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In Mississippi: 15-Year Jail Sentence For Selling Pirated Movies and Music
New submitter patella.whack writes "A guilty plea for six counts of selling counterfeit media gets a defendant 15 years in Mississippi. An undercover reporter from the Attorney General's Intellectual Property Theft Task Force managed to buy a total of five copied movies and one music CD from the defendant, who had 10,500 pirated discs at home and two prior convictions: one for assaulting a police officer 17 years ago and one for CD piracy that got him a year under house arrest. Says the RIAA: '[This] highlights the fact that the individuals engaging in these activities are frequently serial criminals for whom IP theft is simply the most convenient and profitable way they could steal from others.' Frequently serial criminals? 15 years? I wonder how much of his sentence can be attributed to his priors rather than to other factors."
Maybe this career criminal should have stuck to misdemeanors like bank robbery and murder; he would have received an easier sentence.
I RTFA this morning. This isn't Joe Blow getting a few movies from the pirate bay, this is a counterfeiter. Copyright infringement isn't theft, but I'd say this is, as the criminal is getting the money that should have gone to the movies' producers.
Also, the guy was imprisoned for the very same offence before, as well as going to prison for some violent crimes.
This isn't Joe Nerd getting fifteen years for sharing movies, it's Joe Beentoprison making money off of someone else's work.
Free Martian Whores!
I gotta say that if you already were busted once for selling pirate media you should be aware they're out to get you. I think it's harsh but I can't feel sorry for him. It's not like he was using it for his own viewing, he was selling it for income.
Three strikes laws should be thrown out as unconstitutional. If you've done your time for the first two strikes, then you've done your time. Any additional punishment for those crimes falls afoul of double jeopardy.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Let's say...
Sell a CD copy of Michael Jackson : 15 years in jail
Kill Michael Jackson : 4 years in jail
makes sense...
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
Actually, cops protect society, mostly from people like you.
The penalties for assaulting them should be very severe.
No, actually cops protect the people who have money and power.
The have-nots are ignored by the police as much and as often as possible.
If you think the cops are on the side of the common man you are either naive,
or an idiot, or maybe you are a cop yourself and engaged in self-delusion.
Plenty of cops are assholes. I've met more than a few. The job attracts people who
have a desire to bully, and the decent people are not attracted to the job, so the very
job itself self-selects for assholes. And fuck you if you don't agree with me, I could care less
what some cop-loving twat "thinks".
capcha = inequity
The irony doesn't get any better than that.
What about all the cops not caught on video abusing their authority, not lying about the facts, not comittig crimes, etc.?
It's kinda like the IT business, for every time some guy steals all the passwords to San Francisco, there are a hundred thousand of us, that do absolutely nothing wrong.
Of course there are bad cops, there are also bad pizza delivery drivers, bad waiters, bad soldiers, and so on and so forth.
It's not like they are politicians or lawyers, where everyone is bad.
21st Century Renaissance Man
never trust the police. in the united states their goal is to make arrests. if they start talking to you, they're trying to get you to incriminate yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc