Slashdot Mirror
DoD Warez Leader Faces 10 Years in Jail
An anonymous reader writes "After spending nearly 3 years in a detention center fighting his extradition from Australia, a leader of notorious warez group 'DrinkorDie' was yesterday arraigned before a U.S. District Court to face charges of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and one count of actual criminal copyright infringement. If found guilty he faces 10 years in jail & a $500,000 fine."
to face charges of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and one count of actual criminal copyright infringement. If found guilty he faces 10 years in jail & a $500,000 fine.
Meanwhile, a drunk driver who kills someone can get off scott free, with no jail time at all. Sweet.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Run everyone! They'll come for you no matter which country you're trying to live in... totally disregarding the sovereignty of your own countries laws.
Why is this person being tried in the US? He's a British citizen living in Australia, what does this have to do with the US?
USA: "lolz @ international law!!1!"
Is a man's freedom itself really only of equivalent value to the artificially created rights in a creative work?
It's time that copyright infringement, and all intellectual property offences, returned to the purely civil arena. Pecuniary penalties are one thing: bankrupt them with fines and damages, by all means. To do so is consistent with the justifications for having intellectual property rights in the first place, which are either related to innovation, commerce, or artistic integrity depending on where you come from historically.
But no-one should be imprisoned for copying information.
Read Pynchon.
If he killed somebody he'd have been out already.
If the US wants to extradite someone in another country, they waltz over and get them. If another country wants to extradite someone from the US, it never happens. This double standard has got to stop.
Does that mean you support the US sending CIA agents to Europe to face trial for kidnapping? How enlightened.
I don't therefore I'm not.
Because all your base are belong to U.S.
The argument is that he didn't commit crimes in the US, he never entered the US and wasn't committing any crime in the country in which he resided.
If this precedent sticks, almost every individual in Australia can be dragged to the US to face, ironically, the kangaroo court funded by the [RI/MP]AA.
Should, therefore, US women who dare to show some skin in magazines that are exported to the Middle East be dragged to some backward Islamic court to be stoned to death?
I'm more concerned that ONE COUNT of copyright infringement plus conspiracy to commit same can get you more time in prison than if you'd committed any number of violent crimes, up to and including some instances of first degree murder...
if you come to the US, kill someone, and then flee to Australia
This guy was never in the US, though.
I'm sure the US is more than happy to extend the same courtesy to Italy, right?
Right?
It almost seems like intellectual property is valued far more highly than human life. I don't think that's right, in a moral sense.
Considering that these people are really no threat to society at all why waste their time and taxpayers money (in two countries in this case) locking them up in the first place? It really should be a civil matter - fines would still hurt even if you have no money and get it garnished out of future earnings.
NO TIME??? Jeeze, he already spent 3 Years locked up in Australia without being convicted! Now he has to defend stateside. All for something where no profit was made and no one was physically injured. Armed robbery has less a penalty. Fucked up legal system here (stateside).
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
I agree with you on the crime he has committed and the punishment he has recieved.
But explain to me how and why corporates like Sony, BMI, etc., who distributed Root Kits, compromised thousands of computers' security, and illegally hacked into my property (my computer is my property) can be let off with just a free coupon and a "sincere" apology?
Should their board, CEO, etc, not be jailed under hacking laws?
If you can explain to me why RIAA member companies can always get off, while the giga-uploader gets "bubba" in jail for SAME crimes, i can explain why slashdot thinks this way?
Until then, Ciao
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
So where's the Paypal (or similar system) to have the warez community leechers give a little BACK to the few that have taken the fall after countless years of days and sleepless nights of self-less service?
I'd donate a few semi-anonymous dollars to the cause myself if there were such a link. I can see it raising more than the ~$1 Million that Wikipedia was able to raise... cuz, come on, this is DoD people! Just think of the message this would send back to government if millions were raised to help the DoD leader get better lawyers & be freed of this fucked up US system that puts "replicators" (not thieves) in jail longer than rapists & murderers.
I'd do it (setup the link) but I don't know how.
thanks
I agree. Prisons is an option that needs to be reserved for criminals who are a significant threat to society. I'm sick of seeing our hard earned tax money going to incarcerate non-violent offenders. Here in the US, in particular, we have gone absolutely overboard using prisons to deal with issues such as illicit drug use. There are other forms of punishment (community service, fines, restitution) and rehabilitation (counseling, education, medical treatment) that cost less, result in a productive punishment/rehabilitation, and can actually move to improve an individual's ability to function in society.
Oh please.
I'm not going to pay for programs like AutoCAD and MATLAB. I'm a student, I'm not making a profit from using them. When I work for a company or have my own business, they'll get paid their fair share.
Please go cry in a corner about your sweeping hate for democrats.
I make my living writing software, and I'm definitely against copyright infringement. I am, however, pragmatic: these guys weren't costing the economy nearly what the BSA claims they were, and the policies we have in place to prevent these crimes are clearly unreasonable and ineffective. We might as well burn their families at the stake while we're at it--just for some extra pointless theatrics. While we're in the business of hurting people just for the sake of ineffective public spectacle, why not go hog wild?
An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
You're absolutely right. If somebody committed a crime which wasn't violent, why the heck should we put him in a prison? Give him a fine so big he will never even think about doing anything stupid. Never. The same about drug USERS. Every time they catch them they should give them a fine. If they cannot/want to pay put them in a prison and do a cold turkey. That should get them time to think.
"an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often, quite often, picturesque liar" - Mark Twain
Dear Anonymous Coward,
Firstly, it's not stealing, it's copyright infringement.
Secondly, keep your wannabe-emotive Mom and Pop analogies for a more gullible audience, because going hungry because the crap you write isn't worth more the $1 or $2 to the punters is a far cry from what's happening here. You'll be aware of the AUSFTA treaty of 2004/2005, yet this investigation was carried out in 2000/2001... well before the treaty allowing this situation, with agreed copyright standards. Given that Griffiths has been fighting this for just under 3 years, it seems clear that he wasn't apprehended until after the treaty was hammered out, yet the US suspect was already convicted by 2002 - and was sentenced to only 46 months! I've no doubt the lawyers have gotten into this point, but I've also no doubt that the US Attorney has more legal resources than Griffiths has.
Perhaps instead of getting the courts involved in these issues, you should call a whaaambulance instead - 10 years in a foreign prison for this is bullshit, and that'll be top of he's already had 3 in an Aussie detention centre.
Regards,
BiggerIsBetter
P.S. Asshat is one word.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
Copyright is now all about protecting the interests of Sony and other mega-corporations. It has ZERO to do with "the public interest" which is NOT served by 95-year copyright terms. Do the corporate-whores go to jail when they steal from us and the authors? No they do not.
He has been in detention for 3 years? If convicted would he get credit for the time he has already spent in an Australia detention center? If so, do the same rules apply for fines as they do here in the US? For those that don't know you get credit for ~50 per day while incarcerated. If so, then he has already earned over $50,000 towards his fine. If they do take in account the time served in Australia I wouldn't be surprised if sentenced, even the maximum amount, that he would not get off for time served.
If I were him I would discuss this with my lawyer and then in turn with the district attorney to negotiate a Plea bargain to enter a plea of nolo contendere, saving the court the time and expense of a lengthy trial, in return for a sentence of time served and a few years of unadjudicated probation.
I have seen people get less for worse. I don't see why the taxpayers should have to pay to hold someone like this when they obviously present no danger to society.
Nick Powers
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
DoD is part of the internet legacy, and DoD served a cause that is one of the large reasons why FSF and OSS have been able to find breathing space in the minds of many. I don't say that many of the actions were not illegal, but I do say that these actions have contributed to a better educated and most of all much more justified software/service ecosystem.
I think the fines and the punishments are seriously out of touch with what real crime is, where people get hurt or violated.
With great power comes great electricity bills.
"What are you in for?"
"I raped my grandmother, bludgeoned her to death and ate the corpse. You?"
"I gave some software away."
As a software developer who has seen his hard work cracked, I say throw this son of a bitch in a cell and let him rot.
Scum like him deserve to be behind bars.
From the US to the world: OBEY.
I'll never understand how "theft" of non-physical property with no proveable financial loss can be a crime.
Civil, sure. Crime? No.
"would just love to see a program that I wrote appear on warez sites. Means that people actually find it usefull. Besides, there is usually only a black market for an item that is popular in the first place. Having my sofware released in the warez scene would be a compliment to me..."
You've encapsulated the reason why many people (particularly young people) don't see the harm in piracy... the thought process is "If I had created something that was in high demand, I would give it away for free."
If you're genuine, I suggest that you look into donating time into helping develop open source software. The FOSS industry needs more people like you who are willing to invest significant effort into creating work that's highly useful for many people, and who only want the "compliment" of seeing their work distributed, rather than financial compensation.
I should point out that several OSS luminaries (Larry Wall comes to mind) have asked that the motivations behind FOSS not be used to justify piracy... ie. that we don't use the thought process that just because our financial situation and free time allow us to work for free, we have the moral right to acquire others' work for free.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
Money and business has a history of getting preferential treatment in courts. And the structure of a representative democracy leaves little choice but to make tough laws for those with the most resources to lobby.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
bah.. what do u do when you cant fix some issue with a pc.. you tear it down and rebuild it from scratch (sometimes)
This country is getting to be the same way. We are wrapped up in so much nonsense that nothing gets done correctly.. It's pathetic that rapists do less time than some burnout hippy caught with some Urbs. Or in this case somebody busted with ONE COUNT of copyright infringement. The greed is out of control & needs to be reined in. *blech reficere.. circuitionis.. reficio..
Kill your TV