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.
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.
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...
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).
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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
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.
"What are you in for?"
"I raped my grandmother, bludgeoned her to death and ate the corpse. You?"
"I gave some software away."
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