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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.'

5 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. wow by joss · · Score: 5, Funny

    > 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

    Damn, I didnt know bad taste was a jailable offence.

    --
    http://rareformnewmedia.com/
    1. Re:wow by HappySqurriel · · Score: 5, Funny

      Now if only they would arrest the people who were involved in making those movies ...

  2. Please remind me again by Psionicist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Please remind me again how this man is so dangerous to society he must be locked up in jail.

    1. Re:Please remind me again by AndersOSU · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Jails are for lots of things, rehab is perhaps the aspect they are least effective at.

  3. Saturation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    To review the saga:


    Here Hong kong announces their plan to find people violating copyright using BitTorrent.

    Here is the report where they actualy find a guy.

    The conviction.

    Now he has been sentenced. Hooray, we were right there with you all the way dude, at least in a metaphorical sense.

    As a contest, the prize for which is my unending admiration, lets all agree not to rehash the same tired arguments in the 3 links above.