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Pirate Banned From Using Linux

dsinc writes "A guy who uploaded the latest Star Wars movie got arrested, pleaded guilty to 'conspiracy to commit copyright infringement' and 'criminal copyright infringement' and got jail and home confinement. As part of his home confinement, he agreed to install some tracking software on his computer. The problem is He's an Ubuntu Linux user and the gov't doesn't have any tracking software for Linux. So he's been told that he must use Windows for the term of his confinement. Looks like a case of cruel and unusual punishment to me"

39 of 698 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm glad my tax dollar are so hard at work protecting the poor corporations. I was worried there for a second.

  2. Transcript from Court Case by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Funny

    United States Magistrate Judge Carla Woehrle: After pleading guilty, you are hereby sentenced to confinement at your house ...
    Marc Hoaglin: No change in lifestyle there.
    Judge Carla Woehrle: ... and to serve up to 6 months jail time ...
    Marc Hoaglin: Sure, why not? I'll get a chance to lift some weights.
    Judge Carla Woehrle: ... and to install government monitoring software on your computer ...
    Marc Hoaglin: I guess that's only fair.
    Judge Carla Woehrle: ... that only runs on Windows.
    Marc Hoaglin: DO NOT WANT!!!

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Transcript from Court Case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe he can run the tracking software under WINE?

  3. Damn them! by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is clearly a Ninja plot.

  4. And on the seventh day, he recompiled from source by richdun · · Score: 4, Funny

    The problem is He's an Ubuntu Linux user

    And here I was hoping God used Mac OS X (yes, I'm sure there's a "daemon" joke in there, but I'll leave it at one bad joke per post).

  5. Good to know by hax0r_this · · Score: 5, Funny
    I've been wondering if that software works on Linux. Good to know that it doesn't.

    sudo apt-get install evil-government-monitoring-program
  6. The utlimate penalty by Skiron · · Score: 4, Funny

    You will install MS Vista and install tracking software; you will also pay $300.00 licence fee to MS. You will also install MSOffice2007 _and_ also pay the licence fee. Once this is done, you will ALWAYS vote yes for ooxml.

  7. Feisty Fawn not so innocent by Mr.+Lwanga · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds like the latest "Catch a Hacker" episode of Dateline NBC. Ace investigative reporter Michelle Madigan uncovers a new operating system used by hackers, pirates and cybercriminals to go on an internet crime spree. What is Ubuntu and why is the government helpless to stop it?

  8. Best reason of all to swtich by Torodung · · Score: 5, Funny

    the gov't doesn't have any tracking software for Linux Gee. That sounds like a bulletproof marketing slogan for any distro.

    "Linux: The only operating system the NSA doesn't 0wn."

    --
    Toro
  9. I have an idea... by Arceliar · · Score: 2, Funny

    This looks like a job for a rootkit!

    Quick, someone call Sony, maybe they can help!

  10. So can he use a pirated version of Windows? by Kazoo+the+Clown · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or are they going to buy a legit copy for him?

  11. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or he could have offered them to port the tracking tool to Linux. :-)

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  12. Cruel and unusual? by deviated_prevert · · Score: 2, Funny

    If the punishment was truly cruel and unusual the judge would have sentenced him to use Gentoo.

    --
    This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
  13. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by superpulpsicle · · Score: 5, Funny

    They can really punish him by making him run windows ME.

  14. Well at least somebody's happy... by xednieht · · Score: 2, Funny

    Watch Redmond stop the presses and do a nationwide ad campaign on this one...

    I can see it now "Reformed Cyber-criminal chooses Vista over Linux - claims he has 'seen the light' (on his shiny new ankle bracelet)".

    --

    Hope is the currency of fools
  15. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by rickb928 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "They can really punish him by making him run windows ME."

    Um, They can really punish him by making him * try* to run windows ME.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  16. but wait, there's more . . . by hawk · · Score: 3, Funny

    Surely, somewhere within the bowels of redmond, there remains a copy of "Microsoft Bob" . . .

    hawk

    1. Re:but wait, there's more . . . by Architect_sasyr · · Score: 4, Funny

      We want to torture the man, not break his spirit and destroy his soul!

      --
      Me failed English...
      FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...
  17. Re:Linux is my life man by kaizokuace · · Score: 2, Funny

    just when he gets the chance to get a life he is not allowed to leave his house!

    --
    Balderdash!
  18. Re:IP = $$$ by marcello_dl · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's still unfair. I mean, he got jail for distributing that star wars fluff, while the pirates of the vastly superior space 1999 still can use linux whenever they please!

    --
    ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  19. The happy ending by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    So he decides to break down and install Windows. After he's finished, he calls up the FBI and says "OK, I've installed Windows. How do I install the monitoring software?" and the operators says "OK. Here's what you've got to do..." and gives a loooong list of instructions. So the guy says "Holy crap! I've got to do all that?!" and the FBI operator says, "I'm just kidding. It came with the OS. Have a nice day."

  20. Obligatory... by Cryacin · · Score: 5, Funny

    NT phone home...

    --
    Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
  21. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by infaustus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Unfortunately, arson is also a crime, so I really have no say in what they do in my name.

    --
    Frosty piss posts are worthless, GNAA posts are worthless and hurtful, but they are the least of this site's neuroses.
  22. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by Jugalator · · Score: 5, Funny

    Careful now... Windows gateways, virtual machines, ... ? This is voodoo for an average gov't worker. It's technologies that can be used for terrorist activities too!

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  23. Re:A better solution by DrSkwid · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or the feds could just release the source code. I presume they bought it as part of the contract, or else they are reckless fools.

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  24. Re:Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. by zcsteele · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mandating Windows to a computer expert so they can be tracked for piracy is like mandating a Chrysler mini-van to a farmer because he beat his wife. Sure, you can carry produce to market in a mini-van, but making the farmer buy a new Chrysler mini-van to replace his perfectly functional Toyota pickup truck is absurd.

    You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.
    --
    ...brand new, all over again.
  25. Wow... this is hard to believe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    A guy caught pirating is a FOSSie?

    That's pretty hard to believe. I thought all FOSSies only wanted to crack DVDs to watch them on teh Lunix. That's what they've been saying all these years...

    Next thing you know, the Feds will try getting me to buy the BS claim that people using console mod chips aren't only doing so to use homebrew.

  26. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by cafucu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Surely this would violate his eighth amendment rights.

    --
    :%s:work:/.:g
  27. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    And pirates cause RIAA and MPAA lawyers to drink causing them to kill families of 4. Now do you think piracy is such a harmless crime?

  28. Re:Why... by geobeck · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...he uploaded before the movie was even in the theaters. That is going to annoy many people.

    So annoying many people makes a crime worse? Better hope that Gilbert Gottfried, Fran Drescher, or Simon Cowell never get picked up for shoplifting, or they'll get the chair!

    --
    Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
  29. Re:A better solution by Randseed · · Score: 5, Funny

    He should just violate copyright and post the software to The Pirate Bay and let people have a crack at it (pun intended).

  30. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by InvalidError · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why not Windows 3.0/3.1 while we're at it? No IP stack out-of-the-box means he'd have to go back to dial-up BBSes at least long enough to download one. With neither USB nor large volume support, his download options (usable storage space) would also be severely restricted.

    This is assuming Win3.x still runs on relatively recent hardware... but IIRC, the Win3.11 installer crashed on my P3 last time I tried it just for the heck of it.

  31. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The same law really does apply to people who use Macintoshes, no matter what you may think. It does? Well that's no good. What's the point of a built in reality distortion field if you can't use it for nefarious purposes?
    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  32. Re:Thank god I don't live in a retarded nation by Sneakernets · · Score: 3, Funny

    And where would that be? International Copyright Laws don't apply where you live?

    Or did you forget to post AC?

    --
    "No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
  33. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 3, Funny

    They can really punish him by making him run windows ME.

    How about Vista? According to the Apple ads it comes bundled with a security guy to decide what you can and can't do, though I don't know whether to take that at face value ;)

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
  34. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by Unlikely_Hero · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought it was like one of those Buddhist Zen "Koan" things... like "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
    "how do you run windows me?"

    --
    Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
  35. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by AllergicToMilk · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Then again I've worked for several newspapers as a writer, copy editor, and layout editor and I've had my sense of humor beat out of me."

    There, fixed it for ya.

    --
    There are only 6,863,795,529 types of people in the world.
  36. Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? by kimvette · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, because [Continue][Cancel]unlike Windows[Continue][Cancel] Me, Windows [Cancel][Allow]Vista actually [Continue][Cancel]works.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  37. Oblig by jon287 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Run or run not. There is no try.

    --
    To boldly use to and too two times and get it right too! They're not gonna believe their eyes when they see it there!