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World's First Jail Sentence for BitTorrent Piracy

Posted by Zonk on from the ouch-three-months-for-miss-congeniality dept.

Rob T Firefly writes "Hong Kong newspaper The Standard reports on what seems to be the world's first case of a BitTorrent movie pirate being sent to jail. (Others have been jailed for related crimes.) After losing his appeal against a November 2005 conviction, Chan Nai-ming, a 38-year-old BitTorrent user known as 'Big Crook,' has begun serving a prison sentence for making the films 'Daredevil,' 'Miss Congeniality,' and 'Red Planet' available for download via BitTorrent. His appeal was based on the fact that he did not profit from the piracy." From the article: "[Appeals Judge] Beeson noted [convicting magistrate] MacIntosh, in handing out the sentence, was fully aware of the noncommercial nature of the case, but measured the seriousness of the case by the harm done to the moviemakers — not by the gain made by the offender. Chan, and those in the chatroom, 'were aware of the possible criminal implications of uploading films to the system,' Beeson wrote. She also noted the sentence was already drastically reduced, from a maximum of four years, to three months, in order 'to reflect the novelty of the conviction.'

6 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. Prison sentence? by farker+haiku · · Score: 0, Redundant

    has begun serving a prison sentence for making the films 'Miss Congeniality,'

    Good.

    If anyone deserves it it was him.

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  2. He deserves the punishment... by vonPoonBurGer · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ...the films 'Daredevil,' 'Miss Congeniality,' and 'Red Planet'...

    ...for a criminal lack of taste, if nothing else.

  3. I don't know what's worse by the_humeister · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I don't know what's worse: that he's being jailed for 3 months for "distribustion" or that people actually wanted to download Daredevil, Miss Congeniality, and Red Planet.

  4. Good by geekoid · · Score: 1, Redundant

    " has begun serving a prison sentence for making the films 'Daredevil,' 'Miss Congeniality,' and 'Red Planet' "

    serves the bastard right.

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  5. Anymore room in here... by Lectoid · · Score: 0, Redundant

    For bad taste jokes. I don't think there are enough yet, but I Must Be New Here (TM).

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  6. Holy Redundancy, Batman! by Non-CleverNickName · · Score: 0, Redundant

    You can never have too many comments about his bad taste in here! Keep em coming!

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