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First Guilty Verdict In Criminal Copyright Case
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A Brooklyn man has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement by a federal jury in Virginia. He now faces up to five years in prison, a quarter-million-dollar fine, and three years of parole, not to mention the 'full restitution' he has to make to the RIAA. The charges against him stem from his role as 'Dextro,' the administrator of one of the Apocalypse Production Crew's file servers — APC being one of the release groups that specialize in pre-release music. While he's the 15th member of APC to be charged under the US DOJ's Operation Fastlink, he's the first to be convicted. He will be sentenced on August 8th. For those wondering when infringement became a criminal matter, you can thank the NET Act, which was signed into law in 1997 by Bill Clinton."
Thanks, Bill Clinton!
...no, wait, what I meant was, fuck you for siging that legislation, and fuck all the politicians and legislators who are fooled by the media companies into thinking we need draconian copyright laws. Copyright should have forever remained a civil matter, never criminal.
Further proof that even politicians you like (I voted for Clinton in 1996, the first presidential election I was old enough to vote for) can do foolish things.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
I hate RIAA's tactics against the common man as much as anyone here, but this is one of the few cases where I have a hard time criticizing them or the legislation being used.
This group are hell-bent on obtaining pre-released music (that the companies have not yet had a chance to recoup their investment on) and making it available for free.
Whether you believe copyright terms should be 99 years or 7 years is immaterial here. Whether you believe an individual should be able to rip their CDs is immaterial here. Whether you believe in teh doctrine of first sale for copyrighted materials is immaterial here. Put aside your hatred of the RIAA for a second and see this for what it really is - one of the few occasions where they have a point.
He hasn't been sentenced yet. He's been convicted, which means that he faces five years in prison. I seriously doubt he's going to get more than probation and maybe a fine.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
25 years old is plenty old enough to realize that serving up unreleased music is a pretty stupid thing to do, no?
That makes a world of difference. If he hadn't been paid, it would have been an entirely different matter before the court.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
I'm glad we have this dangerous criminal off the streets. I will sleep soundly tonight knowing I am safe. Thank you RIAA.
Or, you know, if you somehow were to break the law by stealing something that wasn't yours, or enjoying something without paying for it when the owner wants you to. You know, silly things like that.
I am a foreigner, how does that compare to, for example, an homicide crime? I understand the points made that the music was prereleased, but this still makes no sense for me. I think the law has better things to do than wasting time on this issues. And five years is a lot of time.
And we wonder why we have so many people in prison...
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Like those fuckers who STOLE my camp fire last weekend. I put a lot of effort into making that fire, then these clowns come over when I'm not looking, put a stick in MY fire and STEAL it. I deserve money!
well gosh, then I suppose the folks at Enron, and the many people involved in other multi-million and billion dollar embezzlement schemes should get at least 5 years too, huh?
But we ALL know that won't happen.
In my eyes, until the rich and politically powerful are held to the same laws that govern us little people -- jail time for something like this is insane.
You DO realize that there are cases where people have been murdered, which did not net as much jail time as we are talking about this?
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Short and sweet:
Criminal misdemeanors have been part of american copyright law since 1897.
The reach of the criminal law was extended and harsher penalties made available as early as 1909.
In 1982 first-time offenders could be convicted on a felony charge.
As for the NET act of 1997:
The ease of infringement on the Internet was the primary reason for criminalizing noncommercial infringement as well as recognition of other motivations a nonprofit defendant might have such as anti-copyright or anti-corporate sentiment, trying to make a name in the Internet world and wanting to be a cyber renegade. Criminal Copyright Infringement
You know, the moderations here aren't always great, but generally, if you can speak thoughtfully on an issue, you'll get modded up even for going against the "herd" - Slashdot is made up of individuals, not clones, and there are plenty of people who'll agree with whatever beliefs you might have.
But if you're going to respond with insults instead of arguments, or if your arguments are facile ones that everyone who's been around the site for a while has already discarded, expect to get modded down. If only there was some way to get rid of that pesky +1 karma bonus so your mod downs meant something =) Actually, two negative mods on the same comment will cancel its karma bonus.
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Unfortunately, not everyone can handle alcohol as well as you think you can (impaired judgement is also an affect of alcohol, so take what you think with a grain of salt). I'm sure plenty of people who kill someone while driving drunk thought they were fine when they got in the car.
.08% is what they determined. Maybe you are fine driving at 0.1 or higher, but that makes you an exception. There are probably some people who are dangerous well below that level, but they can still legally drive.
It is hard to design laws to be adaptable to every possible situation. They had to pick a point and
If you are driving period, you are risking your life and the lives of others. Adding further impairment to the situation (such as drinking, drugs, being tired, distractions) makes the risk even worse.
DUI laws are not prohibition. They are a deterrent for hazardous behavior. If you think you're over the limit, take a cab. Its easy and safe. Plus you can have another drink and not have to worry that you might get pulled over for some minor infraction and have a "DUI" charge stacked on top of it.
BUT in this case, the guy hosting audio files isn't a danger to anyone's life. His actions are not criminal, except in the view of an overbearing law payed for by an industry desperate to maintain their anachronistic revenue streams. Contrary to the scientific evidence that alcohol impairs judgement and motor skills, scientific evidence shows that file sharing actually increases music sales.
The NET law really is out of control.
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The more you learn about the RIAA, the more sense a simple FU makes.
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> it requires willful infringement, plus one of either 1) financial gain
Just to be fair, the NET Act also redefines "financial gain" to include a laundry list of things. One of those things that laundry list covers is receiving other copyrighted works in return.
Yes, that's right. In theory, joining a torrent could be "financial gain" so long as the contents were valuable enough.
In practice, we don't have full-fledged copyright cops (yet), so they don't bother with small fry. But that WILL change if they can get the PRO-IP Act through congress. My sincere hope is that it never gets that far.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Portraying an action as something it isn't going to help your case and it might make you look like a kook. It's really the proponents of strong copyright infringement penalties who should be pedantic about proper nomenclature.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)