, back in USSR people used to be put to jail for distributing "political information" :)
Now, in USA person gets into jail for distributing music. I guess this is the real Democracy for you
It's not a question of greater or lesser penalty, even though it comes off that way because all of us slashdotters would rather sell our houses than go to jail. Sending people to jail was never intended to be just a punishment (altough it is a pretty good one), it was intended to remove people from society that posed a significant enough threat to justify the expense of locking them up until they can behave better. Murderers, people who commit assault, etc obviously fit the bill.
I hope we haven't reached the point were copyright infringement is considered a "menace to society."
Relax I just want some peanuts.
All for sharing a 1s and 0s.
Okay, while I agree that this is overkill, this statement is, I think, silly. To put it that way denies that those "1s and 0s" might actually mean something when put together. I mean, I could say that stealing* is just taking a few atoms, or that killing someone is** just stopping some electrical impulses. Yes, these are in some sense hyperbole above and beyond yours, but your original statement is a pretty blatent example IMO too.
*I'm not trying to equate stealing and copyright infringement
**if you don't believe in a soul
Yes, if you believe the cinema marketing commercials here in Germany.
Content:
Some young dude is sent to his cell and as he walks by two cliche criminals/thugs discuss
who can have him first.
I have bought one cd. There was 1 good song and the rest was crap. That was the last time I bought a cd. I think it is like going to s shop and buying 15 apples, from which only 1 is good enough to be eaten. No customer would approve that, so why does music industry think that customers would approve the current cd-crap?
Ability to download music is good for the customers and good for the music industry. The only problem there is is the restrictions in the music files. Why would anyone buy a car which you can only use on Mondays and drive only 20mph with it, when you can get a fully working car for free. If they want that people will buy from them, they need to be better or atleast as good as the free alternatives are.
Don't worry, I don't download illegal music.
What was the content that was illegally distributed? Names of movies/songs please.
Oh, that's alright then! I expect this will do wonders for your tourism industry...
This is according to a friend of mine who was sent to prison for 18 months for his actions during what was supposed to be a peaceful protest, and was also sent to county for a similar offense but the sentence was shorter:
:)
Prisoners are not nearly as rape-happy as they're made out to be in popular culture. There are fights, drug deals, and a lot of angst and widespread hopelessness. But the few outright rapists in the general population are stigmatized and not well-respected. Keeping to yourself and minding your own business go a long way in lockup.
In comparing federal to county: You are better supervised in federal prison, which means there are actually far fewer assaults, sexual or otherwise. Federal prisons have more controls in place for dealing with problems.
And that's about all he was willing to share on the subject. Thankfully, I have managed to stay out of prison myself, so what I am imparting to you is second-hand information.
You know I have been telling people this exact same thing in relation the war on drugs since I was maybe 16, so 10 years or so. Whenever we make a huge drug bust instead of burning it or keeping it in evidence flood the market with free drugs and make selling drugs so unprofitable for manufacturers that they no longer have an incentive to do it. The same thing goes for online file sharing simply allow profitless file sharing and suddenly the "terrorists" have lost a huge revenue source.
I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended
--A wise old fart named SC0RN
I'm far from a Bush supporter. I quit my job software development job in 2004 to drive across the country and work for Howard Dean for America making about $11 an hour.
But I do agree that we need to handle terrorism and terrorists very seriously and very sternly. It *is* a war. Iraq is a total fuck job, but we need to focus intelligence, law enforcement, special forces and full military operations on killing every Bin-*, Abu-*, and Al-* that wants to do us harm.
This does require special tactics. Lincoln suspended Habeous during the civil war for all citizens. FDR interred 110,000 Japanese during WWII.
And it's totally false to say that these laws "stretching" the constitution are against what the "founding fathers" had in mind. The original Sedition act was passed in 1798, making it illegal to criticize the President or Congress. This was signed by John Adams. Thomas Jefferson was a vocal critic.
The law had a sunset clause built-in, so it expired uneventfully, but the fact that it passed the congress and was signed by the 2nd president of the united states should show you that the Constitution has never been concrete. It's mallable. This is a good thing. Sometimes it's bad, but it's very nature means that the bad things can be corrected.
Besides, the constituion specifically provides for the suspension of Habeas if required for public safety.
As for the "spying" nonsense, do you realize that international calls were also monitored during WWII?
You're blowing this out of proportion. No long-term harm is being done to our country, its citizens, or the constituion. Bush didn't invent any of the techniques he's using. And if listening to Americans INTERNATIONAL calls ends up thwarting a terrorist attack, I think it's worth it. Domestic calls are another thing. Mostly because they're so much more common. For most of us international calls aren't that common. And if I'm calling my friend who lives in Lebanon, for example, I don't care that the call is being screened by a computer system for certain keywords. It's *FAR* from spying".
I recall reading one right-wing think tank that said the west should buy up the entire yearly opium output from Afghanistan, refine it into morphine and give it to the third world's hospitals. This would be cheaper than the 'war on drugs' and would provide the third world with a drug that they have great trouble obtaining.